AUTHOR – Jess

A friend of ours bought a voucher for a tasting menu at Tierra Peru in Essex Road. They had been to a lunchtime buffet there about a year ago, and wanted to return for an evening meal. They asked us along as we have been to Peru, and could tell them whether the food seemed authentic or not.

Our booking was at 9pm, which must be their 2^nd sitting of the evening. When we arrived, the small restaurant was heaving with diners and others waiting for their seats. The staff and some of the other diners appeared to be Peruvian – always a good sign in my book. We squidged in at the bar and promptly settled in to a round of pisco sours. The pisco sours were lovely; very citrusy, sour (obviously!), and deceptively potent. Our table wasn’t ready for some time and we also had to wait for our food to arrive, so we didn’t get to eat anything until 10pm. A little disappointing, especially for a later sitting when one’s stomach has started to eat itself. We weren’t given any bar snacks or nibbles, we had to pinch some giant crunchy corn ourselves from the side. However, we were in good company and the atmosphere was merry, so we didn’t get too annoyed.

The food came in two rounds; the first was a selection of meat and veg dishes, and, thankfully as we were starting to get worried that we would be underfed, a second round of fish based dishes.

On the meat side we had grilled chicken fillet, fried crunchy belly pork scratching type things called chicharones, a quinoa and cheese salad, a veg salad with mayo, fried parcels with an olive sauce, friend yuca and cheese balls in huancaina sauce and a tamale.

The seafood platter was really the winner – there were 3 types of ceviche, one classic, one with olive sauce and one with mixed seafood, anticucho skewers of grilled prawn and octopus and a fish stew. There was also a quinotto (risotto made with quinoa) that was the winner for me, cheesy and creamy yumminess that I would like to fill a whole bath with and go for a swim. There was also a delightful little plate of cheesy bread. All of it reminded me of the food we ate in Peru, bloody delicious.

We also sampled cusqueña beers, an inca coffee (coffee, pisco, coconut puree) and Agwa (coca leaf liqueur).

Our deserts were Tre Leches de Lucuma which tasted like a panettone in creamy sauce, not of Lucama at all but it was pleasant. We also had the deep fried rocoto pepper icecream wrapped in pancakes (our friend is Slovakian and we have a joke that she must always order anything that is deep fried!). It wasn’t to my taste, but quite an interesting concept to have a savoury spicy ice cream. Our other friend liked it and he is not a desert person – so perhaps this is one for those strange people who don’t normally go bananas for deserts.

Our voucher deal was £10 per person and we went on to spend £70 on our drinks, desert and service charge. Not too bad, but we found the liqueur shot and the coffee overpriced at £5 each.

So, in summary, this place is 100% authentic, the food is optimum quality and it seems to be doing a roaring trade. Well done to Tierra Peru, whilst I’d rather not wait an hour for my dinner, it was worth it!