Rios d' Sudamerica

Friday evening we ate at Rios d' Sudamerica, the new place by owners of Rinconcito Sudamericano. It's a more upscale place (though the flat panel TVs over the bar showing the Sox game definitely brought the tone down). We walked in at around 7:30 with no trouble. It began filling up, but even when we left it wasn't jammed. I could see it getting more crowded as it gets more known - and when they have their license. It has a nice bar area.

The food was really good. We LOVED the ceviche and the empanadas. I had a grilled bone-in ribeye, my husband had halibut. Both were very good. They are BYOB for now, until their license comes. However, they had a LOT of service problems. Mostly, people all over the restaurant were getting the wrong dishes. We got someone else's food, someone else got our food, the table behind us got someone else's food.

They owner (manager?) came over to check that my steak was done OK - he says they'd had some trouble with that. I told him it was fine. Bone-in steaks are very hard to get to be all one done-ness, I guess, and I didn't expect it to be the same from edge to bone. The woman one table over did send hers back, saying it wasn't done enough.

I'm not sure I'd go back for the steak, though it was good, since I'd like to try more of their Peruvian dishes.

Rios d' Sudamerica
2010 W. Armitage Ave.
773-276-0170

We went to Rios on Wednesday evening, which also happened to be the same night that the CLTV Metromix people decided to film a spot on the place. When we walked in at about 6 pm, there was only one other table; about three or four other tables made inroads on the cavernous space by the end of our meal.

First, the ambience. It's definitely more upscale than Rinconcito Sudamericano, with giant murals, dim lighting, white tablecloths, and bossa nova-type music playing in the background. Correspondingly, menu items shared in common between this restaurant and Rinconcito (e.g. aji de gallina, arroz con pato) are about $3-$4 more expensive here. However, as noted before, the two TVs over the bar playing the Cubs-Phillies game made things feel more comfortable for jeans-wearing folk like myself.

The service was well-meaning. Our server enthusiastically tried to explain the menu as a combination of three different South American cuisines and had trouble coming up with the third of the three (for future reference, Peruvian, Brazilian, and Argentinean), and could not describe cherimoya (on the dessert menu) better than "it looks white." However, water glasses were filled promptly, and at some point the manager came over, introduced herself, and asked how we were doing.

The food:

The meal starts with complementary pepper/cheese rolls that were delicious. We were also glad that they chose to serve the spicy green sauce featured at Rinconcito.

We shared an appetizer of Yuca Rellena/Papa Rellena; I believe the potato was stuffed with beef, nuts, and raisins, and the yuca was stuffed with seafood. These came with a small amount of salad and pickled red onions on the side. These were tasty; both fillings were nicely spiced, and both the yuca and potato were freshly fried. $9.

For entrees, we had the "majarisco" (something like a napoleon with fried plantains as the carb and sauteed seafood as the filling, topped with shredded fried sweet potatoes) and lomo saltado (steak stir-fried with onions, french fries, and tomatoes, flavored with pisco and brandy). The majarisco was flavorful (and went nicely with some of the complementary spicy green sauce), but some of the seafood was overcooked (other bits were delicious; I remember getting surprised with a particularly tender scallop after working through some chewy squid). The pieces of beef in the lomo were tender and the stir-fry itself was very flavorful and highlighted the influence of Chinese cooking on Peruvian cuisine. We didn't have a problem getting the right entree; there weren't many people in the restaurant at the time, which may have helped matters. Each entree was $16.

For dessert, we had something resembling cream puffs filled with I believe cherimoya-flavored whipped cream and topped with chocolate sauce, with a swipe of some type of berry sauce on the side. Tasty, but not noticeably "South American." I can't even remember what tropical fruit flavor the dessert was supposed to contain (it was either cherimoya or lucuma, the two flavors our server couldn't explain). $7?

Overall, the food was good but not as consistent as I would like. I see it as an attempt to appeal to people who might feel uncomfortable in a place where the glass tabletops are windex-ed clean but are still interested in trying someplace "different" and "ethnic" (someplace Metromix TV-friendly). Hopefully this doesn't sound too harsh, because reallly Rios *is* worth going to. I just suspect that I'm likely to more often choose to go to Rinconcito Sudamericano (or the like) instead.

IIRC, this place is owned and operated by the son of the couple who own Riconcito Sudamericano.

The Wife and I went to Rios d'Sudamerica last night and were pleased.

It’s very hard getting beyond the great-looking appetizers, and we had several, but the standout was the causa, traditionally a layered potato salad which is something I’d never make at home (unlike, say, a grilled steak) -- too fussy and complicated and requiring a sense of balance – but I like eating stuff like this because it’s fun looking and tasty and represents the fusion of Native American foodstuffs and European fancypants finessing. The causa we had was about 5 inches tall, with layers of creamy potato, tomato, shrimp, and aji chili (there were supposed to be crispy onions, too, but we didn’t get any – in fact, several dishes were supposed to have ingredients that didn’t show up on the plate – clearly, this place has some issues to work through). Still, $8 well spent.

RdS has an ambitious menu, with a lot of traditional Peruvian dishes I’d never had before. The aji de Gallina is shredded chicken in a tomato sauce, very much like the tinga I had a few weeks ago at Rique’s, not bad, but chicken breast, so semi-doomed from the get-go, but I’m glad I had this fundamental Peruvian dish. Equally educational and more tasty was the lomo saltado, which as noted above is another traditional fusion dish, blending flavors of Peruvian pisco with Asian soy flavors, really good and for $16, a decently priced entrée.

Service was delivered by lobotomized Keystone Cops (I watched in disbelief as our server went back and forth from kitchen to bar no less than three times, never actually entering either space, but apparently remembering something, forgetting it by the time he got there, returning, remembering, forgetting, etc.), all the while avoiding eye-contact with me, as I was holding a menu and ready to order more and thus likely to further bust up his already thoroughly broken concentration. I, too, witnessed the wrong orders delivered and big tables served entrees on an awkwardly staggered basis. But we are forgiving. The place has only been open a month, and we were there on a Sunday night, so I figure with time they’ll work this stuff out. Plus, as they are still BYOB*, you can have a way better-than-average higher-end Latin American chowdown for a reasonable price.

The room is as ambitious as the menu, aiming for grand design, with huge murals of some predictability (Machu Picchu and Sao Paulo skyline) and surreality (a conquistador strolling ashore, apparently discovering an already fully constructed colonial town). Still, this is a pleasant space and the food is worthy, with enough range to satisfy most palates.

*Actually, they say they’re “Ultra BYOB,” which means they stock fresh fruit and mixers so if you bring the liquor they’ll mix the drinks for $5 a pop. $2.50 one-time corkage fee for wine or beer.

Hammond

Yes, the BYO is what puts this over the edge into really good territory, despite the service lapses. After they get the license, we'll probably go back to their Rinconcito a block away

leek wrote:Yes, the BYO is what puts this over the edge into really good territory, despite the service lapses. After they get the license, we'll probably go back to their Rinconcito a block away

leek, based on your post further up, it seems the BYOB policy is temporary -- did you ask them about this? The fact that they advertise "Ultra BYOB" on the menu and grand opening cards suggests that maybe this is a longer term marketing ploy -- and it may not be a bad one because, as you say, it's part of what makes this place a good choice.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

leek wrote:Yes, the BYO is what puts this over the edge into really good territory, despite the service lapses. After they get the license, we'll probably go back to their Rinconcito a block away

leek, based on your post further up, it seems the BYOB policy is temporary -- did you ask them about this? The fact that they advertise "Ultra BYOB" on the menu and grand opening cards suggests that maybe this is a longer term marketing ploy -- and it may not be a bad one because, as you say, it's part of what makes this place a good choice.

I didn't ask if BYO would continue after they get their license. They definitely do plan to get a license, and I believe Rinconcito has one. Next time we go, I will ask.

we went to Rios on saturday night as part of a large (16-18 ppl.) bday party; it took awhile for most of the party to show, and we occupied a large table seated just past the bar area, as there was a larger party going on in the "mezzanine" area up & to the right of the main dining room.

great visual upon walking in.....actually, even with the TVs and being somewhat dressed for the occassion, still felt like it was pretty snazzy on the whole. maybe on a weeknight you'd see more jeans, but people were really dolled up. the murals are great, just a great way to use up all that space. and let me tell you, people are LOVING this "ultra BYOB" concept -- as we waited at the bar for the rest of our group to arrive, we saw boxes upon boxes of wine & alcohol being carted in by patrons....this was actually a huge factor of why we picked the place -- to go to a nice restaurant but keep the alcohol tab a bit lower.

we absolutely LOVED our aps, which get high praise up in this thread -- both the empanadas & the ceviche (sole version) were great. really loved the flavors in the empanadas & the fish in the ceviche was really tasty & nice big chunks. my entree was a fairly standard peruvian sliced tenderloin dish with rice & sauteed onions, tomatoes, and yucca (i think). great flavor, and my leftovers with some fried eggs were perfect sunday morning!

we had one server primarily just taking care of our party, and she was GREAT! not all at "aloof" or robotic, really did a nice job with our somewhat crazed party of drinkers (we had wine, we had scotch, we had beer, i brought cachaca, etc.). she did a great job of getting peoples bottles before being seated, and very attentive throughout. knew right when i was ready for my 2nd caprinha

they were also great about storing the pumpkin cupcakes i brought for the occassion & didn't seem bothered that we brought in our own dessert. also, one person returned an appertizer that was ordered for her meal (the shrimp rellenos) as too salty, and they comped that dish without us even having to ask....

would love to hear about any other more recent opinions. the restaurant certainly filled up at the height of the evening, but i don't think there was ever a big line waiting to be seated. probably mostly reservations for a weekend night.

thanks,
miss ellen

ps, space is entirely non-smoking (i'm 99.9% certain), so great to see a new restaurant go fully non-smoking, even though they probably could've allowed it in the bar area.