Ay Ay Picante Peruvian Cuisine: User Reviews

me and my friends frequent this place and every visit is always the same...attentive staff, great food and good ambiance.
we love love their ceviche mixto, the lomo and pollo saltado.
the staff is always attentive, not sure what those customers did to be ignored coz we never have that problem. jaime the owner is very nice. we celebrated a few bdays there and they did everything they can to make it all worthwhile.
to those who havent been to ay ay picante, DO NOT listen to the negative reviews. you gotta try this place, guarantee you will love it.

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Went there with some peruvian friends who were raving about their food... i must say was quite impressed. Not all the time you find someone coming from abroad saying that the food is just as good as being home. The meats are well-seasoned, juicy and soft textured. Excellent anticuchos.. The best Ceviche i've had in the city (ask for the Mixto). The place gives you a kind of "home" feeling - nothing Uptight- thus a great place to have a good meal with friends or family. There's the added + of BYOB. You'll get a great deal for what you pay here. If you enjoy eating i think you'll have a good time here.

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Congratulation's. Me and my mom celebrate this Sunday mothers day at this restaurant . My mother told me that it was the best mother's day present ever.Because they made her feel like if she was a princess. Because of the good service. They gave us a big smile they were very gentle with us and they had a lot of passion's. The waitress he took our order fast and he brought our food at a right time and we enjoy all the food . I recommend this place and i am very thankful to the waitress Fernando for making us very happy...!!

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I love seafood! and had no idea that Peruvian were also an expert in this area. This restaurant is located far north but it is worth the trip, place is very pleasant, nice atmosphere, candle light on every table, red linen, so i was happy with what i saw, waiters are nice looking in an black uniform (not wearing ties.... maybe i am asking for to much...!) We had the cocktail ceviche (seafood marinated in lime juice.... very good, little spicy, hmmm tasty), the lomo saltado, beef satee with onions, tomato, fries .... who can resist that! i was very plaese! I also had (didn't share) the seafood stew, fisherman stew, WOW!! i have never taste something like this before, it has some kind od wine or beer on it, lots of seafood, very aromatic, big plate. Waiters and buss people are very nice(hard to recognize all of them wear the same uniform), very attentive, great service, kitchen is located inside so you can see what they are doing or how they are making your food. We had a great time.

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Ay Ay Picante stays on my list of places to grab a delicious dinner without high prices, traffic congestion and snooty pretense. On the weekends there is live native music. The portions are big and everything I ever had was delicious. Prices are reasonable too!

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Went for the first time this past weekend and I can not wait to go back!! Food was great as well as service. I was in a group of 10 and there a few other large groups as well and service was still fine. Highly recommend getting an appetizer, because they are yummy as well but main meal does take a bit long to get. However, I took into consideration that it is a small place with a small kitchen and there were quite a few large groups on the night that I went, so perhaps that's why main meal took a bit.

I should also note that the portions are quite generous. It is possible to split a main course with someone.

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I had never eaten Peruvian food, so based on previous reviews of Ay Ay Picante, I thought that this would be a good place to get my first taste. My girlfriend and I made reservations three days ahead of time. When we arrived, we told the greeter that we needed a table for two and had a reservation. At that point, there was an entire section of empty tables. The greeter told us that those tables were reserved for a group that apparently had not even arrived yet and told us that we would have to wait for 15 minutes. Instead of allowing us to wait in the front of the restaurant, as restaurants usually do, they had us go to the "waiting room." The "waiting room" was actually the basement of a house three doors down from the restaurant! At first, I thought the greeter was kidding, but then he walked us, as well as three other individuals who were waiting for a table, over to the house. As if that was not weird enough, the greeter just left us in that basement, with dim lighting and some rock music playing and someone from the restaurant only came in to bring more people. Since we were under the impression that we would only have to wait for 15 minutes, we thought that we would just tough it out.

As we waited, more and more people were brought to the "waiting room," and even though they arrived after us, they were seated before we were. It became evident that if you were part of a bigger group (as those individuals were), the restaurant would make sure that you got a table quickly. As for the two of us and the other group of three, we ended up waiting for an hour. Finally, we decided that the only way we could get a table was if the five of us formed our own group. So when the owner came down into the "waiting room," we told him that we were willing to form our own group if he could get us a table already. After doing so, it only took five minutes to get a table. If it wasn't for the fact that my girlfriend and I were starving by that point, and there was a snowstorm going on outside, we would not have sat around waiting.

So we finally got into the restaurant over an hour after we first arrived. I have to admit, though, that the food was good. However, the service here is absolutely atrocious. I cannot believe that the only way we were able to get a table, when we even had a reservation, was by agreeing to sit with strangers (although, the three individuals we sat with were very nice). So of course we did not leave a tip, as they did not deserve one.

Unless you have a large group I would not recommend going here. It is ridiculous that you make a reservation and they decide to give you the boot in favor of a larger group. Even though I did enjoy the food, I will not return to a restaurant that does not respect its customers enough to even honor their reservations.

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due to all the great reviews we have seen all over the ne we did a quick drive to the north part of chicago for some peruvian food, Place is very cozy, good native music, and candles in evry table....... looks very romantic.... our first dish was the anticuchos.... it was so good, just the emell of this skeweers made our appetite open to more dishes, parihuela was another hot dish (is a soup) with seafood hmmmmm, my hubby order the VAQUERO dish (which we though it was a funny name) hugh piece of meat topped with mushrooms...... service was so good, water glasses were always refill at all times, perhaps the kitchen is a little noisy but you can tell they are making your dish right away.
in the past we attended other peruvian places and were very dissapointed..... but ay ay picante-Peruvian Cuisine made our night better, great place, great food, great prices.

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I was there on a weekday, the restaurant was slow...so i thought ok we will get good service...i was wrong, the food took forever and it was bland(tasteless). to me it was jus a below average hole in the wall. there is a bright side they don't have a liqour licence so we brought in our own wine(the wine was good). well me and my husband will not be back ever, i heard that peruvian food is good, i guess we will have to try another restaurant.

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We had 18 people here last night for a birthday. They accomodated all of us by moving tables, etc. All of our food was hot and delicious. The portions are insanely huge for cheap. The service was amazing and the place itself is so cozy and cute. We'll be back a thousand times. I'd give it 10 stars if i could.

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