Culinary Quest

York, PA, is located quite a distance from Lima, Peru.  So you would not expect to be able to find many people preparing lomo saltado or tacu tacu in this town infamously populated by the Pennsylvania Dutch.  However, a trip to El Serrano Restaurante on East Market Street will expose you to not only a magnificent sampling of Peruvian cuisine; it will give you a chance to taste some fabulous Mexican fare, as well.  Owned by Manuel Torres, El Serrano Restaurante moved to its East York location from the west end of town in 1989.  With seating for 100 people, the facility is able to accommodate groups for special events, providing its patrons with the convenience of being a community gathering place.  A separate seating area is available for diners with smokers in their parties.  This is a very nice feature since it would seem that most people do not wish to be bothered by tobacco smoke while eating.

Manuel Torres, a native of Lima, Peru, began El Serrano Restaurante as a Mexican restaurant.  Gradually, he added Peruvian cuisine, making the dishes with a mild to medium heat and allowing his patrons to request a spicier preparation if they so desired.  All of Manuel's inspiration comes from his family and relies heavily on their input.  In this way, you can count on the dishes being authentic Peruvian cuisine.  Indeed, most of the kitchen staff is made up of Manuel's family.  Could he be guarding ancient family secrets?  The York restaurant is managed by Manuel's very qualified daughter, Melanie, who brings her business administration background into the mix; although she has been with the family business for more than 10 years and has developed a great love for working with people during that time.

I had the opportunity to talk with Melanie about El Serrano Restaurante's menu.  "I would have to say that the fajitas are definitely a house specialty," she assured me.  "But if you want a Peruvian favorite, a house specialty, that would, without a doubt, be the lomo saltado.  That's made of a filet mignon tenderloin of beef--and is topped with onions, fried potatoes, tomatoes, and is served with white rice.  Everybody loves that dish."  When I asked her about the desserts, she grinned mischievously, and said, "We are famous for our homemade fried ice cream and our flan.  They are authentic Mexican dishes, and we make them fresh every morning.The flan is a traditional egg custard with a carmel sauce, but I think it can be compared to a creme brulee."  My ears pricked up. A creme brulee?  I had never considered that comparison before, but it was not necessarily inaccurate.  

After speaking with Melanie, I decided to stay for an early dinner.  The first things that I noticed upon being seated were the seats--embossed leather chairs bearing the restaurant's crest.  Although the chairs are straight-backed, they are not uncomfortable.  This makes for a pleasant dining experience.  The background music is playing softly and is Latin instrumentals.  To my left are a row of grottoes in which can be found tables, each of which seats four people.  These would make for very private meetings or dates, adding a bit of coziness to the encounter.  I cannot see the smoking section as it appears to be located in the back of the restaurant and around the corner in another room. 

My server arrives and recognizes my face from my last visit to the restaurant--almost 2 years ago!  What a great memory!  I have a good feeling about this.  She returns in a moment with my drink, and responds well to my request for her help with ordering a "true Peruvian" El Serrano meal.  First she asks if there is anything that I do not like to eat.  Good question.  Next we examine the appetizers.  Right away, she suggests the Mariscos al Ajillo--shrimp in a garlic herb Broth, served with toasted French bread.  She thinks but a moment before pronouncing that the Lomo Saltado is the best entree on the menu, and proceeds to describe the dish for me.  She adds that I may have broccoli added to the dish to give me some green vegetables and a slightly different flavor.  This sounds very interesting, so I agree readily.  We decide to choose dessert after I have eaten my meal. 

Entering my order in the restaurant's computer system, my server brings me a basket of corn chips and a Peruvian salsa.  The salsa is much different from anything that you will find in the grocery store.  The flavors are similar, but the texture is different and it lacks any spiciness.  Instead, it has sweetness to it.  The texture is what you would expect to find if the salsa's base were beans instead of tomatoes, but it is tomato based.  The seasonings are similar to Mexican salsa, but there is less cilantro; I taste no cumin, and as I said, no spiciness.  I wish that I could buy this by the jar.  I might doctor it up with some chili peppers, but the effect of this salsa is wonderful.  And the chips are crisp and in whole triangles.  I am not forced to pick up a handful of crumbs in hopes of getting some salsa to my mouth.

My Mariscos al Ajillo arrives.  The shrimp are served in the broth, which is opaque and heavy with garlic.  The three rounds of bread are of a nice size, lightly toasted, and crisp.  My server instructs me to place the shrimp on the bread with some broth to eat them.  This sounds like a great idea, so I try it.  The shrimp are fantastic!  They are of a medium size--not too small, and not gargantuan in nature.  They hold the garlic and herbs well and carry the broth on the bread.  The broth, too, is delicious.   I can imagine making a soup out of this with some rice or orzo.  The three bread rounds were just enough to eat all of the shrimp, allowing me to dip the crusts in the broth as well.  Not an enormous appetizer, but a little something to whet my appetite.

My server clears my plate, refills my drink, and we make friendly conversation about the restaurant and her 13 years on staff.  (This would make her a professional, by the way.)  Every restaurant should wish to have someone of this server's experience on staff to help train new employees and to provide a much needed level of service to customers.  She not only knows the finer points to being a server, she pays attention to the extra details as well.  These things make the patrons feel welcome and tacitly invite them to return for another meal. 

My entree arrives a few minutes later.  It is a colorful pile of food.  The beef, tomatoes, fried potatoes, purple onions, and broccoli are simply piles on the platter with a small inverted cup of rice beside it.  It smells heavenly though.  I am not one to eat tomatoes, but I decide to give these a shot, hoping that the combination of flavors in the dish have somehow hidden the taste of the tomatoes.  I taste....No dice.  Still tastes like tomatoes.  No points off, of course.  I know that the tomatoes add something to the overall flavor of the dish.  Separately, they just are not for me.  The broccoli is fresh and green, and is still crunchy.  It has a slight vinegary taste to it, and is a bit oniony.  The vinegar flavor is not unpleasant, just a bit tart.  The onions taste like onions, but are not overpowering.  They, too, have the vinegary taste.  This may be a part of the sauce that seems to be on the dish.  The fried potatoes look and taste like French fries.  They a bit soft, but good with the vinegar flavor on them.  They seem to have absorbed quite a bit of the onion flavor, though.  This is not a bad thing, per se, but the onions are dominating the vegetables.  The beef is next.  I asked for the beef to be prepared medium well.  Now is the moment of truth.  It has been cut into bite sized pieces and has been cooked properly.  Wonderful!  The meat is moist, tastes like beef, and has the vinegary sauce, which has become pleasantly sweet with the meat.  I taste the onions, but like the vinegar, they add to the complexity of the meat rather than detracting from it.  So the onions just seem to overpower the other vegetables.  The broccoli, then, was a good decision since it has a strong flavor that can hold its own with the onions. 

The rice is good, separating easily with the fork, but I only eat a few bites, preferring to save room for dessert. 

My server has visited my table twice while I was eating to see how everything was, and used those occasions to refill my glass.  She returns now to clear my plate and to ask if I would like to see the dessert tray.  I answer affirmatively, but have already made up my mind.  The tray contains a trio of cakes, but I would like to try the flan, deciding that I must taste a homemade dessert that both the manager and the server have described as reminding them of a crème Brule.

The flan arrives in a few minutes.  It is a rather interesting presentation.  The flan itself appears to have been molded and cooked in a small bowl and then flipped out upside down onto the plate.  A rich, dark caramel sauce has then been ladled on top of the flan.  It does resemble a crème Brule in its own way.  I am anxious to put it to the taste test.  The texture is a bit firmer than that of a crème Brule.  It is not as sweet, but it is fantastic.  The caramel sauce is the perfect finishing touch to the dessert.  I would not guess that this is custard since it is much too creamy.  I think it is the lack of the caramelized top that keeps me from equating it with the crème Brule.  Very close comparison, though.  This is a winning dessert.

Here is where I get to grade my dining experience.  I grade on 5 factors:  Atmosphere, Service, Presentation, Taste, and Value.  These areas are scored on a 0 to 10 scale with 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Atmosphere:  9.5     All in all, the atmosphere was fabulous.  The grottoes add a special something to the dining experience, as does the Spanish tile roofing designed to give an authentic "you are there" feel to the restaurant.  The restaurant does allow smoking, however.  This is restricted to a separate area of the restaurant, though, so other diners do not have to be bothered by the smoke at all.  Although this is a nice touch, it really is not enough given the laws that the near future holds for restaurants and bars in Pennsylvania. 

Service:  10     My server was amazing!  She actually remembered me from close to 2 years ago!  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, so let's just chalk it up to her being a great server.  She knew everything about the menu and could make recommendations without hesitation.  She was even able to make bold moves to suggest alterations to the menu.  She anticipated my needs and checked on my satisfaction often.  I will not soon forget this server and will probably request her on future visits to El Serrano Restaurante.  She is a professional who obviously enjoys her job.

Presentation:  8     The dishes did not offer much to entice the diner.  The mariscos al ajillo was bland in coloring; something green added to the plate would have been nice, even a wedge of lemon.  The entree was colorful, but appeared as a pile of food.  Some sort of arrangement on the platter could do wonders for making this dish more appetizing to the eye.  Decorate it with some celery greens, or some such garnish in the event that a prime server does not make the suggestion to add broccoli to the dish.  Without the broccoli, this would have been adventures in browns and purple.  Boring.  Desert, too, was simply shades of beige.  Add a little something else that the diner does not expect to this dish--berries, whipped cream, etc., to draw the eye away from the browns and make the diner hunger for the dessert with his or her vision.

Taste:  9.5    The food tonight was delicious.  Each dish surprised me in its own way with a different flavor combination and a different cultural experience.  I have spent a short time in Peru, but had not enjoyed any of these dishes while there.  The only complaint I have is the overabundance of onions in the Lomo Saltado.  Again, I lack familiarity with this dish and may be jumping to conclusions.  This may be an onion-heavy dish, in which case I amend my grade and give the dish a 10.  Otherwise, I think everything was perfect.

Value:  9     As delicious as everything was, I feel that things were a bit expensive.  Ethnic dining experiences should not carry a premium price simply because they are different.  El Serrano Restaurante is not the only restaurant guilty of this.  There are slews of other restaurants that charge the American public high prices to eat their ethnic cuisine.  I will go back, of course, for the food, the service, and the atmosphere.  I'm worth a splurge every now and then, after all.

Business Hours:  Sunday to Thursday 11:00 am to 9:00 pm

                          Friday  11:00 am to 10:00 pm

                          Saturday  12:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Lunch is served Monday through Saturday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Please make reservations for parties of 8 or more.

The restaurant does not serve alcohol, but is a BYOB establishment.

El Serrano Restaurante  |  3410-E  E. Market St.  |  York, PA  17402  |  717.757.4963  |  www.elserrano.com

April 19, 2007