My partner was craving for lomo saltado, and they found this on Yelp. I mentioned to them that we had ordered this via Seamless before, but nonetheless we decided to check out this place in person. They actually have 2 locations near us: either in Astoria or in Sunnyside. The trains towards Astoria are just atrocious on weekends in that there’s like a 15 minute delay between trains. Going on the 7 train would have netted us better towards Sunnyside.

This Peruvian restaurant was also on my partner’s list of cheap eats to try. The menu was quite similar to the prior Peruvian restaurant, Caravan Chicken we went to a few weeks ago. It’s conveniently located off the Ditmars N/W train on Ditmars itself. We arrived here at 7 PM, and there was no line nor patrons inside. We were not sure what to make of this considering how much we enjoyed the last restaurant.

My partner is fanatical about ceviche, and I am fanatical about lomo saltado. Our level of comparison is Mario’s in Los Angeles, and there has yet been a tolerable comparison to that so far. There are not too many Peruvian options in the Williamsburg area. We’ve been to Chimu Bistro which was decent, and Llama Inn was a little too upscale. On this super sunny and muddy day after getting my hair chopped and despite all the plethora of options for anything but Peruvian, we decided to check out this restaurant based on recommendations.

Pio Pio actually has several stores in the greater New York City. This one is number 8 and is located in Manhattan a few blocks north of Hudson Yards. Remember that the COVID protocols are still applicable. When we walked in, we were seated in an alcove to the left before the stairs that led down to a larger open space dining room. This alcove was pretty nice and it seemed to be catered for parties of 2.

This restaurant is located at the southern tip of Long Island City close to Vernon. I would probably classify this as a more upscale Peruvian restaurant with some romantic vibes to it. There is another Peruvian restaurant north of here that is probably more casual and less formal. Truth be told, we actually like this restaurant a lot more than the other one as this one is more consistent albeit a little more pricey.

The lomo saltado was ok. The sauces cost 60 cents extra.

The ceviche was good, but the lomo saltado was surprisingly pretty good. Beef slices were tender.

This place was pretty good. It’s expensive sorta, but the lomo saltado was decent.

So bad. The lomo saltado is really dry. Can’t seem to find a decent lomo saltado in NYC.

“Gourmet” lomo saltado is like paying $20 tacos. This is a ripoff and not worth the $20+. Good, but not great.