Rustica – Buffet vs. Erica

We’ve been told by our friend Andres to go to the Rustica on the beach its the best one and it has a buffet, over and over again. But we asked a cab to take us – but they didn’t know what we were talking about.  We usually go to the Rustica in Miraflores for our Parillia which is delicious. Then last week we went to the Rustica in the park in Barranco and we were like whoa look at the buffet. It looked pretty nice and it also had ceviche. But this still wasn’t the buffet that Andres was talking about. So I just got the arroz con pollo.  The arroz con pollo here is green because it’s made with cilantro. Its quite delicious. The buffet was S/30 (S/ = soles) per person. So later that week Lupe (the person that designed all the great freakin cabinets and closets in our apartment) comes by and tells us about the Rustica on the beach. Apparently we can walk there from our apartment.  Its just down the road past Chala and over a bridge to the beach.

We arrived at Rustica and wow check out the buffet. My goal was to try every single thing (that I thought I would like) on the buffet. It included ceviche, sushi, creola Peruvian, Chinese, la brasa, and dessert. whoo.. here goes.

First veggie salads, light ceviche with mangoes yumm, and a spectacularly yummy soup. The soup was a tomato base with beef, pasta, and cheese. (I had the camera on the wrong setting)

Second course sushi – I should have skipped this.. I’ve had sushi before and this was nothing special. It just took up room in my stomach. So I didn’t finish my plate

Course 3: Ceveche – Ceveche and more Ceveche all very spectacularly yummy.. I’ve already started to get full at this point =(

Course 4:

• Beef stew – this was pretty good
• lomo saltado and papas frita (only a little bit its blending into the stew in the pic)
• that round dough looking ball is potato filled with ground beef
• that green square thing is called causa – a traditional peruvian dish. The green part is actually mashed potatoes. Its traditionally a layer of potatoes then chicken or tuna salad then potatoes on top again.
• the bright orange thing is actually sweet potatoes (I should have ate that with the ceviche – ceviche is typically accompanied by corn and sweet potatoes.
• the green sauce is over potatoes I’m not sure what its called but .. didn’t like it.

Course 5: Dessert. First arroz con leche (rice pudding) … the best darn rice pudding I’ve ever had. They eat it warm here its great. The purple stuff on the right you mix into the rice pudding. I add just a little – Peruvians eat it about half and half.

Yes the buffet won =(…  I couldn’t eat anymore. Next time – la brasa (barbecue that they cook right there at the buffet), Chinese well actually Chifa – Peruvian/Chinese, and more Peruvian dishes.

Course 6: yes why not try a piece of flan, tres leches, and strawberry mousse.

Overall great buffet. I will go back again and try to conquer the dishes I didn’t have a chance to try. However, this buffet is S/50 and the one in Barranco is S/30 so it will have to be a special lunch or something =).