Samuel C.
Yelp
I have never eaten in Peru.
But I have eaten in Brazil.
This place feels like a good cheap upper lower class//lower middle class place.
There is no catering to Yuppies.
I am guessing it is pretty authentic.
* * *
Fancy Peruvian food is hard to do in the US.
We don't have the raw ingredients. Particularly, we don't have all the unusual potatoes.
American Peruvian places compensate by doing a lot of ceviches and doing heart appetizers.
Those are perfectly lovely.
But this place is salt of the earth lower class.
It is NOT so salt of the earth that the meat would not pass inspection.
In South America, you eat at a bus station or a real downscale place, and the meat will be foul.
Middle class places keep the Plain Jane recipes and menus.
But you can survive the food quality.
What do you get in a cheapie South American place?
All over Latin America, people eat hamburgers.
These guys serve hamburgers.
All over Latin America, people eat cheap tough steaks. They compensate for the toughness by using a marinade.
These guys do cheap tough steaks that are marinated.
I can personally vouch for the fact that the steaks at Peru Fusion are the toughest I have had anywhere on the planet.
They tasted okay, but, boy, did I get an arm and upper body workout.
All over Latin America, people make restaurant meals filling by serving a vast amount of starch.
These guys give you French Fries AND rice AND Plantains.
The steak is put on top of the French Fries and gets most of the sauce.
So the French Fries get eaten kind of plain at the end.
They tasted just fine.
After a tough steak AND French Fries AND Rice and Plantains,
I was plenty full at the end of the meal.
All over Latin America, restaurants are located in cheap quarters where the physical maintenance is not so great.
This place is showing a lot of wear and tear on the physical facilities.
* * *
So why isn't this a three star review?
The sauces.
The house makes its own custom made sauce which they give the same name as the restaurant itself, Peru Fusion
They also make a bunch of other traditional Peruvian sauces.
The sauces are absolutely excellent.
They take what would otherwise be very plain eating ...
And make it absolutely engaging, interesting and comforting.
I left the restaurant happy with a sense of being well fed.
I have no idea what is in the Peru Fusion sauce - except it is very spicy, it is light green and it is creamy.
Some kind of chile for sure. Some kind of cilantro for sure. But there is more to it than that.
I would eat Peru Fusion sauce on a boiled sneaker.
Peru Fusion sauce is really good.
And the French Fries and Rice were really good, and the steak tasted good with the marinade.
* * *
There are yuppier places out there that will serve you artisanal pisco drinks.
There are yuppier places that will serve you super elaborate ceviche.
But this place is solid for what it is.
I think more Peruvians eat in restaurants like this than they eat in the fancy places in downtown Philadelphia.