El Chaman

Five starts for the food/​service, atmosphere not worth cost of food.
This restaurant is located next to a cigar shop, from the moment you walk in, there is an odd smell — somewhere between cigar and fresh scent of cleaning product… neither overwhelming but yet still present. I was starving and this place was first to come up on Unilocal,so decided to stay. Five minutes into our meal, the fire alarm started going off. The staff continued to work and didn’t seem alarmed nor concerned, which leads me to believe that this happens often. The alarm continued to go off for what seemed like an eternity to someone who suffers from migraines and has been on two hours of sleep due to having a newborn. I asked the waiter how long I could expect for alarm to last, she said owner was checking on it as it was the entire shopping center, not just the restaurant — no follow up, it just went away on own after 10 or so very long minutes.
As for food: We ordered calamari, Lomo, and chupe de camarones ALL delicious. I won’t be returning as though food was vey good, if I am paying average $ 20 a plate, I would like a more peaceful non masked smell environment.

The ceviche is very good, but in order to create the atmosphere they’re aiming for they need to dim the lights; it felt like eating at IHOP w romantic music.

Highly recommended, the food is delicious and is a beautiful place to come with your family! Not expensive for what they served.

Great Peruvian place! I have some here around 3 times and I like it more every time! The empanadas here are so amazing my mouth waters as I write! They are a must when coming here! I also love the lomo Saltado here the food presentation is great, the wait is short and the service, honestly couldn’t be better, they are constantly bring you water and clearing out the table for space. They have a great selection of food. And they have a great chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream, can’t go home without having it! I will keep coming here and I recommend for anyone that wants to have amazing traditional Peruvian food.

I’ve had almost every plate here, and they’re consistently ¹⁰⁄₁₀. The price is not even bad!

Wow for the food!!! Excellent everything we tried, although a little bit pricey. The waiter was attentive but always recommending the most expensive dishes… I know from experience that when the tip is included, the upper the bill goes, the more tip they get, but not every time the most expensive dish is the most delicious. Also the hostess was terrible! I called and reserved for 6 people at 8:30, we got there at 8:28 and she said, somebody took your reservation. I’m sorry??? How come somebody can know my exact name and number of people in the reservation? Seriously? There are bunch of excuses you can give me, but not that one! Overall the food compensated the bad service.

Best Peruvian restaurant !!! The décor, music and the food are outstanding. The risotto con lomo Saltado is the best I ever had.
My new favorite restaurant for sure!

Me recomendaron este restaurant peruano muy cerca de mi casa pero no me llamo la atencion
El lugar muy lindo, pero la comida me parecio mas o menos
El tiradito muy diferente a los q usualmente he comido
Ire nuevamente a probar otros platos

Very nice place — don’t let the strip mall location fool you. The food is above average with an occasional miss. The atmosphere is on the romantic side with periodic live music (that can sometimes be a bit loud.) all in all, we love this option for something a little nicer right here in the neighborhood. Highly recommended.

Everything is good in this restaurant !!! The food is delicious and the service is great !!! I love the music. OUR FAVORITE NEIGHBORHOOD RESTAURANT

Excellent food, reasonable prices in a warm ambiance. Portions are huge so either come with an empty stomach or bring someone to share with. The ambiance is also very pleasent, there is live music on several days.

The food is delicious and the. Service is great. And we even enjoyed live music. One of the best Peruvian restaurant in town I had the fried snapper it was fresh and delicious. For appetizer a stuffed red pepper in a cream sauce. So good a must have piiquillo pepper. The mash potatoes are home made. If you want to dress up you can but its a family atmosphere.

Omg best appetizer baked scallops and Best lomo Saltiado and Whole Fried Snapper. Wow! Favorite place near house! Hidden gem!!!

LOVE THIS PLACE! Everything is good here! Great service and ceviche! I have been there so many times and they never disappoint!

Recommendations:
Conchitas Gratinadas con camarones y salsa coral
Chupe de Camarones
Risotto con Lomo Salvaje
Honestly, everything that I have tried at this restaurant has been amazing. The waiters are very helpful and want you to enjoy your meal to the fullest.

Amazing Peruvian food, probably some of the best in Miami. The ceviche was perfect, and my seafood rissotto was to die for. We don’t normally come this way, but will definitely be revisiting this jewel of a restaurant.

I just hate when I have to give reviews like this one. Lets start by saying that the restaurant is very nicely decorated, even though it has a casual atmosphere its a classic/​traditional restaurant with gourmet variation in their menu. We went on a Saturday evening to have lunch, the restaurant was kind of empty so we were seated right away, our waitress was kind of nice until the episode im about to explain in a few. My husband ordered Ceviche and Arroz Chaufa and I ordered the Risotto with Lomo Salvaje, I think its called. The Ceviche arrived only after a couple of minutes so I just sat there waiting for my food for a long time, the Ceviche was good nothing special, it was basic, we’ve had better in other restaurants; halfway through my husbands plate my food arrived, the Rissoto was really good and the quality of the Lomo was great, tender and juicy, it was the only thing that was really good out of all the things we ordered, and the main reason why im ratting this experience with 3 stars; later on when they brought the Arroz Chaufa, my husband upon the first bite noticed that it tasted weird, so he told me that the rice was spoiled and it tasted like smoke, so he asked me to try it… as soon as I put it in my mouth i noticed it tasted like Propaine Gas and smoke, and not fresh like maybe that it was a left over rice and they had refried it, it was HORRIBLE, also very dry (and lets point out there is a difference between smoked and tasting like smoke)… we called the waitress and told her that the rice was not good, she took it to the back with no problem and later came back and started giving us attitude. She came back to our table and told us that the «Chef» said that that’s the way its suppose to taste because of the way the rice is fried in the Wok, I told her that i understood but the rice was not good, i guess she got upset and took it personal and with a nasty attitude told us again that that is the way is suppose to taste, smoked, because how its made… making gestures like we didn’t know what we where talking about or have never tasted Chaufa Rice before. At that point we were not going to argue with her since she clearly was defending the restaurant/​chef position not the consumers… so we just said OK and left it like that, she then came back and told us if you like we wont charge you for it… but the sad part is that they never offer to make another one or offer a different kind of dish instead, or admit that the disgrace of Chaufa Rice was not done properly, or most simple and ethical APOLOGIZE!!! for the inconvenience. We just chilled and without getting mad or anything, all cool told each other don’t worry will just Unilocal when we get home LOL. So here is an example of an arrogant Chef and Rude staff that don’t care about the quality of their food and wont admit when something comes bad out of their kitchen… Good Luck to them, because i wont be spending my money again on their Restaurant.

Delightful in every way! Don’t walk, ruuuun!!! Best Peruvian restaurant in Miami by a landslide. Friendly and attentive service. Ceviche Piura… Chilean sea bass with shrimp… risotto filet mignon and lobster tail… bavarois de guindones. Are you running yet?! You should be.

This place is just wonderful! We went on a Saturday night, they had live music, which at first was way too loud for a nice dim-​light dinner, but after turning the volume down a notch, the music turned out to be very pleasant. We had the ceviche sample platter, which comes with three types of ceviche: your traditional white fish, mixed seafood on Amarillo sauce, and shrimp on rocoto sauce. Outstanding! We also had the Chilean Sea Bass on shrimp chowder with vegetables and a side of risotto, it was fantastic! All went very nicely with a NZ sauvignon blanc! The Chilean Sea Bass is a chef’s special and not on their regular menu. Ask for it! Totally recommended!

food was delicious! Will defiantly come with my family. service was good but the restaurant was pretty empty, so I will write post after I come back with my family.

On a quick trip to Miami, my boyfriend and I agreed to get tattoos. Our research took us to a shop in Kendall. After getting newly inked, we were looking for a quick bite to eat in the area being that we had to catch a flight within the hour. I looked on Unilocal and based on the reviews and $ symbols, I found El Chaman.
El Chaman was such a surprise! We were both expecting a hole in the wall, luncheon style spot. Boy were we wrong but for once I was very glad to be wrong. It is such a nice restaurant, totally a date type, status.
The portions were nice and big. The food was pretty and extremely tasty! We were the only ones in the restaurant, so service wasn’t bad.