Papa San — Restaurant in New York

A Must-Visit Peruvian-Japanese Gem!

Papa San is an absolute standout! As fans of Llama San and Llama Inn, we had high expectations, and Papa San exceeded them in every way. This new Peruvian-Japanese Nikkei spot delivers an incredible dining experience, from the inventive cocktails to the beautifully executed dishes.

We started with cocktails crafted in collaboration with Tres Monos, an Argentinian cocktail bar, and they were outstanding—creative, balanced, and full of flavor. With our drinks, we shared several appetizers family-style: the octopus, bok choy salad, blue crab togarashi, black bass with shishitos, and the eel pizza. Each dish was perfectly prepared, bursting with flavor, and artfully presented.

For our main, we went with the Whole Chicken Experience for Two (a must-try!). It truly is an experience—starting with a comforting, flavorful bone broth, followed by a selection of Yakitori skewers, each with a unique and delicious flavor. Then came the chicken breast escabeche, which was light, tender, and elevated by the bright, herbaceous escabeche sauce. Finally, the Oyakodon—a comforting Japanese rice bowl with chicken, eggs, and onions—rounded out the experience beautifully. Every bite was packed with flavor and carefully thought out.

To complement our meal, the sommelier helped us choose a fantastic 2018 Broncho Malbec for our appetizers and a crisp, refreshing Albariño for the chicken course—both perfect pairings.

Papa San is more than just a restaurant—it’s a culinary journey. The combination of flavors, impeccable execution, and warm hospitality made for an unforgettable evening. We can’t...

TLDR: Papa San is the next chapter of the same team that brought us Llama San, etc. Very flavorful but pricey and smaller portions - good for that corporate expense card. Cacio e pepe udon, burger sando.

I was always a fan of Llama San so when I heard of Papa San coming - I was excited. The space is right at the corner of 34th and 10th and it's cool to have a nikkei (Japanese/Peruvian) option available.

The dishes are well thought out and overall tasty but portions are on the smaller side. It also gets pricey quick.

On a most recent visit, the spicy tuna gunkan maki. Basically it's a spicy tuna crispy rice wrapped in nori - solid. The burger sando I think is a must order. It's served on fluffy milk bread that's toasted, the patty itself reminds me of a Dominican chimi. Definitely add-on the fries, I'm not sure what the seasoning is but it's good. For some reason it reminded me of Dorito's ranch seasoning.

Cacio e pepe udon. Mind you this is a modern iteration, so it's not as aggressively punchy or thick as a classic pasta. The udon I'd have preferred a bit more chew but the flavors were good. We added on the squid which is marinated in this spicy sauce - kind of similar to a Korean squid stir-fry. I'd add that in and mix as you go to change the flavor.

Eel pizza, typically this is good. It's very thin and has bonito shavings, the eel, pecorino and chives. It was a bit too heavy on the sauce last time but I'd still order it again.

I'm curious to try the dinner menu one day. Also if you go for lunch, probably one of the greatest potato...

Hate to do this, but unfortunately felt as though there was no other choice. My partner set us up with a birthday dinner reservation at the restaurant and we were very excited to visit. The waitress was kind and we thought we would enjoy our time. We waited an extremely long time (30-45) for our drinks after we had ordered. We placed our food orders at the same time. The only thing that came out was a small appetizer we had ordered.

This was a Thursday evening and many of the items were sold out at 8pm. We asked if there was much longer of a wait because we had other reservations. After two hours of waiting our food never arrived. As unfortunate as that is the manager Orland walked over and apologize and gave us his card to visit again. We are very understanding, maybe too understanding that things happen. I emailed said manager to say thank you , and we would love to revisit under better circumstances. He did not respond.

I would love to give the food higher than one star but to be honest, I would not know. Maybe there should be an option for when you do not receive your order after two hours. Or how to kindly take care of customers who chose to do a birthday dinner there and was quite understanding that things happen.

I work as a first responder in NYC and I would say that it’s not what happens, but how we deal with them.

Hopefully this establishment does better next time as its actuality pales in comparison...