Thursday, September 15, 2011

Machu Picchu

Living in Pflugerville, I didn't expect such a wide array of ethnic cuisine, and I had driven past this place several times and noted it.  I stopped in for lunch one day.  When I walked in I noticed the cute coziness of the place.  There were several tables, but it wasn't terribly busy.  I think it had only been open for about 3 months when I came in.  I watched a man and a young woman walk past me carrying out food to the tables a few times but wasn't really acknowledged for about 10 minutes or so.  The young woman came over to seat me and took me to a quiet table in the back of the restaurant next to a window.  When she came back to take my order she was warm and friendly and welcomed me to the restaurant.  She asked if I had tried peruvian food before and I told her I hadn't so she handed me the menu and told me that she would be back with a sampler platter so that I could taste a variety of their offerings before I settled on what I wanted to order.  How cool is that?  I remember when I first stared branching out with ethnic food and was really worried I might order something I hated and get stuck with it.  I think that the sampler platter is a wonderful idea!  I wished other places would do this!  She came back with the little sampler platter and it had several main dishes, ceviche, and some different sauces.  They were all pretty tasty!  I didn't order it, and I regret that I didn't, but the ceviche was the best I have ever tasted!  I will come back just to have a full order of it.  There were several stews, and you could pick several for a lunch combo so that is what I did.  I selected the beef stew, a chicken stew and a pork stew.  The plate came with all three, served with rice and a salad.  They also supply a bread basket perfect for sopping up the delicious sauces.  The beef stew was good, the chicken one was so-so and the pork was really good.  The salad was also very good, but I had to flag down the owner to get it for me, and I never got a refill on my water, and it was a super hot day and I slurped it down as soon as I sat down.  This is the main reason I give this place 3 stars.  I think the service is lacking because they had just opened and didn't have enough staff.  The owner was a very nice man that was super passionate about his food and his restaurant and chatted it up with me for some time.  I hope that now that it's been around longer they have fixed the service part.  The food is very comfort-foody and homey.  But the plate I had wasn't all that memorable, but that ceviche certainly was!  I would recommend this place for anyone that likes to try new things and loves ceviche.  I hope this place gets more staff so that service improves and I hope they stay around for a while.

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