Bravo Restobar

Last night, after leaving the clinic after visiting my nephew, and his girlfriend and their beautiful newborn girl, Liz, Jacho, Jose, Carla and I headed to Bravo Restobar for drinks and dinner.

Bravo Restobar, the creation of chef Christian Bravo, is a steady element in the Lima restaurant scene, and -as the autographed walls attest- it is frequently a stop for international pop stars and other personalities. The food incorporates Peruvian dishes and ingredients with touches of Asian and "international" cuisine.

Of course, we started off to drinks: some mojitos, pisco sour, caipirinha, and a signature drink which was akin to a chilcano, but made with a touch of ginger and star anise, and colored with ayrampo, a small cactus fruit used to color foods in the Andes.

This was followed by complimentary freshly baked breads with a trio of flavoured butters, some flat-bread chips with a huacatay-infused dipping sauce, and little cups full of a delicious Andean potato soup.

Our choices included a very tasty lomo saltado.  As I have mentioned elsewhere, lomo saltado - a sauteed mix of beef, tomatoes, onions and potatoes, with an Chinese touch- is a classic dish of Peruvian home and restaurant cooking.  It is very much comfort food for Peruvians, and any restaurant worth its salt will have it on the menu.   Of course, that makes it hard to impress Peruvians with a lomo saltado, as few will find one to be as good as mom's or that of their favourite hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

Bravo's lomo saltado did not disappoint.  The seasoning was right on, and the dish was upscaled a bit by the addition of mushrooms.   Even though it had the tubers on the side instead of mixed into the sautee -a recent trend in restaurants here, and one on which there are definitely two school of thought - that "deficiency" (I side with those who feel that the dish is better with the potatoes mixed in)was more than made up for by the crispness of the fries and the inclusion of fried yuca root.  That saltado was definitely the star of the night's meal.

Bravo Restobar

Av. Conquistadores 1005

San Isidro - Lima