I visited Central in Peru.
I have to say – I’m shocked this was named one of the world’s best restaurants.
Service
The service was lackluster with the waiters often speaking while walking around and serving – meaning I didn’t hear half the explanations as they were turned around. They seemed extremely unenthusiastic, like they hated their job. Nobody seemed to really explain anything other than what we were eating. Not why, how they made it, why in a certain way, etc.
Food
The concept is to serve various ingredients from various altitudes. It seems like a cool concept – but it’s just bouncing around altitudes rather than taking you on some sort of journey. You go from -10M below sea levels to 3700 back to 0 back to 4000, with no real sense of why. It seemed like a half baked concept to start with.
The flavor was between “bad” and “good”. Nothing was amazing. Nearly everything was bland or a bland version. You can’t puree 8/14 courses and praise the concept working
The concept itself clearly limits its ability to say, add spice to a dish that could use some heat – since peppers only grow at certain altitudes…. But there was no spice on any dish. In fact, most dishes seemed to lack seasoning. They seemed to limit each dish to 3 ingredients, then skip seasoning.
Conclusion
I left remembering the wonderful beef and “snowy mountain” beef of Da Dong from a meal 5 years ago. The taste, the presentation, the service. I left Central and only remember the burned bacon they served for one of the dishes and everything else I’ve nearly forgotten in 48 hours.
This restaurant is the most overrated thing I’ve experienced in my life.
The only thing I could possibly think was that this must be “a chef’s restaurant” in the same way a “comedian’s comedian” or “film for filmmakers” really appeals to a select group of people: the ability to make some pretty good food out of an extremely limited set of ingredients and concepts. Because it’s clearly not for people that like good food.
Instead of using the cocoa plant in 7 ways to make 6 mediocre “deserts”, I would have preferred just a memorable desert.
It seems people come here to “experience” some sort of natural Peruvian ingredients or experience without actually having to hike the Inca trail. After hiking the Inca trail with 60+ year old Quechua guides, eating on the trail and hearing their stories and eating with our guides and porters, this experience felt fake, forced, pretentious and most offensive of all: they forgot to actually make good food.
This wasn’t anywhere near the best restaurant of the week, much less the world.
I get on the plane remembering Morena kitchen in Cusco and after this post will completely forget Central, except the experience of the most well executed tourist trap I’ve seen.
Sorry for the shitty photos, I couldn’t bring myself to care about this place, except to try to warn anyone who might be considering a reservation.
by AccountersDelight