Nazca Mochica — Restaurant in Washington

Nazca Mochica is a two-in-one concept that fulfills all the Peruvian food cravings. Upstairs is Nazca, a sleeker, more traditional dining room. Downstairs is Mochica, a ceviche lounge and pisco bar.

We came for a birthday celebration. It was pretty easy to make reservations a few days before using OpenTable, and the restaurant called to confirm our reservation.

Pisco sours are naturally popular here, although I went with their ginger mint chilcano. Infused with mint, ginger, and lemon grass pisco, my drink also had ginger ale, lime juice, and angostura bitters. It was a tasty concoction that I would go for again and again.

Their ceviches are well-known, but we settled on short-rib antichuchos for a shared appetizer. The short ribs are marinated for 72 hours in an aji panca honey glaze and served with a creamy huancaina sauce, fried yucca, fingerling potatoes, and purple cabbage. The ribs are so tender they fall right off and paired with the various sauces, cabbage, and potatoes, it's one heck of a dish.

For my main course, I went for their lomo saltado. This is beef tenderloin sauteed in soy sauce and sesame oil and served with red onions, roma tomatoes, and fries. A small side of rice comes with the saltado. It's a very homey, comforting dish, and I think it really speaks to me because it's a stir fry dish (lomo saltado originated as part of the chifa tradition or Chinese cuisine of Peru). We were even able to glimpse a little bit of wok action in the kitchen.

Service was very friendly and accommodating. They even presented the birthday boy with their alfajores (Peruvian traditional cookies filled with dulce de leche) on the house. Fantastic place for Peruvian dishes and would definitely frequent Mochica...

We made reservation for Tuesday night, at 7:15pm, due to super hard and inconvenience of parking, we were 10 minutes late, but we were happy that they hold our table. As soon as we arrive the ambiance was good, the decoration very cute, we sat outside. The service was good, the waiters were very attentive. We started with the Causitas, they were good, it looked very appealing, we also had the Mochica Ceviche, which was overcooked and warm (not made fresh), had lots of onions, too little fish and octopus, and two fried calamari on top (we were two so we can’t complain), some dices of fried yuca (never had yucca with ceviche before) and Peruvian corn. As main courses we had the Lomo Saltado and Aji de Gallina, disappointed at the first one, ok with the second one. The meat was extremely over cooked, dry and very little (seven pieces) with lots of onions, lots of fries, it was also over priced (for an extra $10.00 dollars you could get better and 5 times the steak at Ruth Chris). The Aji de Gallina, better say Aji de Pollo, (Gallina = Hen / Pollo = Chicken) very close to the real Aji de Pollo, love the olive, but too little potatoes. Drinks: Maracuyá sour (passion fruit) didn't taste that good, and Mochica Algarrobina was missing the Algarrobina. My friend and I left this restaurant feeling unsatisfied after spending close to $150 on dinner, honestly way too expensive for mediocre food,...

Love this place! I actually live in NYC, but drove through DC and decided to try this place in Dupont Circle. We were served by a waiter named Abraham, who was so attentive and friendly! Service and ambience is half the experience of going to a restaurant, and we were already having a good time before we ordered our food. I've only had Peruvian food a handful of times, but I know that you can't go to a Peruvian restaurant without ordering pisco sours and ceviche. We had the asian cebiche by recommendation of the owner, who visited our table during the meal. I haven't even tried the other cebiches on the menu but this is the best one. It was so good, the combination of flavors was perfect and the fish super fresh. For drinks, we had pisco sours. The foamed egg white on top was the best part, it made the drink super smooth and creamy. We ordered a few more dishes, but the main other thing that stood out was the Kobe beef dish. The meat melted in our mouths like butter. LIKE BUTTER!! I regret bringing my boyfriend because I wanted this one all to myself. Unfortunately, they were out of their highly recommended steamed pork belly buns, but we'll definitely order them next time, as Abraham said they...