Chef Shinzato is a master. I love the restaurant's ceviche! Seafood figures largely on the menu here, prepared in various traditional dishes. Don't pass up the Parihuela, an enormous bowl of saffron-tinged, shellfish broth well stocked with shrimp, clams, mussels, white fish and squid. The servers work hard and the food comes quickly and without a fus.
J. Fletcher |
Fina Estampa is a primo Peruvian place that the whole gang is just wild about . One waitress worked all eleven tables, and the service could not have been better, and the food was absolutely wonderful, fresh and bright and colorful, huge portions of what tasted authentically Peruvian.
Prawns sauteed in white wine and an enormous amount of golden-brown garlic, were as good as any we've had anywhere! The mussels marinated in lemon juice were perfect, served on exotic green mussel shells and covered with a salsa of onion, tomato and cilantro, all very lemony and fresh. Fina has the most extraordinary green salsa-an amazing amount of sweet garlic, with parsley, cilantro and oil.
For our main courses we split an order of beef strips sauteed with onions, tomatoes, Peruvian herbs and they were just fabulous, like Peruvian fajitas without the tortillas, tender, sweet, utterly greaseless, and it just felt like something specifically Peruvian. The broiled baby lamb marinated in fresh mint sauce was delicious, tender and simple, delectable. The chicken a la Fina Estampa-thusly named, was fantastic, a flat boned thigh and breast marinated in a red-chili paste called aji panca, then broiled perfectly.
Everything is presented well and looks very pretty.I went back a few days later for lunch and it was every bit as good as dinner. My friend Terry swore by the end of the meal that they'd be back every few day's for the rest of their lives.
Annie Lamott and Anne Hamersky
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