El Gran Inka — Restaurant in Sweetwater

So I came to Miami for a trip and seen this restaurant on Groupon so my boyfriend and I decided to purchase and give this place a shot. I called first about the Groupon they said ok come on in. Once there I showed the servers the Groupon code on my phone and they told us ok come on in. Once seated we ordered our food both meals about $25 each. Our Groupon took $20 off each meal and we’ll have to pay the remaining balance plus service charge…cool no problem…Once I gave them the Groupons the server said ok I’ll be right back. He came back and said “the owner is only going to use 1.” I made no big deal even though it made no sense since one is for me and the other is for him we paid twice on Groupon but whatever I said ok…He than came back and the server said “the owner need it on paper form not the bar code on your phone.” Sigh!!! Unbelievable! What’s the difference? The codes are on it! And what’s the point of saying come on in the restaurant and than say “ok I can only use only one coupon.” (even though the site didn’t make that clear.) We took it as though they didn’t want to Fulfill their promise on the Groupon discounts. What’s the point of having your restaurant on Groupon if you’re not willing to go through with it?. Bad for business I will never eat here again and recommend others not to do so. If you have a Groupon forget about it that’s just their way to reel you in and slap the bill on the table and tell you you cannot use it. FRAUD and FALSE ADVERTISING. Food wasn’t even good for it to be almost $90 for two meals lol unbelievable. Also they messed up on our drinks giving us diet soda. Overcharged food that should cost pennies. I will make sure everyone know not to even go here. Watch! And the nuts they serve are dry...

So it was girls night and we decided to eat at the Dolphin Mall. There are so many restaurants, but we narrowed it down to Peruvian, since I love Peruvian cuisine. As we passed by each restaurant, they provided us with menus to try to lure us in.

Well, it worked because I just needed to try their Chaufa (which is fried rice). I usually get my rice filled with seafood. The rice was good, not the best peruvian rice I've had, but definitely quality. I also had the tostones and they were nicely salted and crispy. Yum! The calamari was served with fried yuca (with cut up red onions with a perfect amount of acidity) and a white garlic based sauce that was delicious. My friend ordered the Lomo saltado and loved her meal.

Our waiter was extremely enthusiastic, which was a breath of fresh air being that I am one for customer service. He was also very knowledgeable of the menu and understood that I was pescatarian and knew to offer suggestions as to what I would love. He made us laugh but was professional! Just what we needed on a girls night out!

The atmosphere was great, on a Friday night, with the music from the live band (Havana nights)at the actual mall was perfect! We laughed a lot and were probably loud so it drowned us out lol. But, not too loud that were couldn't hear each other. The restaurant is a more upscale Peruvian restaurant. A lot more pricier than a hole in the wall local authentic Peruvian Restaurant, but we enjoyed our food. The total of all we ordered between all of us totaled about $89 with tip included.

For a Friday night, it was not packed at all..you have the option to sit inside with air conditioning, or outside to hear the music and enjoy...

Honestly, I had such a bad experience here tonight. I don’t normally write bad reviews, but I felt like this needed to be said to warn future diners. We ordered the chicharrón de pescado, ceviche, and sopa de parihuela. The chicharrón de pescado was soggy and the breading was basically just a fried/browned egg. On top of that, there were like five pieces of fish and it felt like there was more yuca pieces. The ceviche was straight up salt and lime, no ajimoto or even cilantro. Both dishes were tasteless. These are two of the simplest Peruvian dishes and the chef did not know how to cook Peruvian food. I do have to commend the bartender. The pisco sour was perfection and even looked beautiful. When the waiter asked how we were doing, my sister was completely honest and told him what was wrong with the food. He seemed surprised and said “okay”, but nothing was remedied so why did he even ask? It wasn’t comped, it wasn’t remade, we weren’t asked if we wanted something else, nothing. It did not feel like he cared that we had a bad experience with their food. Moreover, they automatically charge gratuity, something I have never seen when under six people. My family is Peruvian and many of our family members were 5-star chefs in Peru before moving to South Florida, so we know good food, and unfortunately, El Gran Inka would not even be considered fast...