For those who read my last post, you’d know that one of the exciting openings I was very excited about was Pachamama – described as “Peruvian Food with a British Twist” .

Peruvian food seems to the big thing at the moment & I can totally understand why. Being in the know is a great thing, especially when it means you get the chance to try fantastic food at 50% off during a soft launch.

Before I went off to Sri Lanka, I made a point of booking myself a table of 8 during the soft launch, the fiancée & I decided we’d worry about who we’d fill it with when we got back.

10 days later, my bbf & I showed up at a rather funky basement restaurant on Thayer Street, which is the Wigmore Street end of Marylebone High Street (don’t be fooled!). When we arrived, two of my guests were already perched at the bar sipping on some drinks.

We were shown to our table to the left of the bar and waited as the rest of our fellow diners trickled in.

Due to the Soft Launch, they were only serving a limited menu, however despite this the choice was still pretty good.

We started off with some Mama’s Piscos’ and Papa’s Piscos’ the house cocktail containing Peruvian Brandy – Pisco being the national drink of Peru.

We then moved on to the good stuff, our waitress suggested we order 12-14 dishes to start with for a group of 8. This didn’t seem enough, so as food arrived we doubled up on lots of dishes.

The mammoth ordering started with some of “Mama’s Ceviche”:

This was delicious; the wasabi wasn’t overpowering, the onions gave a great crunch & the overall dish was refreshing.

A number of the diners preferred this to the prawns. Again the fish was amazingly fresh, the flavours were balanced and the overall dish was excellent.

Next up was the “Josper Oven” section of the menu. Unfortunately by this point my photography skills were overtaken by the excitement of seeing the food. We ordered the following:

On the menu this was Crispy Lamb Belly, however they’d run out of lamb and thus we ended up with Duck belly, either way I have no complaints. The duck was cooked to perfection with a really lovely crispy layer whilst the Green Aji Sauce (no idea what it is) worked really well along side it.

So I think we were all hugely disappointed at the size of this. The flavours again were unfaultable (yes I did just make that word up) but the size of the pieces were tiny & we felt slightly cheated.

We also ordered the 28 day Aged Dexter Ribeye Lomo Saltado, however the fact that I have no photographic evidence can only mean we devoured it!

Onto the Robata Grill. We ordered three dishes from this section and although I don’t have a single photo, my favourite dish was the Newlyn Squid Antichuchos which were absolutely delicious. The Squid was cooked to perfection & the flavour was amazing, bursting in your mouth (yes I’m going full on drama here).

Next in line of favourites from this section was:

This again was delicious, the sticky, extremely flavoursome chicken was soft and yummy. The corn sauce was so delicious, there’s no other way to describe it other than wow.

We also ordered the Blackened Herb-Fed Chicken which was good, however as it came on the bone was slightly fiddly to eat. The actual chicken was again well cooked & seasoned. This was probably my least favourite of the section.

To accompany the meat affair, we ordered three salads:

In my opinion, both of these generally lacked flavour. My favourite of the 3 salads was however was this one:

This was really really good. The flavours & textures worked exceptionally well together whilst the coriander vinaigrette added a fresh flavour which lifted the overall salad.

Having made our way through a huge amount of food, there was no way we were going to skip dessert.

On the verge of food coma, these were the perfect ending to a fantastic meal. The rice pudding was really creamy & everything that rice pudding should be. The Chocolate Fondant was rich but cut by the sweetness of the ice cream. The pumpkin cake was definitely my least favourite!

Despite the limited menu & a slight inconsistency in presentation of dishes, the flavours were great, the food was cooked to perfection, bar the odd few dishes which were lacking flavour, I would go back to Pachamama at the drop of a hat. Since visiting I’ve rabbited on about Pachamama and have actually convinced two or three others to visit based on my recommendation!