El Toque del Sabor — Restaurant in Nevada

So this is an update to a previous review. My wife my family and I had agreed that the last review of 4 stars was accurate for a last visit but a date night that was somewhat ruined by this latest visit is reason to take 3 of those stars away.

The reason why this restaurant that 4 stars last time instead of 5 was because the service is very very inconsistent.

We called ahead to make sure they weren't too busy since we were going on a Saturday night. The woman that answered the phone stated that she wasn't busy at that point. True enough when we arrived there were only 2 tables of other patrons and one large party in the back who was just leaving. We ordered waters right away and asked for 2 to 3 minutes to look at the menu. We spent about 10 minutes trying to flag down one of the 3 servers and then gave our order and asked that the soup that we ordered be brought out before dinner, not with dinner. About 10 minutes later one of the other servers brought over a little 3 compartment dish with a type of corn nut and a salsa and a green salsa. We ask for refills of water at that point. We ordered one dish for myself and my wife ordered 1 dish. We proceeded to sit there for another 25 minutes without being served soup or anything else. We weren't even checked in on, even though we tried to flag other servers down several times. We had show tickets and gave ourselves almost two hours to eat and drive approximately 4 miles to where the show was. After another 25 minutes we decided that we were going to leave. We were told as we were leaving that they would then start working on our order and that they did not want us to leave. It was already too late. It was bad enough that we were never checked on. We were seated close to where the servers were just hanging out and talking. We did go over twice to ask them and received no response at all. This is now the 3rd time we've been there and the service has gotten progressively worse. I don't believe we will be back because no matter how good the food is, if it doesn't get to the table there is no...

I wanted to try out a Peruvian restaurant with my family while I was in town and we wanted it to be close to the airport since my sister was getting in around dinner time and this was one of the two options we looked at. We decided on this option compared to the one down the street because this looked a lot more spacious. I noticed this place was brand new (it had only been open for a few weeks when we went) so I expected them to still be getting into the swing of things (and they were).

We were seated at a table that was clearly too small for the size of our party, as there was no way it could fit all of our food at once. We were eventually moved to a bigger table. It was pretty slow the night we went so there wasn't really any reason to have seated us as such, but I'm assuming it was a lack of experience is all.

For appetizers, we ordered Papa a la Huancaina, Causa de Pollo, and Salchipapas for appetizers. I was against ordering the Salchipapas (hot dogs and fries), but my dad insisted. The Huancaina sauce was great and the Causa was good too.

We ordered a few pitchers of chicha morada (purple corn drink) because you have to be drinking this if you're eating peruvian food. It just seems natural. The drink was tasty, but it hadn't been chilled and we weren't given ice with it. Back in Peru I was used to not having chilled drinks all the time, but it's a different story when I'm back in 'Murica.

For entrees we collectively ordered Lomo Saltado x3, Aji de Gallina x2, and Carapulcra x1. Most of my family had tried lomo before so I think the big hit this time was the Aji de Gallina because the creamy sauce was just delicious. The other dishes were also very good. When I asked for some aji to go with my rice I was pleasantly surprised when they brought out quite the large dipping dish of it. So good!

I give this restaurant a 4/5 because I know a new restaurant will have to work out the kinks and it wasn't much of a hassle for those things that were "wrong" anyway. The...

Finding an authentic Peruvian restaurant in Las Vegas is tough enough. Toque del Sabor is authentic to a degree but there were a few things that just miss the mark and garnered a 3 star review in my book.

FOOD As a Peruvian, the best way to test authenticity is to sample the restaurant’s Lomo Saltado — our National dish! If they can hit a home run with this plate it usually means all the menu hits the mark. My Lomo (a lo pobre) was good but could have been so much better. First, there was hardly any Lomo. I mean there were slices of beef but I counted eight small slices of beef. And once the top layer of Lomo is eaten there’s no more underneath the veggies. That’s hardly 4 ounces. So what made up the Lomo Saltado was all of the rest of the fixings— lots of French fries, about a quarter of red onion some tomatoes and chopped scallions. There were two fried eggs which were cooked to perfection But, the star of the plate was wholly under presented. LOMO (beef) ! It’s what the dish is named after! There should be equal parts Lomo to the veggies.

The sauce was tasty indeed but could have used a bit more soy flavor as it leaned a bit more on the oyster sauce All in all, tasted good but I felt I was skimped on the Lomo needlessly.

SERVICE

Definitely felt at home with the sweet and very lovely Maria. She smiled attentively towards me and always walked by to check on us. Bridget was also exquisite and equally lovely and attentive. Service is what makes this place one to which I will definitely return

ATMOSPHERE

We arrived about 2:00 pm so no live band. However they had a video looped with salsa music. Would have been nice to hear some Peruvian music if there was no intent on dancing. For example, Los Morochucos albums would be perfect entertainment to a lunch crowd seeking to reconnect with their roots.

Plus

The Pisco Sours...