Machu Picchu

*** Update 5/30/2018 ***

Machu Picchu has been replaced by Aztecas, a Mexican restaurant.  Different owners.

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Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  4500 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted (but they didn't like ours...a first)
Dishes: Chicken Tacos, Tamales, Tacu Tacu Con Lomo
English Menu:Yes
Smoking:No (but smokers stand right outside the door and smoke comes in sometimes)

I know...2 Peruvian restaurants in Yokosuka?  Kinda crazy, but yes, we have them.  And they are not owned by the same people at all.  The other one (Geodana) I've reviewed before.  Machu Picchu is relatively newer, though I think they had (or have) another restaurant nearer to Horinouchi area just down the train tracks.  My first visit all I remember is that the food was waaaay too salty.  So much so I looked up how to say that in Japanese (since the staff do not speak English very well, but I don't speak Spanish) to express my dissatisfaction.  The second time I didn't care for my dish much either.

Tacos

But I hadn't reviewed it yet, so my wife and I decided to have dinner there last night and try some different dishes.  Overall, it's still very salty, but it wasn't as bad this time as the first.  And some of the dishes were very good, the tacos especially, which were more like what I think of as chicken fajitas with sauteed red peppers and onions, making them very juicy.  The tamales was good, but nothing awesome (still, incredible you can get good tamales in Yokosuka at all...just not sure it's worth 1000 yen).  The Tacu Tacu con Lomo  was pretty good too, though the most salty.  It worked better though with the large amount of fries and rice/beans.  The beef was tender and very nicely flavored.  Overall we were quite pleased with the meal.

Tamales

However, there were enough detractors to make the overall experience "OK" including:  missing fried eggs on our Tacu Tacu (noticed when I took a picture of the menu after forgetting to take a picture of the dish itself), smoking right outside the door which entered the small dining area and made us retch, quite expensive prices, loud music (thankfully in Spanish), and the final indignity of having my credit card refused (which has happened nowhere else).  If even half of these issues were addressed, I might be inclined to give it a "Very Good."  I have to say the main reason we don't eat at either of the Peruvian places is the expense.

Ours did not have the eggs

On a positive note, we discovered an amazing drink!  I don't include drinks in the review or price normally, but this deserves special mention.  They have a Lucuma milkshake that is amazing!  I had never heard of lucuma fruit before, but it's from Peru and has in amazing pumpkin/sweet potato taste that blends really nicely with milk.  I think they use frozen lucuma and blend it there because there was a little ball of the original frozen fruit at the bottom and it was incredible!  I love that we are almost 40 years old and still discovering new and interesting foods.

Geodana

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner (plus some takeout)
Price:  2800 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted (7% charge)
Dishes:  Bowl of avocado, pesto spaghetti with beef, 4 empanada
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:No



I was on my own for dinner tonight so I figured a trip to one of the more expensive options nearby was in order.  At least it wouldn't be expensive for 3!  Oddly, we have a few Latin American restaurants in town.  One of them is Geodana, sandwiched between an Indian and Thai restaurants about a stone's throw from where we live.  I have little to no experience with real Latin American food, so I can't vouch for the authenticity, but in the few times we've eaten there we have enjoyed the change of pace.

Actually, I should say that *I* have not done very well for myself and seem to choose dishes that aren't that great.  My wife and son however seem to do a better job.  Today was no exception.  I ordered a pesto spaghetti dish with "beef" (read:  hunk 'o meat), and a bowl of avocado.  That last is really awesome, I think all restaurants should offer a bowl of avocado on their menu.  I also ordered some chicken empanada to go as a peace offering to the rest of the family when they find out I went without them.

Avocado is the best

Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with my dish this time.  It seemed to take an awfully long time to cook, but there really is only one guy in the kitchen and there were lots of guests.  The spaghetti was a bit overcooked, and nothing had much taste to it.  Adding some salt to everything helped, but that's not something I like to do.  The avocado helped too.  The beef was the worst, a thinnish piece of overcooked shoe-leather.  Quite unimpressive.  However, I saw another guest order a dish that it looked like I would have loved...so once again I failed.  I need to just roll some dice to pick a dish in the future.

Shoe-leather, meet mouth

I just ate one of the empanada that I brought home and it was quite good.  The crust is fried golden brown and delicious.  The inside is ok, again, I wish for more spices.  You know...I was going to rate this place "Very Good" but now that I have written the review, I see it's really just an Ok.  And I haven't even mentioned that everything is overpriced!  (It really is)

A little greasy, but corn crunchy

Oh...they do have an avocado shake that is to die for.  If you go, do try it.