Restaurant Melchorita

Melchorita is a small Peruvian restaurant, located just a short walk from the Stade Uniprix, where we spent a week at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. We had visited Peru in May and were happy to find genuine Peruvian food in Montreal. The owner/cook doesn’t…speak English, but we were able to communicate in rudimentary Spanish and he recommended the fried calamari, which was excellent (as was the grilled chicken). There is a convenience store directly across the street where you can buy beer or wine to have with your meal. When we returned on Saturday, we found the place filled with Peruvians enjoying the weekend brunch. However, the owner offered us the entire menu selection, which was very nice of him. We definitely recommend this restaurant.

This is a new location for the Melchorita, at 2566 Rue Jean-Talon E. I understand other places with the same name in different locations have been successful in Montreal for quite a while, but this location is terrible. My menu was falling apart and the…prices had been changed using white out. I have not seen white out used in many years. Why not just print a new page? There were 5 people “working” at the restaurant, but only one older man actually seemed to be employed there. The two TVs were very loud and tuned to a soccer game but one of the people not working was kind enough to turn the volume down to allow us to talk to each other without shouting. The server removed the napkins when we sat down. He warmed the buns in a microwave (much of the kitchen is down a hallway towards the toilets so you can see the residential appliances the “staff” use) and brought them to the table with butter but no utensils. After being prompted twice he did provide paper napkins and utensils. When he served my dinner he nearly dumped the sauce on my lap but I could see he was unsteady and got out of the splash zone. While we were the only 3 people in the restaurant the third lunch plate was delivered 10 minutes after the first two. The food itself was OK but did not justify the high price. The glasses and cutlery were dirty and the drinks were served straight from the can. They do not accept credit or debit cards and kept this a secret until it was time to pay. When I tried to pay the people who were not working there ignored me for several minutes until the server was summoned.

Do not miss the ceviche! Fresh raw fish with fresh lemon juice and coriander. Or the JALEA. Fried fish and manioc. Served with special hot sauce and lime. Huge plate for 2 people.

I had a chicken skewer with salad rice and fries, and it was quite tasty. Then I had a strawberry mousse cake for dessert. Service was relaxed as we were few clients in the restaurant. Soccer from Copa Amercia playing on a giant screen added…to the ambiance. I will go back, staff was very very friendlyMore