A note on the words: otoshi is the small appetizer that arrives whether you asked for it or not, and the charge for it is the cover charge rather than a scam. Pisco is a grape spirit, and a pisco sour is the cocktail built on it. Aji is Spanish for chili pepper, and limo, amarillo and panca are the names of different chilies. Botija is a variety of olive, quinoa is a small South American grain, and a sable is a crumbly shortbread cookie. An amuse is the one-bite dish a kitchen sends out before the course proper begins, and confit means meat cooked slowly in its own fat until it falls away from the bone.
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Peruvian DESTINO51 on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Dinner tonight! Which means DESTINO51, a Peruvian restaurant on Kottodori in Omotesando. You never hear anything about Peruvian food, do you. I was curious what the cooking even is, so I booked a table — and when I actually got to the shop it turned out to be a very stylish place, which surprised me. Peruvian had me picturing something ethnic, but this is stylish in a solidly Omotesando way. Which is its own kind of very good atmosphere.
Lunch course 4,500 yen
“Welcome to Peru” course 7,500 yen
“A Trip Around Peru” course 14,500 yen
“Vamos Amigo!” course [with a drink to toast with] 10,000 yen
This was my first time, so rather than go around Peru I thought I would let them “Welcome to Peru” me first, and asked for the 7,500-yen course.
Right, the Welcome to Peru course. With a name like “welcome” I assumed the whole thing would be left to them, but
you pick the cold appetizer, the warm appetizer and the main yourself. Wondering what Peru is famous for, I chose whatever I felt like eating. Well, honestly, it might have been easier if they had chosen everything, ha.
Wondering what to drink first, I opened the drink menu, and the first thing on it was pisco cocktails.
Apparently it is a grape spirit that has been made since the sixteenth century. I did not really know it, but it seems to be famous, so I ordered a pisco sour, the most representative of the pisco-based cocktails.
And here is what arrived.
Very stylish, ha. A properly serious cocktail. Pisco, lime, syrup and egg white, they said. The foam on top will be the egg white. It is quite sweet, but with the fresh sourness of the lime and the fizz it goes down very easily. The alcohol looks fairly strong too, so you can feel in your bones that gulping this one down would end badly.
And the otoshi, corn. Not very salty, the kind of thing you crunch straight through without noticing.
First, the amuse. It looks great, somehow. Anyone who likes octopus is going to be very happy here. I believe it is boiled octopus with botija olive sauce and a quinoa sable. The gently boiled octopus meets an ethnic sauce and it is good, but more than that it is a fine amuse for making you feel that you might just have arrived in Peru.
You pick the cold appetizer from these two.
- Sea bream marinated in aji limo and lime
- Mashed potato salad dressed with lime and aji amarillo
What I asked for was the marinated sea bream. The acidity is quite strong, but it is lime acidity, so it never becomes hard to eat — that fine balance is what makes it good. There is a faint chili prickle running through it, and soaking the corn in the marinade liquid and eating it that way is good again. The chopped cilantro adds to the fresh side of it too. The corn from the otoshi was in there as well, by the way, and since it tasted so good soaked in this liquid I moved some over from the otoshi and topped it up a little.
I had a vague feeling that Peru might be known for wine, or at least I could not rule it out, so: a white.
You pick the next course, the warm appetizer, from these two.
- Charcoal-grilled skewers of Japanese beef heart, aji panca
- Charcoal-grilled shrimp skewers, aji panca
A choice between meat skewers and shrimp skewers.
I went with the shrimp this time, and the shrimp is lovely — a good spicy seasoning that goes with a drink!
Cream of Peruvian asparagus. Good.
Right, the main is a choice of three. They really do make you choose, ha.
Given that you get to eat what you actually want, it might be a good course for that.
- Sauteed beef fillet, red onion, tomato and potato
- Lamb confit, cilantro sauce and puree
- Peruvian-style seafood rice
Cilantro was in a fair number of the dishes — I wonder whether cilantro is a big thing in Peru too. As for the lamb confit, it is cilantro to the point of having been simmered in cilantro sauce, so it might be rough on anyone who hates it. Though even so, the taste itself did not really come across as cilantro, somehow. Only a faint scent of it. And it has been cooked through, so fainter still.
Simmered until it falls apart, very tender. Really good. Peru, not bad at all!
The last choice: herbal tea or coffee!
One way and another there is a fair amount of food, and I rather think the Welcome course is quantity enough on its own. If anything, the Trip Around Peru course is ten plates, so four more on top of this and I might not manage it, ha. Overall it is lime, chili and cilantro, and being able to feel that South American side of things, similar to Mexican food, was a very good experience. Peruvian food is good! I want to go again.
Peruvian DESTINO51 (Latin American / Omotesando Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.8
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
