It was Machu Picchu, the Minneapolis restaurant (Lake and Lyndale), that was the venue for this week’s lunch, but the resemblance wasn’t in name only. When I entered the restaurant, I found a very civilized interior that was also very deserted … no customers, no waitpersons, no sign, initially, of anyone in the kitchen in the back. The owner (I assume) showed up soon, and B thereafter, but that was it for occupancy, whether customer or staff, for virtually the entire hour-and-a-half we were at the restaurant. Not that I’m complaining about our experience; it seemed as if we’d found an oasis of tranquility in the urban jungle of LynLake.

The lunch menu at MP is small and, for the most part, simple. Appetizers include Peruvian tamales, empanadas, and a chef’s special, fried jumbo shrimp and yucca with a spicy feta cream cheese sauce. Most of the entrée items are stir fries—chicken, steak, shrimp, vegetable variations. The exceptions include arroz con pollo (rice, chicken, mixed vegetables, cilantro) and arroz con mariscos ("Peruvian paella").

To start, we ordered the empanadas—they were excellent. The pastry was light and flaky. The ground beef filling was dry and mildly spiced, and nicely complemented with a spicy, flavorful sauce accompaniment in which coriander, garlic, and chillies seemed to be the principal ingredients. The empanadas come one to an order, but they are fairly large and could be split. I can also recommend the tamales, which I sampled on my recent previous visit. Unlike Mexican tamales, the Peruvian version is flat, denser, wetter.

B ordered the chef’s special as his entrée and when it appeared he aptly referred to it as the Peruvian equivalent of fish and chips. You get a number of deep fried jumbo shrimp and a good portion of fried yucca chips. The yucca chips were golden and tasty. The jumbo shrimp were heavily breaded and fried, but underneath the crusty shell the shrimp were nicely done. This isn’t, let it be said, the dish your doctor would want you to order—probably the only way it could be part of a healthy meal would be if a party of four shared it as an appetizer and proceeded to have salads and one of the stir fries!

I went with the paella, which was replete with seafood and chicken … and peas provided a vegetable component as well. Across the top four crab legs were also arrayed and instruments of cracking them and extracting their flesh were provided. The seafood was of varying quality, the shrimp and mussels slightly overdone, the calamari and crab legs very good. Overall, the dish didn’t quite come together for me; despite the saffron and chillies I thought it lacked depth of flavor.

We finished up with flan, the only dessert available. It was a dense, smooth, and very eggy rendition, served as a pie wedge. The caramel sauce, which had been liberally spooned onto the plate, was yummy.

MP has beer and wine, including Latin American varieties. I like the Peruvian beer, Cristal, and, on the wine front, the Chilean standard Concho y Toro has more refinement than you’d expect for its price. Teetotalers can also partake of a regional beverage, the Peruvian Inka Kola.

We brought up the obvious lack of business with the owner (who was pleasant and attentive throughout our meal), expecting him to say that yes, this lunch thing wasn’t working out. But no, he said that they were only open Friday and Saturday for lunch now but they were planning on opening Wednesdays and Thursdays too and on expanding the menu. He mentioned adding one of the specialty soups from the dinner menu, the parihuela ("super seafood soup"); I haven’t had this, but I have had the other specialty soup, the chupe de camerones, and it was excellent. In the restaurant’s defense, the lunch hours/days started only a couple of months ago and word of mouth may not have traveled that widely (there being few mouths to spread it). We certainly encourage our readers to visit Machu Picchu and "discover" a lost city themselves.

For once I chose beer over wine, in this case a Peruvian light amber pilsner called Cristal, mind you there isn’t much wine to choose from in any case. The beer had a crisp, slightly fruity taste, which I preferred to A’s Chilean cabernet. The restaurant is a pretty sizable affair with one whole section full of dining tables sitting in the dark. We were sat in the front, near the entrance with perhaps the forlorn hope that diners beget other diners. The floor is covered with thin pinkish-red carpeting that matches the pink table clothes. Ceiling is a dark reddish-brown and its supporting walls have a finished, low-key marbled look. On the walls hang what I imagine to be oil paintings depicting Peruvian provincial scenes. The décor is probably the first clue to Machu Picchu’s problems, it’s dated – one could well be in something from the fifties. This is not an obviously kitschy contrived look but something that could truly be from a time capsule.

The appetizers include empanadas (meat filled pie with raisins), papa ala huancaina (potato with spicy feta cheese and cream sauce), and the chef’s special (fried jumbo shrimp, yucca chips and spicy feta cheese sauce). We wanted to share an order of the empanadas, my favorite, but there was only one empanada per order (a bit steep at $3.00) so A & I both ordered one each. Perhaps it would have been wiser to order two different appetizers but we really wanted the empanadas. The best empanadas in town are served at Conga Latin Bistro but these were equally good. Most empanadas, if not properly prepared, can have too much grease. These were perfect: dry, flavorful and devoid of excess fat. If my appetizer was lean the same couldn’t be said about the chef’s special, my entrée. The jumbo shrimp would have to be enormous to justify their fried size. As I suspected most of the bulk was made up of the fried batter that covered them. Taking a bite was no guarantee that any shrimp would be encountered! Yet any shrimp that was found was really quite good. The yucca (Latin American French fries) chips when dipped in the spicy feta sauce made good companions to the shrimp.

Admittedly this wasn’t a great meal and my food score is going to cause a few eyebrows to go up. But if you come here for dinner, as I have on several occasions, (Lunch is only an option on Friday) try the saltados: Peruvian stir fry with your choice of meat (filet mignon, chicken, shrimp or vegetarian. Served with white rice), it’s fantastic. I had the lomo saltado (filet mignon stir-fry) and can heartily recommend it. Under the chicken, steak and fish category try the delicious bistek apanado con arroz blanco, a breaded fried steak with white rice and a choice of black beans or salad. The menu also has an extensive seafood selection including the standout sudad de pescado con camerones (steamed halibut and large shrimp in a seafood sauce made with white onions and tomatoes).

We finished our meal with an order of forgettable flan. The final bill (with coffee) came to $46.00. So why so few diners and how can things improve for Machu Picchu? For one thing this stretch of Lyndale has more than its fair share of restaurants. There is La Bodega, jP’s American Bistro, It’s Greek to me, Three Muses and Herkimer Pub & Brewery almost on the same block. Machu Picchu is also not a sexy destination. With a bit of work—an interior decorator perhaps—to freshen up the décor and a marketing effort could see Machu Picchu take its rightful place among ethnic restaurants.

So please make an effort to visit this establishment or we could loose another small independent restaurant that typifies poor business but a great kitchen.

B