El Rocoto

First of all Peruvian food cost more and more these days. That would be dandy if the food was on par with what they charge. Sadly, in this place, it’s not so. We used to go by driving one hour each way. The pandemic put a stop to eating at a table for 2 years plus. Finally today we arrived around 7:30 PM. Service was prompt and pleasant in every way. Food became the issue. Ceviche Mixto Criollo, $17 each. Ordered 2 and overall was one of the two best dishes. Ceviche, of course, the primary reason to go. 4 Stars. Anticuchos, marinated beef heart, $14. This one with the price hiked, a very sad choice. Why? Used to be 3 wooden skewers with at least 3 pieces of meat in each. Plus typical sauce, and roasted potato. No the wooden skewers were half the size, if not less. 2 instead of 3, and to add insult to injury 2 very thin, hard to chew pieces. Mini Anticuchos is what they should have been named. A joke on us. 2 Stars. Pulpo Parrilla, $18. Pulpo being Octopus , and when prepared right very delicious. This one was half the mark, extremely chewy which to me meant they did not bother to brine the Octopus, unforgivable oversight for the amount and price. 2 Stars. Tamal, $12. Became apparent that the batch were this Pork Tamal came from had seen better days. Crumbly all quality exhibited before missing. For the money spent no good. 2 Stars. Parihuela Salvaje, $22. This dish when prepared correctly well worth its high price? Parihuela is like the French Bouillabaisse a la cheap, or even Sopa 7 Mares Mexican style. When the broth expresses the bounties of the seas, and the selections are in numbers to be savored, definitely a winner. This expensive version was not bad, lacking perhaps a little more variety? 4 Stars. Their sauces are tasty and the free bread old but warm, easy to eat. Service all around, as mentioned, nice. Water only drink a little off, no filter in the back. Total bill: $108 plus. Adding the somewhat fair 15% came to over $122. Peru distinguishes on their quality of food, so what El Rocoto brought to the table lacked that level of quality, yet it costs like if it was. 3 Stars.

Before coming to this restaurant we called ahead and told them that we were a party of 10. we were told that it wouldn't be a problem and that it would take about 30 minutes to be seated. When we arrive we spoke with the host and put our names down on the clipboard. After about waiting an hour and a few parties that had shown up after us, we're being called to be seated I went and looked to see where we were on the list. They had managed to skip Us by several groups. So I went and spoke to the host and he said because we were a large party that it was difficult to seat us. I asked them to split our group in two groups of five. We still had to wait 20 minutes to be seated are we could clearly see that there were several tables available. We felt that the mediocre food was not worth the hour and 20-minute wait. It still took them over 30 minutes to have our appetizers at the table. We have been going to this facility for several years it seems now that covid hit their service has deteriorated. We will not go back anytime soon.