Via Lima

My brother invited us here for my birthday. Upon entry I can honestly say it was a relaxed atmosphere and cozy. We were attended right away and the service was number 1. There was a few I items I didn’t see on the menu CAU CAU, ESTUFADO, and SOPA LA MINUTA. I had a taste for CAU CAU which is tripe meat with cumin sauce. Soooo, I ordered POLLO SALTADO, chicken was prepared to a perfection. My wife had ARROZ CON MARISCOS and she was very satisfied. The mixed drinks were strong so that was a plus, my brother had ordered a beer and wasn’t happy with the taste so our waiter was more than happy to give him another choice of beer. No charge for the first beer. I’m giving this establishment 4 stars it could have been 5 stars was expecting a full menu but not so… OUR FAMILY IS FROM CALLAO PERU.

After checking out this restaurant, I don’t think any review I write could do justice. You have to go and experience some of what I’ll simply call «All the good things.»
Pisco sour habanero. Causitas. Ceviche. Tequeños. Pisco sour. Lucuma mousse.
Service: outstanding. Food: addictive. Drinks: I slept well. I went during the middle of the week immediately after work, so I was there when the restaurant was not crowded. I have a feeling the place fills up on the weekend.
A friend who lives nearby Via Lima saw my photos on Facebook and got on my case. That means I’ll be going back with his family in tow, and some other friends. This place is capital.

Not authentic as I’d like, but a nice looking restaurant.

I walked into this place on a Saturday and I was seated right away. It’s a Michelin restaurant so I expected good things from it but at best it was very average. The cocktails are decent (piscina sour). The appetisers are on par with any other Peruvian place in the city but they were out of cow heart.
The entrees were disappointing. I ordered octopus which was actually very dry and disappointingly bland. The chicken was also on the same lines.
It wasn’t even crowded but our server was very pushy and took our appetisers before we even finished and kept asking my girlfriend if she is done yet.
Anyways over all a disappointing experience. Hope they work on their shortcomings

I’ve had better. If I were to rate this place it’d be up there between an ihop and a Gringolicious rendition of a Mexican restaurant. Place looks great, staff was nice but the food just didn’t stand out. The aji de gallina didn’t pack it’s cheesy gamey punch. Arroz con mariscos was just a bland uncle bens mess. We did enjoy the seafood egg rolls and the yucca chips but the accompanying sauces left much to be desired. There are two other nearby restaurants that capture my sense of whyat Peruvian food should be and this one just wasn’t it.

The 2^nd star is only because they were friendly and attentive.
Sadly the food pales. If you know nothing about Peruvian food I suppose you might like this bland stuff, just like someone might think Domino’s is phenomenal pizza. But sadly, they are doing Peruvian food a disservice.
Every dish we tried was missing the essential Peruvian ingredients and lacked taste. There were 3 of us, two who lived in Peru for years, and another who knows Peruvian food (and appreciates the other few Peruvian places in Chicago). We were all very underwhelmed with the food — appetizers and entrees lacked flavor and the preparation was off. We had to ask for salt. The anticucho was undercooked, the Papa Rellena was ‘mushy’ — it was a mashed potato ball. And did I mention it was bland?
Presentation is very nice, décor is nice, the drinks were good, and staff is attentive. Maybe they should have spent a little less time on the ambiance and more time getting a chef who knows Peruvian food or working out whatever kinks exist in the kitchen keeping the food from matching its origins.
Since they’re new, hopefully they will improve, but we won’t be going back. Macchu Picchu is simpler but better. I wish them well!

I have eaten a lot of Peruvian food in my life and I have to say this was by far the best. The food was amazing, the restaurant is beautiful and the staff is excellent. It couldn’t be more authentic unless you were in Peru. I suggest you try this out.

Great night out with the girls and what a fantastic experience at Via Lima! The plantain chips and aji amarillo sauce they serve is the BOSS! I could’ve eaten just that and nothing else and been completely satisfied… however, we were total oinkers and went hard on arroz con mariscos (deeeelish!), peruvian roast chicken (yummy!) and pollo saltado (tasty!). We tried two wines, one of them sparkling, and both were clean, bright and delicious. Too full for dessert, but I’ll definitely back to try those at some point.

I don’t usually get upset from eating out at restaurants but this place did it.
This place has the most potential of all Peruvian restaurants in Chicago to be the best of its kind. It’s beautiful inside and out, the bar and kitchen appear clean and modern and its elegant design provides customers high expectations. However, the quality and authenticity of the food brings this review to 2 stars.
As a Peruvian, there were a lot of things that disappointed me.
Food– certain items on the menu are not Peruvian (for instance corn suffle as an entrée or octopus a la anticucho style?). The pollo a la brasa lacks flavor, its potatoes are not the traditional French fries and it was as crispy as chicharron. The papa a la huancaina was HOT (it’s supposed to be cold), the anticuchos are both overpriced and are not cooked in the traditional way (and had a rubbery texture). The sauces (rocoto cream was not spicy at all and the ocopa had too many nuts) fell short in every way possible. The ceviche was majorly under portioned (yet the best item I tried from there). Lastly often times the sides (choclo in the anticuchos and the salad in the pollo a la brasa) tasted better than the main ingredients.
Overall, I don’t recommend this place for those seeking true authentic Peruvian food or Peruvian «fusion» for that matter. 2 stars are given because the pisco drinks were amazing and so was the service.
Advise to management: please consider updating the menu to a more traditional approach. The standard «green sauce» found at most, if not all Peruvian restaurants does wonders.

Via Lima is one of my new favorite restaurants in Chicago. The food is so delicious I could eat there every day. The ambience is lovely — the seating is comfortable, the décor is subtle but stylish, and the music is perfect background for a nice conversation.
I’ve been to Via Lima twice and hope to become a regular. The staff are knowledgeable about the menu and also about adapting to gluten and dairy sensitivities.
I can recommend the Pisco Habanero Sour or regular Pisco Sour to drink, Papa Rellena and Ceviche as appetizers, Lomo Saltado and Arroz con Mariscos for entrees, and the Lucuma Mousse for dessert. Don’t miss that dessert. It’s unusual and delicious.

Service –slow;
Ambiance– very nice;
Food-​alright (entrees — more of fillers: rice and potatoes);
Price-​overpriced.

Absolutely delicious cuisine that is new and different especially for the neighborhood.

See Sparty S’s review. If I could cut and paste that review I would. I had the same dishes, l and felt the same way about the food, value, and portions.
I REALLY wish this place was good. I live 2 blocks away and we need good restaurants with longevity in the neighborhood. Left completely bummed as its not somewhere I would come back to (price/​value, food being so so, and it’s not a type of food I would want to eat frequently even if it was better).

This is was my first time here and I enjoyed every single minute. To begin, the restaurant has its own private parking lot which makes it very convenient, as we enter the restaurant we were greeted by our host and seated without any waiting time at all. Our waitress came immediately and offer us something to drink and then went thru the menu all the different types of dishes. Service was amazing from the beginning to the end.
Now about the food. We started with a chicken Causitas, it comes 3 per order, it was so delicious that we decided to order the tasting option which includes 2 more Causitas, options are chicken, shrimp and crab, we order another chicken since it was so tasty and a shrimp Causitas. I did prefer the chicken one because it has a touch of spicy ají that was perfect for me.
For the main course I ordered Lomo saltado, which is tenderloin beef with fried potatoes and white rice. The portions are big enough for anyone with good appetite.
For dessert I ordered the Turrón de chocolate, which is a traditional Peruvian chocolate cake with almonds, very tasty, soft and not too sweet.
Overall my experience at Via Lima was great and I will definitely come back.

Delicious Peruvian food at this new, pretty restaurant in North Center.
Instead of a bread basket, we were greeted with a basket of crispy plantain chips and a flavorful dipping sauce. We ate them up. And we asked for more. We ordered the papa rellena appetizers — two chicken, two beef — potato croquettes filled with raisin, onion, tomato, egg, black olive. My entrée was the aji de gallina — chicken with sauce, walnuts, kalamata olives, quail egg, served with rice and potato. Everything had great flavor and presentation. My chicken dish was like a chunky shredded chicken in a thick spiced sauce with all the extras on top.
The only thing I didn’t like about this restaurant is that during our otherwise very pleasant meal, I kept getting distracted by the large flat screen TV mounted above the bar that was playing gymnastics. I don’t care to watch gymnastics, and yet, I kept looking up there because it was on. Why? Why does every restaurant feel they need to have TVs, and furthermore, that they need to have the TVs on to play something as random and ill-​fitting as gymastics (or the news, or something else that shouldn’t be on in the first place). TVs make perfect sense for sports bars and other casual restaurants, but I’m always disappointed to see them up and on at nicer places.

Great Service! Wonderful food!!!
The Ceviche flight, to die for.
Would go back many times over!!!

We’d watched the build out and were impressed with the space during the construction. It was much more impressive inside. The size and spacing of the dining area is perfect and well decorated. The bar is stunning.
We found the dinner menu difficult to navigate. It was not clear which were small plates to share and which were intended as individual entrees. Some items were clearly described, others required a lot of explanation from our waiter.
The ingredients were the highest quality. The octopus was excellent, as was the leche de tigre (a spicy marinated ceviche). The tigre was served with a pacific bass. It was delicious, but needed another fish or seafood to vary the texture and flavor.
The pork chaufa was very good, but too expensive for the dish received.
The roast chicken was perfect. The chicken was well cooked and juicy. By itself it was just well seasoned chicken, but the sauces made the dish.
In summary, a beautiful restaurant, but a tough menu to navigate and some dishes were pricey.

I love Via Lima and have been there twice with friends since they opened!
They’ve only been open maybe a month and they have already gotten better!
The cocktails are refreshing and awesome. I’ve read a couple of people say the pisco sour is too strong. I disagree. Sure it’s a powerful drink but it’s a grown up cocktail. The recipe is direct from Peru actually. Live a little people, it was excellent.
I found all the food I’ve had so far too be delicious. The ceviche is delightfully prepared and super tasty. Probably the best I’ve tasted.
Both times the service was impeccable. The staff was very knowledgeable.
I am thrilled, actually beyond thrilled, that Via Lima doesn’t cater to children. They’re are plenty of family options in North center. It’s nice to know there’s a place where I don’t have to yell over screaming children. I’m sorry if that offends you.
Via Lima is just for a more sophisticated pallet.
And we welcome it to North Center!

My husband and I went there on a Wednesday night to check out this promising new restaurant in our neighborhood. I’ll start off by saying that we had high expectations after having experienced a great Peruvian restaurant named Pio Pio in New York. Sadly, Via Lima was somewhat disappointing. To start off with the good: the service was very attentive. You could tell they were eager to make a good impression, which is nice. The cocktail list interesting and my husband’s Pisco Sour was what you’d expect it to be: a solid Pisco sour if you are familiar with the cocktail. The bar area is nice and it would be a good place to have a cocktail at the bar and order some appetizers.
For our dinner, we started with appetizers. We really enjoyed the ceviche — we ordered the sampler and the flavors were great. We didn’t like the hard pieces of Peruvian corn kernels that were thrown into the ceviche (Cancha, I think they are called). They are hard and weird to crunch on while the rest of the fish is tender.
My husband ordered the roast chicken and enjoyed it. I ordered the Scallops a la chalaca because I thought they were «cooked». When the waiter returned, it was raw ceviche scallops. See, the menu is somewhat confusing — the seafood is under «Pacific Coast» and not included in the ceviche section, so I assumed it was cooked in a traditional way. Luckily the waitress was understanding of the confusion and took it off our bill and recommended the cooked seafood entrée of Jalea Mixta. Similar to another reviewer, I was surprised to see an average sized plate of fried seafood that was dry and without much flavor. Ironically the scallops that were included in the dish were really good, but the calamari were chewy and inedible. You had to use the dipping sauce to have any flavor in this entire entrée. As a $ 26 dish, this was disappointing.
We left having spent over $ 100 and feeling really «meh» about the whole experience.

My wife and I visited on June 24, which I believe was Via Lima’s second night of operation. We were quite impressed with the experience as you enter the restaurant and wait to get seated. The environment feels rich and warm and matched the feel of a high-​end restaurant.
We each ordered two of their Pisco cocktails and thought they were delightful. My wife had the la monte carla and loved it, while I tried the Pisco sour and the chilcano. The alcohol content appeared to be quite low for premium ($ 12) cocktails, but the flavor profile was fantastic.
We ordered the seafood tequenos as an appetizer and thought they were perfect. Unique dish with a hefty amount of seafood and a perfectly crisp wonton wrap.
Overall, the menu is presented in a way that requires the wait staff to do a detailed job explaining each item. Our waitress was phenomenal and yet we still were surprised by one of our dishes when it arrived at the table. The jalea mixta is described as lightly dredged and fried seafood with field greens, rocoto sauce and avocado aioli. What arrived at our table was an average sized plate of fried calamari with an avocado aioli sauce on the side to dip into. As a $ 26 dish, my wife was quite disappointed. The rocoto sauce was explained as being spicy, yet we couldn’t find a trace of it. Without the aioli, the dish was dry and without much flavor and many pieces of seafood were extremely chewy. This was not what we would expect of an entrée, particularly at this price point.
I had the airport chaufa, which is explained as pork fried rice with shrimp; topped with crispy noodles. This time, the description was spot on, but the $ 23 dish didn’t separate itself enough from the flavor profile of a $ 12-​$ 16 fried rice at a variety of other restaurants. The presentation and portion size were great and there were 4 – 6 large shrimp on the dish, but if there was something premium about the dish it should have been explained on the menu.
Finally, we had the turron de chocolate for dessert. It was delicious and quite unique.
Price points are always a matter of opinion and we never mind paying a premium if we feel that a value proposition is made. Unfortunately, for us, it wasn’t this time. With improved menu clarity and adjusted price points for the entrees, we would love coming back regularly, however at this point it will likely just be a destination for cocktails.