Peruvian Food - Restaurant Review

Today's review is of Las Terrazas Grill located in the heart of Barranco.  With Peruvian food always in demand among locals and tourists an establishment like Terrazas has the appeal and presence to draw just about anyone through their intricate and lavish doors.  Located across from the parque municipal "plaza de armas" (municipal park)  Las Terrazas (the terraces) has a structual design that is very unique and stands out among its surrounding environment.  The terraces of the building are beautifully designed, and like the buildings exterior, the interior of building is just as wonderfully decorated with large oil paintings on the walls and the bar made of an indistiguishable carved wood makes you feel like you have gone back in time.  However upon further inspection it becomes evident that Las Terrazas is more about its nightlife that its restaurant is a secondary attraction.   Las Terrazas has four floors with each one hosting its own dedicated dance floor and music, but lets face it in these economic times a nightclub is much more profitable than a restaurant any day, and if your located in an area that has several competing nightclubs that cater to a large number of locals and tourists then why the HELL wouldn't you want to jump on the band wagon.

The food at Las Terrazas is primarily seafood with dishes like ceviche being a flagship of the menu.  If your not into seafood or have just had more seafood than you care to eat, Las Terrazas also offers meat and pasta options like their beef medallions in mushroom sauce served with white rice and french fries or beef raviolis en their own special Terrazas meat sauce.  I had the opportunity to try both but was a little disappointed in the quality of the food.  First off I chose to visit the restaurant on a Sunday around 3pm in the afternoon with my girlfriend when the restaurant was rather deserted.  We took a few minutes to look over the rather large menu that specialized in almost everything (I'm not a big fan of restaurants that serve a broad range of food, it's usually an indication that food quality is going to be poor or mediocre).  Once we ordered we waited about a good 20 to 30 minutes to recieve our meals which given the fact that we were the only ones there was also disappointing.  To top it off our meals didn't even come out at the same time, there was roughly a 5 minute wait for my girlfriends dish to come out of the kitchen.  This makes me wonder about the restaurants service capabilities and quality on a BUSY day.

The food was ok but not much better than that.  What was consistent was the amount of salt the chef or cook (I am assuming the latter) decided to use in both dishes which was more than enough to make the meal unenjoyable, I believe a beverage became requisite in order to finish the meal.  The price was adequate for a restaurant located in a tourist hotspot.  Personally I don't see myself eating there again anytime soon, however this does not mean that I am writing off the restaurant completely since I haven't tried their seafood which as I mentioned earlier is their "bread and butter" so I might just have to go back and give them another try.  I would also like to check out their dance floors.

I give the restaurant 2 stars out of 5, a fairly low rating but given the experience I believe it to be fair.