Ay Ay Picante Peruvian Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

As a Peruvian born I had a taste for a Authentic Peruvian dish. On my way to the restaurante I was day dreaming about LOMO SALTADO with a PAPA RELLENA as an entry. This was my first time in this restaurant in more than 20 years living in Chicago and after reading a lot of reviews about this restaurant giving them 3, 4 and 5 stars. I was definitely looking forward to have this dish. It was a friendly admosphere, clean and cozy. My family and I were looking the menu to see what other dishes we can order but my kids and I agreed on the Lomo saltado and papa rellena, my wife ordered TALLARIN SALTADO DE POLLO . While we were waiting they brought us some bread and butter, the bread was totally OLD and hard it was warm but from the microwave oven. Soon after, we got our Papa rellena (stuffed potatoes) The potatoes were not cooked completly inside and had no flavor at all, the onion salsa and the hot souce made this dish edible. Five minutes later they brought us our LOMO SALTADO. It looked incredible, delicious, just by the looks my mouth started watering!! Thats when I took my first bite of the meat...I felt sooooo upset, so cheated. The meat was hard, dried as if it was a piece of beef jerky and after chewing the meat it had an funny after flavor, the meat was horrendous. They did not use the proper meat for this dish. They were supposed to use at least ribeye, It was not a ribeye cut.... Whatever it was, this dish was not LOMO SALTADO. and the potatoes were too salty,.Even my daughter said..."Daddy, this is not lomo saltado, is it?" My wife ordered TALLARIN SALTADO CON POLLO....another dissapointing dish!! I just don't understand that there are so many great review about this restaurant, maybe these people don't really know how a real peruvian cuisine taste? or maybe somobody screen this reviews and publish only the ones that have 3,4 or 5 stars? or maybe today was not my lucky day, or maybe the cheff was off with his family having a good meal..As far as I am concern whatever they gave me, was NOT AUNTHENTIC PERUVIAN CUISINE ! This dinner cost me $115 dollars and 2 hours of driving! I AM SO F!@#$%^&* upset.....Thank You very much, but I am not returning to this...

My husband wanted to go to this restaurant to try it out and it looked very good online. So we went to celebrate our 8 years anniversary here. We sat where ever we wanted and then another family came in they sat where ever they wanted as well. However we have been there longer and have yet to receive bread and butter at our table. As soon as that family sat down they received their bread immediately. That was a bit annoying so then we finally received our bread I'm looking at the bread and as soon as my husband and I break a piece off it crumbles not soft at all!! It was the worst so I figured hmmmm let me look around and see what the other customers are receiving they received all nice fresh soft bread. I'm not a person who immediately jumps to race being an issue but when everyone had soft bread and my table who had me a brown skin Latina and my husband who is African American received burnt bread rolls something did not sit right with me. So I figured first time it was a mistake I will let it go. So the next batch of bread came in and I had it! It was burnt and so I told the waiter why is it that our bread keeps coming burnt and others have fresh soft bread his excuse was "Oh they must of burnt" My response was "REALLY!!!! two times in a row when everyone in the restaurant had fresh soft bread how is that fair?!!!" I was furious and decided I will never go back and give this place my money. The nerve of them!...

I give this place 4 stars... a little pricey but its ok-to-good food. Atmosphere is great. You are always greeted by a waiter.

An honest critique (so you don't be surprised): Traditional peruvian cuisine calls for the ceviche to be hot ( "picante" means hot in spanish / peruvian jargon ). This is of course a personal preference depending on how much your taste buds can take. What troubled me is that ceviche was lacking the spiciness ( "picante" ) maybe too mild! so I asked the waiter if they had more "picante" but he said he didn't have it (weird). I checked the menu and they have "picantes" (meaning hot sauces) at an additional prices ($4 or so)!!. Maybe they toned down the hotness of the ceviche for your average non-peruvian eaters but as one myself, this is a little contradictory since the restaurant name is called "picante" and no such demonstration of hotness was seen in the ceviche... but it's ok.

Other than that... if you are a non-peruvian eater, you'll like this place!!!! If you cant tolerate very hot spices, you will be ok..!!!!. if you are used to spicy and hot ceviche ( i.e. "picante") then you will be a little disappointed... and even a little more to know that extra "picante" sauce may cost you extra... hmmm...

Visited this place on november...