Lima Day 10, Part 2: Astrid y Gaston Casa Moryea

Saturday, March 23

Astrid y Gaston is the 14th Best Restaurant in the World. And the Best Restaurant in Latin America. Don't take my word for it... click on the links. And it is 200 feet from my apartment. And the hostess knows me.

And Gaston up and closed the place a couple of months ago.

He went out and bought a mansion in San Isidro, and made his dream restaurant: Astrid y Gaston Casa Moryea.

It opened last week, and Cinthya worked hard to get us a reservation for Saturday. She couldn't go, so I wound up eating there alone.

I show up, and I realize that it is right next door to Lima 27, a restaurant I tried (and enjoyed) on my last trip. Bad news for Lima 27.

First off, I had to get through two layers of security to get on the property. Strange, but OK. The place is huge (and beautiful).

There are two types of seating arrangements: The Main Dining Room and the Bar. In the main room, there's no menu... they just bring you what they want. That runs in the US$150 price range. In the bar, there are about 15-20 tables, and at least twice that many servers, busboys and managers. There's a menu in the bar area. That's where I had reserved.

Both restaurants (and there are more, secret areas, too) have their own kitchens and sets of chefs. I counted 13 chefs in the Bar.

Then, they give me the menu. It's got cold things; it's got hot things, it's got desserts. My (personal?) server explains that some of the dishes are for sharing, but I am alone, and they will work with me on plate size. There's even a couple of large dishes as well.

One thing the menu doesn't have: Prices. I figured that I was there without a date, so everything was half price anyway, and I could play Guess The Prices.

They started me off with some free stuff:

There was a Choro (Mussel) Chalaca, Bread (the Butter showed up right after the photo), Olives, and Peanuts coated with a dusting of Curry. I ate the Green Olives, the Mussel, one piece of Bread (the Butter was fabulous), and a few Peanuts.

I ordered four items from the menu (the waiter recommended that I go with three); two cold and two hot. The first item was the Causa.

It was your basic mashed Yellow Potato, topped with barely-cooked Tuna, a couple of tiny Eggs, and some Onions and Peppers. Awesome.

Next cold dish: Almejas (Clams).

These Clams were chopped up and prepared Cebiche-style. There was Onions, chopped up Aji Pepper, Giant Corn Kernels, all in a Lime Juice base. The Clams in Peru are a different type than we get in the USA, so they cut up much more easily. Again, Awesome.

My first hot dish were the Croquettes stuffed with Crab and Fish.

These were -- how do I say it -- Awesome. Not too deeply fried, and full of not breading flavor. I ate half of them, and asked them to wrap the other half up. I needed to save room for my final Main Course, the Conchas Saltado.

I wish that I hadn't described everything else as Awesome, because this Scallop dish was Awesome. Even Awesomer than the other dishes, except maybe for the Causa. And the Croquettes. And the Clams. And the Peanuts with Curry Powder.

This dish was pretty large, and I had them wrap up half of this, too.

I passed on Dessert (I will regret this when I am back in Florida), and just had a coffee.

As to pricing, I ballparked it at Clams: 30 Soles, Causa: 40 Soles, Croquettes: 50 Soles and Conchas: 60 Soles. Add in whatever they wanted to charge me for Coffee and whatever else they could think of, and I figured that I was looking at around 220 Soles (around $80). I knew what I was getting involved with when I walked in, so I was prepared for the check. I asked for the check.

A manager came over. Or a guy in a suit; I don't know. He explained to me that the restaurant hadn't yet gotten its license to do business, but they wanted to honor all of the reservations that they had, so all the meals were free.

Holy cow. Free. I asked him, "So just tip the waiter, then?" He told me I could, if I wanted.

So I made out like a bandit, the waiter made out like a bandit, and I would say that Gaston has another customer for life, but he already had that.

After dinner, Luis (my driver) picked me up to take me casino hopping. He got to enjoy the Croquettes while he waited for me (and was insanely jealous when I told him it was free), and I had the Scallops as a 1 am snack when I got home.

That was it for the day. I do think that I rebounded well. Here's my steps.