Pachamama Marylebone

A delicious brunch full of wonder Peruvian flavours. We were brought to one of the high tables close to the bar, which had a lovely atmosphere. The cocktail list and brunch menu arrived and I was very excited about the sweet potato waffles. They did not disappoint! Although felt it could have done with a little bit of a sweet butter to accompany it. The pork snack that we had was full of fabulous flavor and I left thinking how I could recreate it at home! My only comment would be that the gin is very overpriced. I was leaning towards ordering a gin, until I saw the price of a serve on my favourite gin was £12 - that is on par with the Shard prices, and the restaurant doesnt quite have the view to justify that. All in all a great brunch.

Refreshingly casual and buzzy atmosphere where service is not sacrificed. Straight-forward and delicious menu without too hefty a price tag. I often recommend it for anyone looking for something that will impress without being over-the-top or appearing indulgent.

Amazing, fresh Peruvian food. Love everything about it.

Like all buried treasure, the place was hard to find and underground, but well worth the effort. A very welcome team found us a table in a "distressed" dining area and helpfully talked us through the delicious menu, and helped us chose a fantastic tapas style selection of Peruvian based foods. We always go back for the fish in tigers milk, and the crispy lamb, but having tried the entire menu, I can honestly say that there are no poor dishes available. Even the veggi options are great. Along with the food, there is a delicious selections of cocktails as well as the expected beers, soft drinks etc. From a value point of view, we can have a fabulous meal for 2 for around £70 depending on how much we drink!

Here is my full review on my dinner at Pachamama! http://www.hkpiggyfoodjournal.com/#!French for lunch Peruvian for Dinner/cmbz/9274DCCD-50B9-4471-A950-1AB71ED45CA1

I had to organize our ladies supper club and chose Pachamama, good central chi chi location (Marylebone, short walk from Bond st),lots of healthy punchy ceviche and pisco sours in a cool basement den, all boxes ticked. There are quite a few Peruvian hotspots already in London e.g. Coya and Ceviche, so we know London likes the taste of darkest Peru. The venue has that shabby chic thing going on, a bit like an upmarket favela chic (now closed brazilian restaurant/club in on Old street). Pisco sours were not for me though, v brandy like but had a great kick. The bartender kindly made me an apple martini equivalent. We ordered the party menu, partly due to laziness and partly due to the slight unknown in ingredients and dishes. Scallop 'sudada', Aji truffles, ahi panca ....no idea! Anyway, we lucked out with a never ending feast of small exciting, beautifully presented dishes with completely novel flavours, which can be hard in London. Highlights include salty spicy padron peppers, sticky sweet crispy lamb belly, quinoa like you have never had before as a savoury dish and as ice cream wow and double wow. Cornish sea bass in tigers milk was a velvety ceviche, although i still don't know what tigers milk is. The waiters were a little clueless on the dishes and said we were eating monkfish although it was definitely chicken. I will forgive this, as the head guy was wonderful and very accommodating and even provided caffeine free espresso martinis for one of my jaded party animal friends. Prices can add up with alcohol etc but reasonable for London. I dare you to tantalise those tastebuds in pachamama, a new favourite for me.

It isn't often that, on arriving at a restaurant, you are offered a choice of seating that is either by the noisy table or by the baby. I generally find a baby at a table guarantees noise, noise that the graceless parents ignore as it is their one night out. Well spare me, but you should have thought of that before you chose to breed. Anyway, given the other restaurant truth that tables of eight or more make more noise than a dozen tables of four, the baby it was who had the joy of our company at a pre-Christmas bash. I'd tried to get a table a few weeks before and had one of this bizarre exchanges that make London life so much fun. The conversation went something like: Me: could I get a table for two at 8.00 next Wednesday please? Restaurant: no, we don't have any tables available at that time. Me: ok, how about 9.00? Restaurant: no, we don't have any tables available at that time. Me: oh; so when do you have a table available that evening? Restaurant: we're fully booked. Me: click (not me saying that, just the sound of me hanging up). So we did get in, and it was a Thursday night, and there was a DJ. And a baby. And lots of groups of junior execs taking their PAs out for a pre-Christmas piss-up, getting them pissed with the piscos. So the atmosphere wasn't quite what I was after, but everything else was actually pretty good: the greeter did suggest baby over noise, and she was right, although she couldn't (or at least wouldn't) get the thumping bass turned down to just an annoying thump rather than the full on Hacienda levels (yes, yes; I know I'm showing my age with both the request and the reference, but tough). The food is actually pretty good, although portion size is minuscule: the suggested five sharing plates for the four of us may have been fine for the Victoria's Secrets models strutting their stuff in Bond Street that eve, but four strapping oldies, the male members of the group of which have very impressive girths, scoff at such ideas, meaning that a full ten dishes passed our way, none of which was anything other than very good. And the food is good; crispy lamb belly; scallops (two portions); yellowtail; purple spuds (no disrespect to the octopus, which I'm sure was excellent too, but one of our party had been poisoned on a French exchange whilst young and is still traumatised by the poor cephalods) - it was all top notch. Spicy, tasty and tiny portions. I'd certainly go back, but when the DJ has gone back to Ibiza and the PAs have been packed off back to Essex.

I finally got to try Pachamama the other day after weeks of some brilliant marketing – I was not disappointed! Sat down at the (seemingly well stocked) bar to share a bottle of house white while waiting for the rest of our party, and even though they were half an hour late, we were not rushed at all. Loved the sharing concept, and decided to order as many dishes from across the Peruvian-inspired menu as we possibly could. Everything we had was excellent – the seabass ceviche is to die for – but the real winner of the show were the smoked Gloucester old spot ribs. Those ribs. I’m still dreaming about them. Pachamama’s cool atmosphere definitely lends to a relaxed evening with friends – I’ll be going back.

Finally, a great buzzy restaurant in Marylebone -Pachamama is a new Peruvian / British restaurant just north from Oxford Street. The basement makes it cosy and the neon lighting brings a great glow to the room. Start with a pisco cocktail, and then order as much as you possibly can from the menu. Ceviches are fresh and far more imaginative than the other Peruvian restaurants I have visited in the capital. Everything from the grills is excellent - the skewers (I think they're called anticuchos) are all very tender and chargrilled and that perfect smokey flavour. Salads are fresh and fruity and the rice side is to die for. If you leave without having the ribs in amazonian honey you're mad! Pachamama is somewhere to take people for fun, but with a great menu to boot. I've already been twice and it only opened a month ago.