A medium sized place in the Miraflores region of Lima that specializes in foods grown in Peru. They state that the tasting menu celebrates the biodiversity of Peru. The menu utilized on our visit was to explore the various altitudes from which things are sourced, from -20 meters to 3900 above sea level.  I’m not sure it worked for me as well as all the hype I’ve read about the place. It was good in an overall sense but often too many ingredients, too much colored powder in a dish along or portion size problems detracted from the experience. The website also talks a good bit about their in house filtration system providing the purest of water and yet we were sold Acqua Panna to drink with dinner.

 

There are no amuse bouche – we launched directly into the 17 course menu with spidercrab with lemon and seaweed and an abundance of something that reminded me all too much of the dip made from Lipton Onion soup mix. I have a weakness for this dip and so I liked the course but it pushed no “culinary limits” for me.

 

Next was variations of avocado but those that come from Calif or Mexico usually have a stronger taste than these did. The mixture with cactus was my favorite of the the 3 offerings.

 

The corn course included corn with honey on a rock and corn soup with a corn cracker. The corn with honey was quite nice and the corn cracker was really tasty with a great corn taste but the soup was a tad tart.

 

 

The High Jungle course was about potatoes with a jungle potato, yacon, that was a little sweet and not very starchy with a texture like a fruit. Very fun.  It was served with the River Scales which were cured fish slices on a cracker.  The wheat like taste of the cracker overwhelmed the mild taste of the fish.

 

The Andean Plateau course was 3 different bread items and two spreads. The corn and potato bread were nice but unremarkable. The toasted butter would have been better if it had been slightly softer to spread on the delicate bread.  The other was a tomato butter which was presented with some burnt leaves whose aroma was hard to get over.

 

 

The Marine Soil was clams served with a sweet cucumber that tasted just like watermelon to me. The clams were wonderfully tender and blended very well with the cucumber.

 

Extreme Stem was various root vegetables that they were nice enough to bring to the table in their raw form for us to see.

 

The Colors of Amazonia was fish and nuts from the jungle. The orange is a fruit and the white is from nuts.

 

Harvest and Collection was beet root, passion fruit and scallops. It was nice but mild. The lettuce added a nice crunchy texture but overall there wasn’t much flavor in this dish.

 

Close Fishing was grilled octopus served with a broth that was slightly salty, but the octopus was cooked perfectly and had a nice grilled flavor.

 

The Lake Floor was chicken served in 2 piles with some molecular green stuff that was disgusting. Overall this dish had way too much goo – a dud.

 

The Low Andes was beef with quinoa milk and herbs.  Beef heart was shaved on top. The meat was moist even upon chewing. The dish had some nice herbs and a sauce with lots of tastes. Overall it was interesting but not compelling.

 

The Amazonian Rainforest was apple, something like kiwi, something icy  with lemon grass and way too much stuff to have any flavor to work around. It was also large considering its placement in the tasting. Portion size began to take a toll on you at this point.

 

The Green Highlands chocolate,  ice cream and herbs which was good. The green shavings were also chocolate. Overall it was okay but not great.

 

The Valley Between the Andes several pieces, one chocolate jelly with lemon verbena, a mushroom root and some juice.