Los Balcones Del Peru

1360 N. Vine St.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 871-9600
Sun-Thurs 11AM-9PM
Fri-Sat 11AM-10PM

Went here over the weekend and wow. So insanely good. I'm a fan of Peruvian food and have been since I was taken to a small place in Pasadena about 10 or 12 years ago. That place is long gone and sadly I couldn't even remember the name of the place or anyone who worked there so it is lost in the annals of my mind. But...thanks to that incredible introduction to these flavors from South America I have always kept my eyes open for more Peruvian restaurants.

We were hunting for a place to eat preferably by the Arclight Theatres in Hollywood cause we wanted to see a movie (sadly the movie we wanted to see wasn't playing but hey we got great food at least). This small place that inhabits where Toi on Vine used to be does not let you down. Now to preface this, I have seen other reviews of this place before and how they talked typically about how bad the service was...let me say that they may have read those reviews, cause our service was great. Always with a smile and attentive. The food was wonderful. We started out with the Papas a la Huancaina which is a common appetizer comprising of boiled potatoes covered in an ever slightly spicy, Peruvian cream sauce with olives and a hard boiled egg. It was pleasant and we moved on to the main courses which were Saltado de Pollo and Pescado La Chorrillana .

An interjection if you will is that Peruvian food has been heavily influenced by Asian cuisine...soooo a lot of food has a stir-fried tinge to it.

Back to the food...oh my goodness. Succulent chunks of chicken on a bed of french fries mixed with peppers and onions and sitting next a mound of white rice...so dang good! Now as we all know taste is just that...a matter of taste but this was excellent just to put my two cents in. It did have the stirfried tinge to it and the broth was very reminiscent of Chinese food I've had but it was all together very Hispanic. The pescado la chorrillana, was a super flavored (one could say hyper flavored) fillet of fish topped with a sauce of onion and tomatoes and also served with some steamed rice. Man, some great fish and speaking of fish they have quite the selection of ceviche, which they are actually known for that side of town.

This place is located right next to the Arclight making this a great date spot to catch some dinner then a movie. Bottomline is that this place is a noble effort and is definitely worth going back to. Cheers for the Incans!

Free Drink Refills: No
Entree Price Range: $9 to $13 (most of the meat plates are on the cheaper side while the fish plates lean more closer to the $13 end of the spectrum).