Piura Restaurant
“I give this place 4 stars because the chicken was a bit dry and didn't have the flavor i usually taste when I buy Peruvian food.”
“For dessert we all opted to have the Alfajores, which is a Peruvian cookie served with Lucuma ice cream.”
“- Lomo Saltado, skirt steak strips sauteed with onions, tomatoes and french fries, served with rice.”
Piura Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
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not the most authentic peruvian restaurant, but it's not bland like the other reviewers stated. If anything, it was a bit salty, but I'm not complaining!
We received a complimentary dish, which was really sweet of them! It might have been because we were the only customers, but nonetheless, it was very much appreciated. I'm not sure what the dish is called, but it had potatoes, some yellow creamy sauce and sliced boiled eggs to top it off. It's an extremely hearty dish that you probably can't finish on your own, but it was tasty. It's something I've never tried before, but I would recommend sharing it.
My friend got the steak, which was cooked perfectly, but it wasn't the best steak. Don't come here for steak is all. My other friend got chicken fried rice, which was decent. Nothing special, but it was good. I had the chicken with sausage, string beans and vegetables. I think my dish was probably the best. The sauce that the chicken was cooked in was so good. I regret getting a side salad instead of the rice because the rice would have soaked up all the liquid goodness.
I think my favorite part was the complimentary corn puffs that they give you before the meal. It's quite addicting and our waiter noticed because he asked if I wanted more.
I would come back and try their lunch special. It's a great deal for decent food.
After spending over a month in Peru, I can say that Peruvian food is not the most savory food in the world (compared to, say Mexican or Thai), but it does have its high points, all of which were more-or-less missed by Piura.
Piura is a city in northwest Peru, way past Trujillo and Chiclayo. I haven't been that far north, so maybe the cuisine is slightly different up there, however, the food here is generally bland. There are Yelp reviewers who call this food "savory", and all I have to say is that they probably don't know Peruvian food that well. For example, Oscar M. ordered spaghetti in pesto sauce at a Peruvian restaurant. Weird. So I'm not sure I would trust these reviews. I spent over a month in Peru, and I know what Peruvian food is.
On the bright side I think the food is reasonably priced (but do see the comment about my friend at the end of this review).
Would I go back? As of right now, probably yes, but only to see if I ordered the wrong things. The food I ordered was delivered, and delivered foods are often not as good as dine-in food in the restaurant. Or perhaps I didn't order the right things. I'm open to trying more things on the menu in the future.
My favorite Peruvian restaurant is also right here in Queens and brings me back to Cusco and Lima. It's definitely more expensive, and much more difficult to get to, but for me, that's the gold star standard for Peruvian cuisine. Accordingly, I'd have to assign Piura 2 stars "Meh, I've had better".
Seco De Carne: B-
The seco was bland. I was hoping for something with a more intense cilantro flavoring. Needed more garlic, too. And the sauce was very thin for seco — seco should be a very thick reduction. This sauce was comparatively thin and bland. The meat was a tad chewy.
Churrasco a la Puirana: B-
Skirt steak should be one of the tastiest steaks. I felt this steak was bland. It desperately needed garlic. It should've been grilled to bring out that beefy skirt steak flavor. The steak was more soft than most steaks I've had at Spanish restaurants, so there's that, at least. As far as skirt steaks go, this was disappointingly bland. On the bright side, we asked for medium rare, and that's what we got. The french fries were obviously bagged frozen supermarket fries. Peru is very proud of their potatoes. They boast something like 3,800 different varieties of potatoes in Peru. Why give us frozen bagged french fries?
I will say this to people who like "authentic food". You want authentic Peruvian fries? Too bad, because when you go to Peru, they're almost ALWAYS bagged frozen supermarket fries unless you go to the elite restaurants of Lima. So I guess these are "authentic" in that sense, but I think Piura should aim higher than serving generic frozen fries.
Aguadito De Pollo: B-
Needed more flavor. Bland. That cilantro really should've been front and center. Sadly, I could barely taste the cilantro. The soup was still delicious, but I wish it were more savory.
Edit:
Our friend Magaly, who moved to the US from Peru told us she ate here as well and thought the food was bland as well, and she lived in Peru for most of her life. She had the lomo saltado and chaufa which is sort of like "Peruvian fried rice" (Peru has a very large Japanese community, oddly enough, and that has influenced their cuisine). She complained that the lomo saltado was expensive and lacked flavor and the chaufa also was flavorless (needed more soy sauce, which should be added while the rice is being fried, not afterwards).
Peruvian food is delicious, Peruvian lunch specials make it even more appealing. 🙂 The interior of Piura is clean and roomy with a nice looking bar.
Our server Mauricio was very attentive, informative and took good care of us. Now honestly for a $7 -$8 lunch menu we didn't expect too much, but we were pleasantly surprised.
For starters we ordered the cold appetizer – Papa a La Huancaina. The appetizer was delicious with thin slices of hard boiled eggs and potatoes placed on top of iceberg lettuce and coated with a semi thick "Bernaise" type sauce. WARNING-WARNING-WARNING!! For our entrée we ordered the Aji De Gallina – which was almost identical to the appetizer mentioned above. When the dish arrived it was like Deja Vu or a deleted scene from the movie "Groundhog day" The only difference was the entrée was served hot and came with a bowl of rice and shredded chicken, other than that a mirror image. I think our waiter forgot that the two items were too similar, I hope it doesn't happen to regularly.
Our last dish was called – Lomo Saltado, delicious skirt steak stir fried with French fries, tomatoes and onions which makes for a semi sweet and savory dish. They gave us some Green sauce which always signifies Peruvian!
Our server gave us a complimentary dessert ( I think he felt bad for not alerting us about the 2 almost identical dishes) He served us a scoop of "Lucuma" ice cream a Peruvian fruit that tasted nutty and had notes of pistachio, we also were served – Dulce de Leche – a cookie sandwich filled with a caramel like filling, delicious!
Piura really does have some amazing lunch specials to choose from and as I mentioned before the interior is clean and well maintained. I plan to return in the evening to try the dinner menu.