Inka Mar
25542 Jeronimo Rd.
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Lately, I have heard a lot about Peruvian food. I remember eating Peruvian food long ago in Costa Mesa at a restaurant called Inka Grill. I liked it the one time I went, but I have yet to go back. I am still trying to figure out why. I recently got an email asking me to try Inka Mar. Wanting to try something out of the norm for us, I enlisted Katie and Richard to tag along with me.
Peruvian food has been influenced by many different cultures over the years. Italians, Asians, and Spanish, among others, have left their marks on the food of Peru. The result is a menu that is unique and varied. Inka Mar recently changed from an Italian/Peruvian restaurant to a Peruvian restaurant only in mid-January. Let's see if the food here will make us crave Peruvian cuisine.
Above is the Bread and Aji sauce served before each meal. The bread was average, but the aji sauce was very good. Made of lettuce, jalapenos, and other spices, this really had a great spicy flavor. The spice did not overpower the sauce, but you definitely knew it was there.
When I am trying a place for the first time, I like to get a sampler platter to judge more of the food. So that is what we did here. This appetizer platter consisted of three items, the Trio Criollo.
Going left to right on the plate, we have the Papa a la Huancaina. This is boiled potatoes served with a creamy cheese sauce, garnished with a hard-boiled egg. I was not in love with this part of the dish. The potatoes surprised me by not being warm. They were served cold. The cheese sauce was also just average to me.
The middle portion of the plate was occupied by the Ceviche Mixto, which is fish, shrimp, calamari, and mussels mixed with lime juice. The fish tasted fresh and had a good flavor, but the lime at the end of each bite overpowered this part of the plate.
The last portion of this appetizer platter was the Choritos A La Chalaca. Here, mussels are topped with tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro, and lime juice. I found the seafood fresh, and the mussel topper was very flavorful. This is like an oyster shooter, just with a different shellfish. This was definitely my favorite part of this plate. Katie did not try this because she is not a fan of mussels (that is why she dates me!).
Now, on to the entrees. Up first is my Arroz Con Mariscos, or Peruvian Paella. This dish combined Peruvian rice with peas, onions, mussels, and other assorted seafood. I liked the flavor of this, and it came out steaming hot. The rice was very flavorful, but if there was one drawback about this dish, it was that there was not an abundance of seafood. A little more seafood would have made the $16 price tag for this a lot better.
Richard got the Bistec a lo Pobre or poor man's steak. This charbroiled steak had fried eggs, plantains, sweet potatoes, and rice. I had this kind of dish at a Colombian restaurant a few months back. The steak here was more tender, though. Richard would have liked the steak to have more seasoning. He loved the rice but felt the egg did not add anything to this plate. This was Richard's first time having a plantain, and he was not sure he liked it. I tried it and enjoyed it.
My favorite item of the night was Katie's choice for dinner, the Saltado de Pollo. This unique dish combines chicken, tomatoes, onions, and French fries, sauteed and served with white rice. These items all worked very well together. The chicken was flavorful and tender, and the fries were not all soggy like you would expect. Katie was even excited by the rice. I would gravitate towards this the next time I came here.
For dessert, we were given some of their homemade ice creams. The flavors were Lucuma (kind of like pumpkin), Maracuya (passion fruit), and Mango. All of these were very good, and you can definitely tell that they make them here. They had the texture of homemade ice cream that I had as a kid, and the flavors were very unique.
Inka Mar has a good vibe. They have a very large menu, and it may take me some time to find my favorites. The food here was very fresh. The service was good, but there were only four other tables eating at the time we were there (7 p.m. on a Wednesday night). Hopefully, the word will get out about this place, and they can fill those tables.
Out of five Machu Picchus (the most familiar icon of the Inca world, located in Peru), five being the best and zero being the worst, Inka Mar gets 2.5 Machu Picchus.
For more information on Inka Mar, click here: http://www.inkamar.com/index.php
Good place, but with it as quiet as it was when we were there, I just don't see how it's going to last. Shame.
ReplyDeleteRichard - I agree with you about this restaurant. It is hard because it is tucked away and not very close to any freeways, so people will have a tough time finding it. Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDelete