Rio's D'Sudamerica

My boyfriend and I came here before our big summer vacation to Peru in order to prepare ourselves for what Peruvian food might be like (and by that I mean give us an excuse to go out to dinner). I love everything about this place.

The decorations are awful but their awfulness is somehow charming. The service was wonderful. The food was even better. And as someone who spent 10 days in Peru, I can say it honestly mirrored the food there.

TRY: pisco sour (although they're too sweet for me to drink more than one), empanadas, shrimp ceviche (ZOMG), and the lomo saltado (a classically Peruvian dish).

I wen for my friends birthday on a sunday afternoon and it was delicious. Great decor. THe food was very good and i love going back. Great Mojitos!!

I came here for a date night with my husband, youswoop in hand. I don't think we'll be back.

First of all, making a reservation here is impossible. Not because the place is packed, but because they don't answer their phones and they are disconnected from OpenTable now. We called two times a couple Fridays ago to make a reservation to use our youswoop, and there was no answer. This Friday, we thought we should go no matter what, as our deal was expiring soon. After two call attempts, no answer, and a full voicemail, we headed there hoping for the best.

We arrived about 7:30 on a Friday night, and there were many open seats. We were quickly seated. I can't really describe the vibe of the restaurant. Maybe Peruvian with an early 1990's dining room decor twist?

Our waiter was kind, but service was spotty. It was strange because a bunch of the waitstaff were lined up along the bar, so they seemed plenty staffed.

We started out with the ceviche. I didn't really care for it. First of all, the shrimp were whole, with the tail on. I thought ceviche was supposed to have small bits of shrimp with lime and spices? I did enjoy the addition of mango, as it was a delicious sweetness added to a normally quite bitter dish.

For dinner, I have the arroz con camarones, or shrimp with rice. There was a lot of food, but it wasn't great. There dish was packed with cilantro, which seemed to be the only spice.

I can't remember the name of the dish my husband had, but it was some kind of steak with the standard rice, beans, and plantains. I have never tasted such a fatty and salted steak before. It was quite chewy, and I did not care for it.

It took a while for us to get our check, and the only reason we got it was because the hostess saw us repeatedly look around for our waiter. She came over to ask if we needed something. We eventually got the check and paid. All totaled, the bill plus tax and tip came to around $62. With the deal ($20 for $40), we ended up less $42 and didn't have a good meal to show for it.

I can see others like the place, so maybe this was just one bad experience among many other positive ones. However, I would much rather head to Cafe LaGuardia down the street the next time I'm in the area.