Tierra Peru

Tierra Peru is one of those hidden gems that are so exciting to find. I’m not an expert with Peruvian food but who cares, the food itself was great. I’ve been to more hip and cool Peruvian restaurants in town and haven’t been too thrilled but Tierra Peru was definitely the best.
Located half way along Essex Road, just far enough from the main drag of Upper St but also very easy to reach from Angel Station or H&I or bus. The restaurant is slightly unassuming so look out for it. Inside there’s a casual interior.
The menu is quite extensive and full of tempting dishes. I’ve had two variants of ceviche here and both were great. Fresh, balanced and exciting. The seafood stew was very enjoyable with rice and beans. I even made it to dessert which kept up the high standards and was pretty on the plate with a variety of items and not too heavy. Service was good and I’m happy that this place is near to me! Oh, and prices are very reasonable so overall rating is high for me.

Now, I am secretly South American and anyone who knows me, knows this about me. Needless to say, I loves me some solid Peruvian food (Colombians, no frownies here) so when I tried Tierra Peru for the first time, I totes loved it hardcore. I mean it — the place is innovative, well kept, and serves delicious food that’s a solid mix between traditional, slow cooked, flavoursome nosh #omagahdIjustsaidnosh with some nouvelle cuisine touches.
We had the scallops with maracuja and the ceviche to start, which were both great if not a tad on the smallish size, hello fatkids, and continued on with the Seco de Cordero (lamb) and the duck — both flavoursome and soft. All in all, I’d go back, I found the place absolutely worth the schlep all the way to Angel (now I no longer reside in the area)

We had lower expectations based on some negative Unilocal reviews, but these reviews seemed a bit dated and we wanted to try the restaurant for ourselves. Wow are we glad we did — we had an amazing meal here! This is the best and most authentic Peruvian restaurant we’ve been to in London. We started with the traditional cerviche, which was zesty, piquant, and the crunchcorn kernels gave it interesting texture. I had the tacu tacu — so good, perfectly cooked steak with a tangy avacado salad, egg, fried cassava, and sweet plantains. Highly recommended. Great variety on the plate and on the palate. A Peruvian woman sitting on the table next to me said it was delicious and later ordered the same dish. Yes, the waiters don’t speak perfect English, I believe many of them are from Peru. Personally I think that is a plus, showing authenticity. Food came out at a reasonable pace and overall it was a good value. Can’t wait to go back!

I’m writing this update after it being almost 2 years since my initial review. I really hate writing bad reviews but man… I just have to tell you the tale of when I almost murdered a waiter.
let me just say that I have always loved my memory of this place and have talked this place up A LOT even to strangers while sitting at other peruvian restaurants. Yes. I was gaga for this place. I was more like in lust, but that lovin feeling has now since left me broken hearted and hungry. Ok, now to the waiter who barely survived.
So my pal Jenka and I sat down, and were promptly met by an eager waiter named Élan, now don’t mess up his name and call him Alan, because HE WILL correct you in the difference. So he shows us the set menu but his english is not good. and by not good, i mean, we not only can’t understand him but he clearly does not understand us. after going over the set menu which is not presented well (Graphic designer at the table had many corrections) we were given our drinks. Fine. Starter and mains ordered. Fine. My starter of Anticucho (WHICH IS THE MOST AMAZING THING ON THE MENU btw) comes out, along with my friends main. WTF. Then the guy tells me that he doesn’t speak english and he’s sorry (he was sweet about it and very sorry) and that he misunderstood. At this point i tell him, listen, talk to me in spanish then, because this can’t happen. He tells me that he thought thats what we wanted, to have the timing of the food like that. Which is when i got pissed, i said, No, thats not what she said, we told you we were going to share the starter and that its common sense to bring out the mains at the same time. Again, super sorry and all that. But c’mon. Its common sense. fine. We move on.
* There’s a sign in the bathroom (which is lovely btw) that says they «don’t speak english at Tierra Peru, but they’ll try not laugh at your spanish». I get it, being cute, but its not cute to get orders wrong because of a language barrier. Its not then fun to make light of the situation by putting a note in the bathroom in an attempt to give an excuse. ugh.
I ordered the Aji de Gallina which is my fave thing that my mom makes. They’re version was good. I was happy, the flavors were there, even tho they drizzled unnecessarily a purple streak of what looks like olive cream. Which, is like. weird. but the problem was with the amount of rice i got. I am a serious eater and flavor matters so i had to ration my rice to meet every bit of chicken and potato. Just measly. C’mon, give the people more rice, what does it cost you?! Fine. done.
dessert. I ordered the Picarones which my family would often make. I’m not sure what sort of dough they had, or whether it was old but it was so freaking heavy it was just not good at all. The flavor was good. The dipping sauce that went with it was good. The cinnamon ice cream was good. I mean… this place falls short every time with every dish with something minor. I ate the ice cream. Mentioned the heavy heavy (pesado) dough and the guy was sorry but the manager didn’t take it off the bill.
I was not impressed. The poor waiter felt so bad tho, and he offered us shots of booze to which i said, have you seen me? I’m massively pregnant, uh. did you think i was just fat? Which got us laughing to lighten to mood and I was already too full to have anything else. They brought us a couple tiny and yet very delicious Alfajores as a parting gift which was nice. But I think they bring that to everyone on their way out.
Sigh,… I really really wanted to enjoy my meal here. I had been looking forward to this for a long time.
I hope the £6 was worth it, because I don’t think i’ll be coming here again.

We had an absolutely delicious meal in this place. We had to wait a bit for our food, but the wait is absolutely worth it. My husband had the mixed ceviche and it was so fresh and delicious; my main dish also had seafood and it was absolutely delightful. I will definitely come back.

I had high hopes before I visited Tierra Peru, as I’ve only been to a Peruvian restaurant once before and I loved the food. I used a Groupon voucher for a 7-​course tasting menu. I would describe the food as Peruvian tapas rather than a 7-​course tasting menu though, as the 6 savoury dishes all arrived at the same time. They were beautifully arranged in individual dishes that came on a wooden serving platter. The food was on the whole very good, the highlights being:
— Cebiche. I am generally not a huge fan of raw fish, but this had a lovely texture and flavour with the fresh lime juice and red onion complementing the fish perfectly,
— Mashed potato with chicken in some kind of sauce (it seemed to be mayonaise-​based). It also looked very pretty, with two circles of mashed potato either side of the chicken.
— Belly pork, which melted in the mouth and was served with some kind of vegetables in a delicious sauce.
The dessert was a Peruvian crème caramel, which was OK but not as impressive as the savoury dishes.
There were a couple things that stopped me from marking this as 5 out of 5 however. The service at the beginning was very slow (which didn’t bother me too much as the restaurant was completely full and we weren’t in a rush) and we didn’t get a menu to tell us what we were eating. I asume that the 7 courses were put together specifically for the Groupon offer, but it would have been nice to have a menu, even if just a simple printed sheet of paper.
Overall, this was good value. We paid a total of £80 for a meal for 2, a bottle of wine, a cocktail, and a bottle of beer. This included the 12.5% service charge that they added to the bill. I would recommend the restaurant, and expect I will visit again and order off the regular menu.

Food looked great but was just ok. Waited an hour for starters. Main course wasn’t hot. Then when we had our table longer than we were meant to (due to slow service), the manager tried to remove us for the next group even though we were waiting for our desserts.
Probably wont go again.

The best Peruvian food I’ve had in London!
My stepmum is Peruvian so this place had a lot to live up to but it really delivered. The Pisco Sours were delicious, as was the Chichangria (Sangria made with Chicha, a sweet juice made of red maize).
The Papa a la Huancaina (Boiled potato served cold in a spicy, creamy sauce) was excellent and maybe better than my stepmum’s (god help me if she ever reads this review). I also tried some of my friend’s Anticuchos and they were delicious. The Cebiche de pescado was delicious; the fish obviously very fresh and the flavours delicious. The tiradito was also lovely and fresh.
For main course I had the Chicharrones de Cerdo (Pork) and they were delicious with crisp skin and with excellent vegetable accompaniments. I also tried my friend’s Seco de Cordero which was succulent and delicious.
The service was excellent (though I’m sure that me speaking Spanish helped there) and all in all the promise of a new menu in the coming weeks means I will definitely make the trip across London to eat here again, it’s that good.
Booking required!

The place was recommended to us by a couple of friends, so we had great expectations for this place.
I have to say, getting a table was a bit messy, because the place was so fully booked all night long…
The service was quite good, very friendly, and quite quick to get our orders and serve food. One of the waiters began chatting in French, and it was as if we were long time friends: o)
Overall, the food quality was nice. The meat was well cooked, the sauces delicious. However, one of us got served a plate which was almost cold… But still very good.
In terms of drinks, the wine list is fine, even though the bottle of Malbec that we were served was slightly too warm to our taste…
The great surprise came from the jug of Chicha Morena (corn, cinnamon and pineapple juice), which seemed like liquid Big Red, a true delicacy.
Finally, we all shared a Pumpkin Doughnut with Panetone ice cream for dessert, and that was another good pick.
We ended up paying 20£ each, and left with smiles and a happy tummy :)

I had heard that this place was one of the most authentic places for Peruvian food so I was über-​psyched.
And I was very excited because they had two of my favorites on the menu – causa and aji de gallina. So I went for them both.
Maybe I had too high of expectations or maybe I have distorted memories of how amazing Peruvian food can be.
It is good and tasty, but something for me just missed the mark.
It is a pretty restaurant and they are nice and this area needs good places so I am rooting for them.
And it is more affordable than some of the other places.
So check it out for yourselves…

I wouldn’t even bother to give this place one star.
The service is appalling. Not only is it slow, but management and servers were rude. Despite having to ask 4 times for one drink to come, alongside multiple other mistakes with food and drink orders, the staff was un-​apologetic and obstinant.
If that wasn’t enough, the food itself was border line mediocre. For the same price I have had some of the best meals of my life at other restaurants in London. Here, my dish was bland.
Save yourself the time and try one of the other 1000’s of great restaurants in London that will appreciate your business.