Dan P.
Yelp
I wish I had a picture, but it's normal, particularly in the evening, or weekend days, for the line of people waiting to get into La Conga to stretch a solid half block to the corner, or more. Why? Because they don't talk about it like it's the best Peruvian food around, but more that it's a great value - huge portions of good food, and a reasonable price. And that's what has, apparently, had La Conga grow from its origins as a little "mom and pop" operation on the second floor of the same building that seated about two dozen people, to the massive, couple of hundred seat place that takes up the whole ground floor and serves more than 1,000 people a day, every day.
The place is noisy, but not deafening (it was running a steady 71-72 dB, about the sound level of a shower). Service is friendly, but clearly overworked. It took awhile to get someone to take our order, the waiter in our section was attending to all the small tables, and more or less ignoring us, which he said to me, "once I get them taken care of, I can take care of you guys". Yeah, but we're not hard to take care of like some bigger groups. We'd decided as a group what to order, he only had to take the order from one of us for the whole table. But, once finally ordered, food fairly flew out of the kitchen to the table.
The original plan was just to order a couple of whole pollos a la brasa, the famed rotisserie chicken of Peru, and for which La Conga is particularly famous. And, what a deal - a whole chicken, with a mound of fries as big as the chicken, and a mixed salad just as big again, all for a mere 420 pesos, about $11, and enough to feed four people. But a couple of people had decided they wanted something else, and so that went out the window. We went with a chicken and a half (420 + 280 pesos) - we probably could have gone with just a single chicken. It comes out a glowing bronze color, lacquered with soy and chili paste and spices. Personally, I found it a little dry - that does happen with rotisserie chicken, but here, at least for me, more so than I've found at other places. But it is delicious, and the fries are excellent, and the salad is one of the better side salads I've had here in town with this dish. Personal favorites for pollo a la brasa in town are probably El Pollo Rico out in Chacarita and Mamaní behind the Abasto. But I'll give this one third place....
Next up, as we were working our way down to the bones of the pollo, a massive "family sized" jalea mixta - mixed fried seafood, mounded with golden brown fish fillets, calamari rings, and more. Tender and soft, accompanied by the classic cebollita, red onion salad. Maybe some lemon wedges... we could have asked. 680 pesos (they have a non-family sized one for, I think, 490 pesos, that still would have been enough for us to share).
One of the group wanted chicharrón de cerdo - deep fried pork shortribs and belly. He did share some of it. Tasty, but for me, very dry, very overcooked. 260 pesos.
Highly recommended on the 'net was their tortilla de camarones, a shrimp (really, I think, given their size, prawn) egg pancake that was creamy on the inside, the shrimp cooked perfectly, and a beautiful mottled brown and gold. For me, this was the best dish on the table. 390 pesos.
All in all, a very good lunch. I'm not overly fond of the room, but then, that happens a lot in bigger restaurants, especially the bigger Peruvian ones, where it's just bustle, chaos, and noise. Service, once we got it, was excellent. The food good to very good - though as noted, I found two of four dishes to be overcooked and a little dry. The price, very reasonable - all the above, plus various beverages, and tip, and the eight of us walked out of their for 2800 pesos, 350 apiece, or, under $10. It wasn't, however, good enough for me to go back and stand in a long line, but if there wasn't one, I might stop in for that tortilla again....
