La Canela — Restaurant in Rockville

Had lunch here again after New Years eve. This is the second time my girlfriend and I come here and we love it now! From drinks to the complimentary Hors d'oeuvre to appetizers to entrées and desserts. Good Portion sizes makes you feel like you get for what you payed for. Everything is upscale, romantic, with great cusine that is perfectly perpared and plated.

Hors d'oeuvre: Complimentary of the house. It was a Ceviche Wonton? Fish inside was warm and juicy. The acutual Wonton was very crunchy. Left us it with the feeling of wanting more.

The appetizer: Ceviche de pescado was fresh and spicy but not too overwhelming. Yellow potato ball was soft, sandy, and creamy while the Sweet potato ball was sweet and cooked with cinnamon and honey. Delish!

Papitas relllenas were also fantastic, nice browned crisp exterior yet soft, hot and meaty inside. The sauce that was served next to it was creamy and kind of reminded me of a huancayna sauce thought thicker with a similar taste. Absolutely delicious!

The Entrées: The Thick and Juicy Grilled Rib Eye Steak  was done to perfection, Med Rare. You can still taste the char marks from the grill. As it states it was Thick and also juicy. Although it tends to be a fattier cut and i had to trim about 1/3 of the overall fat of the steak but dont get me wrong it was still pretty good. If the steak doesn't fill you, the side of rice, fries and the fried egg that is topped with will.

Boneless Short Ribs Stew was extremely soft. Didn't even had to use a knife. The meat since it was braised for a couple hours was also very well seasoned with lots of its own juice. It was served over Canary beans that were creamy and the  dish was topped with a cilantro dark beer sauce that we couldn't get enough. It really brought all the flavors together.

Side of the Fried Crispy Yuca was also very well done. Not overly dry like other places make

Desserts: Panna Cotta de Chirimoya outstanding as well. Its a thick, creamy and gelatinous dessert. It's also not a dense or heavy as a crème brûlée but softer, fruiter and slightly silky. You'll taste hints of the Chirimoya that are refreshing. The crème anglaise and the heart drawn in raspberry coulis makes a perfect dessert.

Picarones were made from sweet potatos and squash. The resembles donuts.They were very hot and freshly done with a honey and chancaca sauce that you will dip until its all gone. Fabulous!

As always the rest of the staff was friendly, courtious and attentive and so was our waiter Alberto. Chef and the rest of his kitcken staff deliver passion of traditional authenticity  of peruvian heritage on every dish that comes out their kitcken. I would strongly...

Peruvian cuisine is one of my favorite and I wanted to look for a new restaurant to try with my husband in Rockville. I found La Canela searching on google maps and it had over 400 reviews with a rating over 4 stars so we decided to give it a try for date night.

We came for dinner on a Saturday night around 6:30PM. The restaurant wasn’t busy and we were seated right away. While waiting for our food, we received a complimentary snack to try from the chef. It was fish ceviche in what looked like a fried wonton and it was quite delicious! My husband ordered a Sierra Nevada IPA for drinks and I tried their Pisco Strawberry Smash. My drink was the right amount of strong and reminded me of a margarita without the salt rim.

For dinner, I ordered the Fettuccini a la Huancaína and my husband ordered the Pollo Saltado. The lomo saltado in my dish was perfectly seasoned but the fettuccini was not what I expected. I love huancaína sauce but this was more on the cheeser side and very thick in consistency. Needless to say, I didn’t finish the pasta portion on my dish. My husband said his pollo saltado was delicious. No complaints on his part about the food.

Service was on the slower end of things. Although, we got seated very quickly - the waiters barely came around to check on us. It also seems, they all share the tables and we weren’t assigned a specific waiter. We had to ask for our check twice. The first waitress never brought the check so I was able to flag down a second waiter and he brought it to us.

All in all, the food and drinks were delicious and we would definitely come back to...

We recently hosted a private luncheon at La Canela for ~30 people to celebrate a family milestone and it was a wonderful experience from start to finish. From our initial online inquiry, Lilian was highly responsive over many emails, building a menu, reserving the full first floor area, and accommodating dietary restrictions. The event was being planned remotely so we didn't have a chance to visit the restaurant in advance and were hoping everything would work out as planned. And I'm happy to say it was far better than expected!

The service team at La Canela were attentive from the start, helping guests get started with drinks while they waited, then kicking off service with a delicious ceviche wonton amuse-bouche. The plated lunch menu had a nice variety of offerings and the food was wonderful, with very large portions. The short ribs and the trout were among our family's favorites.

We unexpectedly needed to order a few dishes that were not on the event menu and the team handled that seamlessly. Our party spent a lot of time talking and toasting the guest of honor, and we ultimately rang a bit longer than our reserved event time. Lilian and the staff were extremely gracious and worked so we could finish our dessert and close the event without being rushed out.

Overall staff were so kind and accommodating of everyone; we felt welcome and they truly provided top notch service. None of us had ever dined at La Canela before and I imagine many people will return. Many thanks to the team for helping us celebrate a very special member...