Brasa: A Peruvian Joint

Brasa is CLOSED :(
Food was gooooooood!!! Although a little salty. I shall miss you ://///

I’m a regular.
It’s closing at the end of this month, or so it seems.
You must come here and enjoy the food.
The bad reviews I read are people who don’t get this place.
This is a simple chicken and sides or bowl or salad/​rice with meat.
There is no waiter, no its not tacky to order then sit down, its that type of place.
If you want a waiter and wine and a whole bunch of stuff, go somewhere else.
If you want to just order, sit and eat some good simple food, then come here. Get a Inca Kola or a Mexican Coke, and eat yer chicken or lomo saltado, shrimp or whatever with your salad and/​or rice.
The owners are white and Peruano. It is a Peruvian rotiserie by a white guy, authentic purists, if you want the real thing go to Peru, you in Berkeley…
The chicken is always moist inside, crispy outside. It is consistently good, and I like that in chicken, the sauces are yummy. I especially like the «ensalada» which is green beans, carrots, beats and avacado in some creamy sauce, yes eat yer veggies.
The owner is a really nice down to earth guy, the other guy who takes orders is also a lil quiet but also a nice person. This place is nice because sometimes you just want to order your food and eat. We miss the pregnant lady, she was so sweet.
The place is closing in a few weeks, I highly suggest you eat the chicken once and then find a new chicken spot :(
Good luck to the owners, I hope to see them in a new spot in the near future, and congrats on their baby girl!

The food was great! I had one of their bowls. I really liked the sauce they used with the chicken. It was really good. I thought the bowl had a little too much rice for the amount of chicken I got, but other than that, the dish was great.
I’m not used to having to get my own utensils, water, etc. at a restaurant. Luckily, I was given fair warning about this before I got here. This was my first experience with all of it. It was interesting. I did not have an encounter with rude service, but I thought that they were really closed off. I know that they don’t have waiters, but they should make people feel comfortable. Ask customers if they have been there before and let them know that it is self serve. If I did not hear of this, I would have never known walking in the door.

Brasa. Great chicken dishes. Cute Patio shared with Slow, their neighbor.
I’d say go for the Bowl rather than the Sandwich option, since to me it felt like the Bowl (with rice) was slightly larger in portion. Tried both, love them. Also, their Pollo A la Brasa is just great.
I must admit this wasn’t an easy place to come with a college student budget, but definitely worth it for the experience of good, savory chicken. Very friendly staff too.
Takes Square Wallet as well, which I find very convenient because all I need is my phone.
Neatest hidden gem I’ve found in Berkeley. Definitely one of those places I want to bring my friends/​family who visit me from faraway places. Brasa, I’m glad you guys are in Berkeley and hope you would expand to South Bay too!

My friend took me here for dinner.
They have outdoor seating here! It is so pretty outside !!
We came right when they opened, and were the first guests of the night :) so we had the whole restaurant to ourselves hahaha.
She ordered a whole chicken for us. I KNOW right? A whole chicken???
We also ordered the veggie salad & sweet potato fries.
The chicken was actually pretty small !!! It was about the size of a hen. It came with 2 breasts & two thighs. It was delicious !!! Very savory, soft, and the skin was just crispy and perfect.
They gave 3 sauces to eat the chicken with, I liked the spiciest one the best. The 2 other sauces were really good too, they had some kind of mayo and other sauces/​spices in there.
The veggie salad had green beans, beats, avocado, carrots, and had a yummy mayo dressing on it. I could have eaten the salad without the dressing, it was very simple but I loved the idea of having a cold salad with the warm chicken.
Sweet potato fries were a good complement to the salad.
Oh yeah, it was my first time having Peruvian food and now I can’t wait to try other Peruvian style food.

I love coming here for some delicious rotisserie chicken and some tasty sides! Brasa has an interesting interior and modern interior where you first go to a side corner to order your food and then sit.
I’m a fan of the veggie salad– the vegetables are soft and the sauce is delicious. The ceasar salad, rice, and sweet potato fries are also very tasty sides to add to your chicken. You can choose what kind of side sauce to come with your chicken and each one varies in spiciness. Food might take a while to come out, but it is all delicious and well worth the wait.

My personal favorite place in Berkeley. I love Peruvian food, and while some say its not as good as Limon in the Mission, I think both are fantastic places that just have different strengths.
The only negative thing I can think of is their hours… they are just not open enough.
For $ 25 you get a full chicken plus several huge delicious sides, can easily feed 4 people. Every single one has been a hit with myself and the friends I’ve brought along here. Fantastic sweet potato fries, and the veggies are bomb.
They have great salads too, I grab the caesar with steak if I’m not splitting stuff with people.
I haven’t had a single issue with any of their items, and I’ve been trying to experiment more often when I stop by.
The seating in the back is in this rose garden area that I love, during sunny days it feels like you’re completely away from the hustle of berkeley and its really hard to get up and leave.

My only point of comparison is Limon Rotisserie in San Francisco, and Brasa is definitely very good in different ways.
$ 24.75 for a whole chicken with two HUGE sides (this can definitely be split between three people or two very hungry dudes/​dudettes). The chicken is less flavorful than Limon, but at Limon, you often feel like you’re loading up on unnecessary sodium. The dipping sauces were all mayo-​based, it seemed.
The sides were the winners here, especially the big salad of avocados, carrots, and beets, all with a probably not too healthy creamy dressing atop.
Chicha morada is tasty here, so get yourself some corn drink!

I will never go back to Braza again even though the food is ok. I searched for Lomo Saltado dishes throughout the Bay Area. and have been to Brasa 3 times. Each time I encountered something negative ruining the dinning experience. I wanted to like this place so much I kept coming back hoping the owners and staff would correct things. This last visit we could not even get served because they would not accept $ 100 bill for a $ 48 check. For two people 2 dishes and a glass of wine $ 48 not cheep and then not to take $ 100 bill and to top it off– extremely rude about it while blaming the owner’s rules. When asking to talk with the owner the chef spoke up again blaming the owner’s rules also unprofessional and rude. Again the food is not bad but the resturaunt has to many negative issues to go back.
1. All 3 times order taker is rude and unhelpful!
2. Ordering in the corner up front paying first is tacky.
3. The TV monitor menu is confusing everyone in line then asks the order taker (not waitress) to clarify, that is probably why she is so rude and irritated always answering the same questions.
4. Portions are extremely small. I have to order two Lomo Saltado dishes to be satisfied compared to other Peruvian restaurants. Ps not enough «papas» French fries in the Lomo Saltado (personal taste)
5. Don’t even think of ordering a glass of wine unless you know how many ounces you want. This isn’t a wine bar with a great selection of nice wines. When we asked for two glasses of red wine she states they are served by the ounce so I asked for a bottle. The order taker then said they didn’t have an entire bottle left but how many ounces would we like? Ok by that time I’m pulling my hair out just pour me a glass of wine and let us sit down. BUT NO we will not except your $ 100 bill. I hope the owner realizes he not only lost a $ 48 check that night but a customer for life worth thousands of dollars in revenue plus the bad review.
We then went next store to SLOW which I walked by each time commenting on how good it smells and that I would like to try it. The Food, quaint well decorated atmosphere, service was GREAT! The Chef even went around to each table making sure the guests were happy. The price was the same $ 49 for two and they even took my hundred dollar bill and thanked me for my patronage and hoped we come back, WOW ! SLOW appears to be Much more healthy choice resturaunt with very fresh ingredients. I was a Bit intimidated by the Oxtail tail and other items on the menu but was very happy. The plate presentation and aromas at SLOW are wonderful. To be fair I’m not sure yet if SLOW was that good or that the experience at Brasa was so bad it made SLOW look, feel, smell and taste so good, So we will be going back to SLOW again and I will review it on Unilocal with a fresh experience.
Dear Owner of Brasa I really wanted to like your resturaunt giving it several chances. I even brought all of my employees one time. I wanted you to be successful. Please take this review as constructive criticism to improve and grow Brasa. Good Luck
Anthony L.

Those ALFAJORES (Dulce de Leche cookies covered in powdered sugar) are so yummy!
You get two big cookies and they are worth every bite.
I’ve been trying to find a place who has em, and I am glad I stumbled upon this place.
It’s a nice way to end your meal :)

This is the culmination of 3 reviews.
Shortly after the grand opening, my co-​worker & I took away lunch after a morning meeting marathon. I got Pollo a la Brasa over rice. The rice was a little mushier than I normally like. The yellow sauce was good but I sort of wished it was spicy. The chicken was the best part because it remained moist even after being shredded up.
A couple months ago during an all day training, I wanted to get something different for lunch to spice up the monotony. I got a Shrimp lettuce bowl. The sauces on top weren’t too thick so they made a nice dressing for the otherwise dry lettuce. The shrimps were large, plentiful, & really perfectly cooked. This is probably not Peruvian but I really wished the shrimps had some heat to them to contrast the creamy sauces.
A few weeks ago, my co-​workers & I were having a lunch gathering in the rose garden & I got the Lomo saltado with lettuce. The fires were interesting & the steak was really well cooked. I was told the spicy sauce was really spicy so I got it on the side; that was a good choice. I guess I finally got the spice I wanted so badly before, huh?
The service is spectacular & friendly every single time. When a colleague & I couldn’t get a table on the outside patio, the chef changed our order to to-​go & apologized. An extra thumbs-​up for being green & emailing/​texting customers their receipts.

Alan and I had lunch at Brasa today. I think if we had eaten in the restaurant itself it would have negatively affected our experience because the front door was open, the restaurant was empty and w/​o color and it didn’t feel welcoming or comfortable. But we didn’t. We ate on the back patio, which is shared by Slow and maybe Amsterdam Café. The outdoor eating areas are kept separate so the servers from the different restaurants don’t have to search too hard to find their respective patrons.
This is an order at the counter place. There were three young women studying the large menu on the wall at the same time as we were. The man behind the counter was patient and friendly as we tried to decide what we wanted. The three young women decided first, so he started to take their order before he was replaced by a woman who was returning from break. She seemed a little less patient than he had been, although she was nice to us.
We ordered simply, a quarter chicken w/​a side of Caesar salad for me and a pulled chicken sandwich w/​a side of sweet potato fries for Alan. I ordered the purple corn drink just because of the name and Alan had water. After first considering a table inside, we went out back, where we found a table in the sun. Brasa’s portion of the patio is more a deck, elevated above the other, larger section that’s shared by the other two restaurants. The garden is filled w/​roses and they are in glorious bloom. It was one of the most beautiful settings I’ve seen. The roses are all healthy and well tended. On the east side of the Slow section there is an arbor w/​a climbing rose growing over it and a table for two underneath it. The tables were filled w/​people enjoying their meals. Soon ours were delivered. Both sides were described as small, but they seemed quite generous to me. My chicken, a thigh and a leg, was moist and flavorful. The salad was good, though the dressing could have had a little more lemon and garlic. Alan’s sandwich was on a roll that was solid and tasty w/​o being too much bread. There was a hint of spice in the filling that made me glad I hadn’t ordered it, but Alan was pleased. The fries were crisp and delicious. The purple corn drink was refreshing w/​the food.
As good as the food was, the star of the experience for me was the garden. I could have sat there for hours, admiring the roses. I would have, but Alan soon enough grew restless and we left. Before leaving we bussed our dishes as directed by the helpful sign, putting everything away. It was a lovely dining experience. Brasa will have to work on warming up their interior w/​color and a heater, or at least a closed front door, to be as appealing when the weather cools and we can no longer sit out among the roses.

Really tasty chicken! Had the pollo lettuce bowl and beef heart with fries. The bf ordered chicharron lettuce bowl. I have to admit, I wouldn’t order the pork again, it was a little dry and nothing too special but that’s the typical story when it comes to pork loin. The large pile of shredded chicken on the salad was really tasty and the aji amarillo sauce was super good and generous. Remember to order the sauce on the side if you don’t like your salad to be covered in a slightly spicy cream sauce.
The beef heart was super seasoned and covered in tasty grease which, along with a drizzle of sauce, flavored the fries like no other. I like my ketchup with fries (yes, in that order) and I did not miss my ketchup here! The beef heart grease softened the fries and gave it such a delicious flavor. The girl behind the counter was helpful and matter-​of-​factly stated that the beef heart and fries was the most delicious thing on the menu aside from the chicken and offered to replace the fries with salad or rice if we liked.
I like that you can order wine by the ounce $ 1/​oz and they had 2 kinds of Fat Tire on tap. I’d like to try the Inca Cola and purple corn drink next time.

My rating is solely on the food! Best tasting chicken in downtown berkeley. I dont really like white meat but damn it was juicy and tender. My chicharron sandwich was amazing, had a good amount of spicyness to it, and the alfajores, 2^nd best in the bay. Big, kinda sweet, and good size. As for drinks, as everyones reviews said, and i wholeheartedly agree, very refreshing on this hot summer day, my dad had the inca cola which we first tried at the brasil café which too was like a cross between a bubble gum cream soda which is one of my favorite ethnic drinks.
The service SUCKED! The lady making the alfajores gave me little ice for our drinks and sooner melted as soon as we walked outside. The guy working the register or ipad, was not that attentive, and we literally had to tell him we were ready for dessert and i really wanted to try a sample of the purple corn drink, and the lady seemed like an idgaf, do u wanna buy it type! But how will i know what it tastes like if i dont have a small sample? We are giving you our business for your establishment, but whatever, the food was good, thats all that matters!

As their name implies, Pollo a la Brasa (Peruvian roast chicken) is the signature dish at Brasa: A Peruvian Joint. They also have sandwiches and rice bowls that you can get with chicken, pork, beef (lomo saltado), shrimp, or tofu as well as Salchipapas (sausage) and Anticuchos (beef heart skewer) both served with fries.
The price for the ¼ chicken ($ 9) is on par with other spots like Limon in SF, but the ½ and whole are a few $ more here ($ 22 for whole here vs. $ 20 @ Limon & $ 18 @ Inkas or $ 19 @ Zaki). Anticuchos are cheaper here vs. Limon or Inkas, but unsure how the serving sizes compare.
Anyway, I got the ¼ chicken with a side of sweet potato fries. You can choose regular fries, sweet potato fries, white rice, caesar salad, or veggie salad (beet & avocado) for sides (sweet potato fries & veggie salad are +$ 0.50) as well as white or dark meat and I went with dark (
)
The chicken was juicy with a nice crispy skin. Seasoning was uneven; it was really salty in spots. By default it comes with the mildly spicy Aji Amarillo sauce. They also have Rocoto and Huacatay sauces you can get (+$ 0.50 if you want extra sauces).
Sweet Potato Fries had burned tips on many of them (see pic), but the body of them wasn’t overcooked. Seemed like the tips dried out waiting from being pre-​cut a while before being fried.
Chicken: 3.5−4 stars
Fries: 2.5 stars

I ordered take-​out from Brasa two weeks ago. My girlfriend and I split a half-​chicken, an avocado and beet salad, and an order of sweet potato fries.
The potato fries were nothing to write home about. The chicken was well-​cooked, and was tasty even after a walk home in a take-​out container. The seasoning on the chicken was tasty. The salad featured good produced, but was absolutely covered in some kind of dressing that really masked good veggie flavors. Sad. The entire meal came out just north of $ 25, which was a decent value given that we had leftovers.
I think I’d go back to Brasa, but I’d probably just stick to the chicken,

My experience was very mixed:
The Good:
The food. Chicken wasn’t that dry and came nicely presented on a clean white dish. I liked the creamy aji sauce. Loved the veggie salad. Assorted cooked veggies with dressing and went well with the chicken. There is a choice between white and dark meat. The white is the breast with wing and dark is thigh and leg.
Fries were good but nothing that special.
The maracuya fruit juice, not too sweet or sour. Reminded me of the ones I’ve tried in Peru.
The price is okay, but the portions are on the small side. If my friend and I were hungrier we probably could have eaten ½ a chicken with the anticuchos.
The not so good:
The anticuchos were not tender. They were hard to chew through.
I got some more chicken to go for a friend, and I asked for the receipt, and the cashier basically just forgot about it due to the influx of other customers.
There was no mention of the extra cost for take out (even though it wasn’t much, it would still be nice to know that there was an extra cost).
The way they calculate the cost of the meal is very unclear.
ex. the ¼ chicken is 7.50 but since I ordered the veggie salad, it came out to be $ 8. There was no mention of this either. They have a small add 0.50 next to it on the menu… but I didn’t know this meant an additional cost if I ordered it with my ¼ chicken.

Things were pretty good here and considering how new they are, I’m willing to go back a few more times to try out other menu items and see how they continue to improve.
We went last saturday night and got a steak bowl and half chicken combo to split between three people. I was sad that they were out of sweet potato fries and a friend was sad that they were out of the beef hearts by the time we got there. We also wanted to try the soju cocktails, but they weren’t serving those that night so we settled for the tasty passion fruit and corn drinks.
I liked the passion drink more, it tasted like it had a fizz to it, but my companions enjoyed the corn drink more.
The veggie salad was also quite good and fresh which was a nice complement to the rest of the meal. Everything else was a bit too salty.
We may come back to try the sweet potato fries and the peruvian cookies. I would love to come back once they start serving the soju drinks, especially if they start having a happy hour.

This is a pretty good joint!
I phoned up ahead of time for a takeout lunch, asking for an order of chicken with the «two included sides.» It turns out that you get one side with your quarter-​chicken. I was asked two questions: (1) what kind of sauce do you want? (2) which side do you want? During the ensuing discussion, I was pretty much ordered to get the yellow sauce on the grounds that I had never had Peruvian chicken before. The yellow is apparently the mildest; it looks a bit like Dijon mustard but tastes a lot better. The two more serious choices were described as packing some heat, and I’ll definitely go with one of those the next time around. The sides are all either fries or salads — I think that I got that right. I chose the caesar salad and hoped for the best.
My lunch was waiting for me when I arrived. I handed over $ 8.16 and walked away with a paper bag containing two small cardboard clamshells and a napkin wrapped around a fork and knife. My chicken was a white-​meat quarter. I had secretly hoped for question #3, which they never asked me: do you want white meat or dark meat? I would have selected the dark meat and plan to ask for it next time. The white meat was a tad dry, though the yellow sauce was an excellent moistening agent! The chicken was a small one and had the look and feel of something that had been blessed by an organic farmer. I don’t know where these guys source their poultry and didn’t feel inclined to ask. I’ll say for sure that my first experience with Peruvian takeout chicken was a positive one. There was a great primal pleasure in tearing the meat apart and dipping pieces into the sauce.
The caesar salad was large and excellent. I loved the salad dressing, which came in a small plastic container that was identical to the container with the yellow sauce for the chicken. (The caesar dressing was white, and the container had a «C» that had been sharpied on top of it.) The romaine lettuce, cheese and croutons were all first-​rate.

Delicious! I love the new incarnation of the Laramie vision. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this opening and wasn’t disappointed. Joined by my foodie friend to try it out, we ordered a good mix from the menu to get a feel for the place. Of course I got the Chicken, a half Rotisserie Combo (choice of 2 sides) I got sweet potatoe fries and a nice veggie salad that included beets, carrots, avocado and green beans. My friend ordered the Shrimp Rice Bowl and we shared an order of the Skewered Beef Hearts over fries and some passion fruit juice to wash it down.
The chicken was very good, moist and the seasoning was flavorful but not overpowering. You also get to choose 2 dipping sauces out of three available. The sauces had tough to pronounce names, but I just called them, red, yellow and green. My fav was the green. I would still rank Zaki’s rotisserie above this chicken, but he’s been doing it much longer. The veggie salad was the perfect side, clean and refreshing and pretty sizeable. The sweet potatoe fries weren’t as crispy as I would have hoped, possibly cut too thin, but they were seasoned and ok.
My friend raved about the Shrimp Rice bowl. Large bowl, it came with 6 or 7 large, sauteed and sauced tiger shrimp. The shrimp were crisp and beautifully done. I only had a taste, but was very impressed by the offering.
I ordered the Beef Heart Skewers not realizing it would come over fries. This came seasoned, grilled and with a dipping sauce also. On the menu it’s sort of listed as a fun app, but I could totally see myself just ordering this alone and noshing on it with a beer. I just thing beef heart is something we don’t see enough of on menus. And the potatoe fries there were sitting on? freshly cut and very good.
I was curious about something called Purple Corn Drink on the menu, and they gave us a sample to try, and it is AMAZING. Light, refreshing, mildly sweet with a hint of cinnamon and clove. I am definitely getting this next time I go back, which I hope to be very soon.