 Inka Heritage
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May. 25th, 2007 @ 09:53 am 
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When: 5/24/07
Where: 602 S. Park St.
Cuisine: Peruvian
Price: Appetizers: $5-12, Entrees $12-20
Inka's a relatively new restaurant on the Madison scene, and as always, eating at a new restaurant makes one think about the high rate of turnover in the local dining scene, wondering if the latest place will make it.
Located in the old Rising Sons Deli (which is now seemingly happy on State St, unless I'm out-of-date), Inka has cheerful orange walls, large picture windows with lots of little wooden tables, and the pan-pipe music we've all learned to associate with Peru through late-night infomercials playing in the background. It's a bit on the noisy side, but I think if they hung some cloth/tapestries across the ceiling (or even on the walls) this would help.
The service is.... trying. Our waiter was very sweet, but clearly new to the waitering business, and a little on the slow side. One of the more experienced waitstaff really needs to take him aside and give him some coaching. He had two strikes against him, fairly large ones at that. First, he didn't offer us water. I'm fine with not automatically getting water - it's often a waste - but it needs to be offered, just in case. Second, he didn't tell us the specials. In fact, I didn't know there were specials until the dessert course, when I overheard a different waiter listing them for a couple nearby. Our waiter's doe-eyed smiling face was so enthusiastic and innocent-appearing, that it was hard to feel too digruntled, however (I bet he gets away with everything).
The menu was extensive, with a separate sheet for appetizers and beverages. The descriptions need a little tweaking, but some of the phrases were comically fun. There's nothing quite like seeing two seafood-rice dishes labeled as "aphrodisiac" to make one smile. The menu is meat-heavy, but there is an entire "Vegetarian" section. Unfortunately, the entrees listed there aren't described, and the titles are similar to that on the meat/seafood side of the menu. What is vegetarian ceviche? I should've asked......
Food (in order):
As appetizers, we ordered the "Avocado Salad" and "Yuca a la Huancaina." The former is exactly how it sounds: a bed of greens with cucumber and tomato slices and half an avocado sliced on top. I think I was expecting something a little less literal, but as I like green salads, it was fine. The avocado was ripe, the tomatoes less so, but the greens were perfectly tender. The dressing was a mixture of a deliciously fruity olive oil and salt. Well, there was some lime juice thrown in, but the overall effect was that they took the little plate you dip your bread in at an Italian restaurant and dumped it on the salad. Surprisingly, despite the salt overload, it was pretty good. The fruitiness of the olive oil really made a world of difference, saving the dish.
The Yuca a la Huancaina was a tower of deep-fried yucca root, with a side dish of a thin, silky cheese sauce. I love deep-fried yucca because it's got so much more texture than a potato, and I appreciated that the sauce came on the side (the menu made it sound like we'd get the peruvian version of cheese-fries, a.k.a. drowning in sauce, so this was a pleasant surprise). The cheese sauce, while clearly gourmet kitchen-made stuff, was somewhat reminiscent of the salty tang of processed cheese sauces, which was a bit disconcerting. That said, I liked the dish overall, but I'd rather have a different sauce (surely there's something also-peruvian that's not cheese sauce?)
For entrees, Kelly ordered the "Picante Camarones," and I ordered the "Pescado a la Chorrillana."
The Picante Camarones was a shrimp dish in a hollandaise-like sauce with peas and carrots, served with steamed long-grain rice. I should say here that I really liked the rice - it was steamed with salted water, and had a nice chewy texture. The shrimp were excellently cooked, which can be hard to do in a cream sauce, so the chef gets good marks for that. The sauce itself was smooth and rich, with a good butter flavor. The peas and carrots were unremarkable (a word that enters more and more into my vocabulary as med school progresses), but okay. Overall, it was a good dish.
The Pescado a la Chorrillana was a battered and fried filet of sea bass served over rice with sauteed onions and red bell peppers in a tomato-based marinara-like sauce (though the spices were more reminiscent of Mexican cooking). Again, the fish was well-prepared, making up for the chewiness that sometimes comes from a previously frozen and defrosted piece of fish. The sauce was salty, but had a warm tomato flavor that went well with the chill stormy weather. The onions were great, and I wanted more. Overall, I would've preferred a little less fish and a little more vegetable, and I think that holds true for the shrimp dish as well. But both were good.
Had I known about the dessert special (a jellyroll like concoction with Peruvian fruit and dulce de leche), I would've ordered it. Since I didn't, I ordered the "Alfajor," which was two thin powdered-sugar-dusted shortbread sandwiches with a filling of dulce de leche. They were very good, but this was when we really could've used a glass of water. Eventually, Kelly asked for one, but the timing of the service was such that there was no good way to get the waiter's attention prior to finishing the dessert. In the end, the dessert was good, but not amazing, and didn't really feel like a "finish" to the meal. Others around us had ordered the custard, which looked like it might be a better choice if we return.
My favorite part of the whole evening was my beverage. I ordered the "Chicha Morada," described on the menu as a "delicious purple corn refreshment." Really, when the phrase "delicious purple corn refreshment" is bandied about, how can one not order such a drink? It was, in fact, exactly as advertized. It was delicious - a blend of a corn-based juice, pineapple juice, apple water, cinnamon and lime; it was fruity and warmly spicy without being cloying or overwhelming. It was definitely purple, like dark grape juice. The corn flavor was present, but again, not overwhelming. And it was definitely refreshing. So all in all, that was more than worth the $2 price tag. (Kelly's sangria was good too, but paled in comparison to the chicha morada).
In the end, I liked it. I'm not sure I'd go back for the food at those prices, but I might. I think if the service picks up and a few tweaks are made to the menu, I would really love it. I keep coming back to the high turnover rate of Madison restaurants, however. I don't know if Inka has what it takes to last. It would be nice to have the same kind of diversity of South American cuisine as Madison does for Southeast Asian cuisine, but I don't know if the restaurant, the cuisine, or the audience will be enough. I find myself tentatively rooting for Inka, if only because I want more yucca root and "delicious purple corn refreshment." |
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