Pachamama - Bar & Kitchen

Pachamama is a Peruvian restaurant located on Thayer St not too far from Bond Street. My first experience of Peruvian food was at Coya, which was impressive!

My friends & I went on a Saturday night at 8pm, however booking in advance is advisable.

The restaurant is based downstairs, which is fairly dark but dimly lit. The setting & ambience gave a warm Latin feel.

Drinks

We started off by ordering some cocktails of which I chose a Mama Pisco as shown below. Latin drinks always tend to have a twist of lime, which I love hence why it opted for it. It contains Pisco, fresh orange, raspberry, mint, lime & sugar. Pisco is a brandy made in Peru from muscat grapes. The drink was refreshing fruity & with a subtle kick of lime.

Food

The menu is broken down into snacks, sea, land, soil & sweets. I have to say the waitress was extremely helpful in guiding us to choose some of the best dishes. Bear in mind the menu is a tapas style, so the idea is to order many different dishes & share.

For starters, we opted for pardon peppers & Chicken Anticuchos as shown below. Pardon peppers is generally a common dish on a Peruvian menu where they are pan fried in olive oil with rock salt. They’re the perfect snack to have with your cocktails whilst waiting for food. The second dish was Chicken Anticuchos, which were chicken skewers marinated in a tangy but chilly sauce.

For mains, we ordered multiple different dishes so we could try a large variety. The portions are small so with the three of us, we were able to try 1-2 pieces of each dish. From the land section, we ordered the fried chicken with Atacama hot sauce & duck on rice. The chicken was fresh, hot & soft with a lovely crispy batter in which it had been fried in. The sauce was a great accompaniment as it was sweet but chilly. The second dish was a duck on rice. The duck was tender & crispy on the outside, which is just how I like it! The rice was a yellow colour & slightly creamy a bit like a risotto. A simple dish but yet full of flavour.

From the land section, we chose Smoked mushroom ceviche, maiz in smoked olive oil, Plantain with yacón syrup, feta, black olive & Fried aubergine with smoked yoghurt & pecans.

The mushroom ceviche was a cold soup, the dish wasn’t quite what I expected & it wasn’t really to my liking. The dish was not poorly made it was more down to personal preference in taste.

The plantain dish was lush! Plantain is basically a green banana you can cook. Plantain is also a traditional African dish so a lot of East Africans & Indians will refer to it as mataoke. The dish had fried pieces of plantain which had a sweet syrup drizzled over it mixed with feta & black olive. All the flavours came thru beautifully & I even cleared the dish clean I loved it that much!

I’m not a big fan of aubergines especially when it’s used in Indian cooking with potatoes. I only seem to like it mushed up or when it's fried. There’s something about aubergine that when it’s mixed with smoked flavours it tastes divine especially when you add in the compliments of nuts. Again this dish was ace & full of flavour.

The most important dish, dessert! I was being good & didn’t order my own however I did try a really small piece from my friend. Below is the Peruvian chocolate with toasted quinoa we had. I have to say the chocolate was heavenly & literally melted in your mouth!

The Coco Chick Review

I personally think Peruvian food uses minimal & simple ingredients, yet they know how to season & cook their dishes in a way that brings out some of the most amazing flavours. Their food is a breath of fresh air & beats the bog standard Italian, Indian, Thai & Chinese. Don’t get me wrong I’m a girl who loves all her cuisines however, Peruvian food is not something you find commonly along the high street.

Overall the experience was friendly, warm & helpful. It was really nice to have a waitress who helped us choose our dishes & the amount we needed to order. I would highly recommend Pachamama & I’m looking forward to going back in the near future. Next time I might just have to order a dessert to myself! :)

Coco Chick

xoxo