peruvian food in billyburg

went to chimu last night with the billyburg crew- nels, george, & debs.

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/41379989/

i'd been curious about the place for awhile but have been waiting to get more feedback on it. (come on, good peruvian food in williamsburg?) chimu had finally accumulated a respectable number of reviews and they are all pretty positive. . so given the position to coordinate dinner, i decided to go for it.

debs and i headed straight there from work and beat the boys. there were only a few parties there so we had our pick of tables. the restaurant is nice & dimly lit (but not too dim) and the restaurant was on the small side. the decor was nothing impressive, but that's not something that i look for in an authentic, ethnic restaurant.

after we sat down at a table near the fountain, the waitress brought out a small dish of salted corn kernals to snack on. once the boys came, i ordered a malbec from argentina and looked over the menu. we decided to order two appetizers and two entrees and a side to eat family style.

we started with a lightly fried mashed potato patty stuffed with chopped meat, black olives, eggs, topped with a spicy green creole sauce. i think i've found the peruvian equivalent to comfort food! the second ap was ceviche mixto and the restaurant was quite generous with its portion size and array of seafood- mussels, shrimp, white fish, calamari, and crab. the ceviche was fresh and well seasoned but not exceptional.

the entrees included one meat and one seafood dish. grilled steak served on a bed of rice and bean risotto sounds basic but was probably the best dish of the evening. the steak was succulent and perfectly cooked to medium rare. crispy calamari, shrimp, white fish, mussels topped with bermuda onions, yellow peppers, juilane, and lime juice was fried with a little too much batter to my liking. although the creole sauce was meant for the steak, i felt it was a bettter sauce for the fried seafood. the fried sweet plaintain would have been improved by more crispness.

while chimu does not beat the peruvian restaurants of LA (thanks e), it provided us with a plentiful and tasty meal enjoyed among good friends and conversation.