REVIEW: QUECHUA PERUVIAN, Watervliet
Quechua Peruvian
1297 Broadway, Watervliet Website: quechuaperuvianrestaurant.com | IG: @mystic.momo
We like it for: Dinner with friends, casual date night, inexpensive dine-in lunch, take out
Must try: Sashimi-style ceviche trios, tiradito trios, anticuchos (flame-grilled heart brushed with aji panca marinade), lomo saltado + excellent pisco sours.
Vibe: This former family-Italian restaurant, (until recently Teta Marie’s Lebanese,) has had a makeover with glossy tables and brighter decor, but the Italian brick arches are a tell. Friendly, unfussy, casual restaurant with a bar off to one side.
Sound: Conversational volume with Quechuan panpipe music like “Huaylash Papa” by Super Mañaneros del Perú and “El Sicuri” by Savia Andina, as well as (curious) panpipe covers of pop hits like Elton John’s “Sacrifice” and George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.”
About: Quechua Peruvian restaurant specializes in the Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei cuisine of Chef Oscar and Edith Geronimo’s coastal home city of Lima. It’s an absolute flavor blast with the ceviche served in thin, sashimi-style, but bathed in aji amarillo sauce or smoked rocoto pepper cream. Split regional inland dishes like the Huancayo boiled potatoes in an aji-pepper cheese sauce (papa huancaína) or Chinese-Peruvian “chifa” stir-fry noodles, part of Peruvian cuisine thanks to 19th century Chinese immigrants. Order samplers to share: Trios of ceviche, tiraditos, and causas (cold mashed potato base with toppings.) A page of pastas and risottos seems out of place but may be a nod to Oscar’s start at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant. Don’t skip dessert. Get the half-and-half of the arroz con leche (rice pudding) with mazamorra morado, a jam made of purple corn and berries and spiced with cinnamon and cloves. There’s also a casual bar with a few stools. Staff make excellent mojitos and pisco sours.
[The Geronimos also own Salsa Latina in East Greenbush which does not have a liquor license.]
Parking: Huge parking lot (within view of I-787) so have your all work besties meet you there for lunch.
What’s nearby? 1. Arsenal City Tavern 2. Gus’s Hot Dogs 3. BenThanh Vietnamese Bistro 4. Bangkok Cuisine (Menands)
