Cafe Cusco

Be Patient in getting there. Commercial Street is coming back… The food is SO worth it.
Go upstairs if you have the legs for steep stairs… or sit in the huge booths downstairs.
Note…the owner also owns the spice shop across the street. Keep on smelling!

Food was fresh, good service, I am coming back for more.
5 Stars

This place is EXCELLENT! Great food & service. They also have a store across the street that sell teas and spices.

A gem of a restaurant! And especially accommodating for those with food allergies, like me and my family. Wonderful gluten-​free options, from appetizers to dessert!
Our waiter was attentive and knowledgeable and talented at describing the dishes.
The décor was cool. And to top it off, we were entertained by a live guitarist!

NO ONE is doing it like these guys. The vibe is low key, cozy, personal, and inviting. But the menu… oh my. The menu is far and away the best and most inventive in town. Add in the fact that my wife and I are vegetarians and this place has the most quality options for us of any restaurant in the area, and it’s easy to see why this is my favorite place in the Ozarks.

Love the atmosphere and the service. J
The food is so fresh. Hibby jad the trout and really enjoyed it. I had the chicken aji verde. Yum
I will try to make this a regular place when going through Springfield.

This is our first time to try peruvian food and I must say we’re all for it! We were impressed with their fried guacamole, chicken verde and ceviche taco plate. We will definitely be looking forward to another sumptuous meal at Café Cusco whenever we get back here in Springfield.

Very good and different than your usual boring springfield mo food. If your wanting a nice place to eat that isn’t your same Olé same Olé go check this place out.

Stopped in during a road trip. Fantastic food and pisco sours. I am a big trout fan and the black olive and garlic trout with a spicy pisco sour hit the spot. Great ambiance and guitar player made my long day.
What a place, what a find. Thanks again Unilocalers.

Our second time. Today they have a guitar player great ambiance. I’ve ordered the ceviche again. It’s very fresh and large portion. After seeing another table order Tequenos, we just had to try it. Wow. They have caused us to never want to order mozzarella sticks.
The steak facilities are spectacular. Wow.

Yesterday (10-​17-​2015) was my first visit to Café Cusco. I was part of a larger group (9 persons), and we were seated upstairs.
I know groups are harder because the food has to be served all at the same time, but our wait time to receive our food was excessively long. An hour and a half. It took 20 minutes just to get our drinks.
The food itself was really really good. I had the Loma Saltado, and it had very good flavor! I was quite surprised because this was my first time eating Peruvian food. The only complaint I would have about the food is that there was more red peppers than meat and potatoes combined.
Be careful of the cocktails. My partner had one and said it was the most watered down drink he’d had in a long time. It may have supposed to be that way though.
The décor is fantastic! Very hip and trendy and I enjoyed the old building immensely.
Our meal for two, with a soda, water, one cocktail, 2 Loma Saltado’s, and a shared dessert was $ 60.00 (including tip). This is way beyond what we can normally afford to spend for one meal, but since it was a special occasion, we splurged.
The lighting upstairs is very dim, especially in the corner we were seated. At one point, our waiter had to turn on a flashlight and shine it on my menu for me to see the dessert options.
Again, I was very satisfied with the freshness and taste of the food! I wasn’t sure, going into it, that I would like the taste of anything, never having eaten Peruvian food. So I was pleasantly surprised in that regard!
In the end, Café Cusco is a very nice restaurant with good food! I would definitely go back, but I’d have to be a little more careful of pricey options. I’m sure with only two people dining, the wait time for food would be considerably less.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try this! The location is wonderful (easily found street parking) and the ambiance is stunning inside. Very earthy and South American, I absolutely love it.
As if the atmosphere wasn’t wonderful enough, the food was out of this world! I went with friends and we tried several things: the sweet potato noodles, fried guacamole, beef heart kebobs (anticuchos pabre; hands down the best morsel we shared), burgers, sweet potato fries, veggie bean & quinoa soup: it was all incredible.
The third amazing thing was the service. All the servers working that day were great, helpful, and friendly. I myself wondered out loud what something was another server was carrying, and he totally heard me, back-​peddled, and told me it was the shrimp cocktail with a golf sauce. I’m totally getting that next time. I can’t wait to go back!

Good tasty food. Probably not authentic Peruvian but Peruvian inspired. Was better than average. Ambience and service was excellent. We tried trout and Loma saltado, and both were acceptable. It is just a feeling that it was not authentic, the way usual vegetables were added (lots of red bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and olives in trout dish, similar stuff in Loma saltado). The rice was not cooked properly and was dry.

Café cusco came highly recommended by a lot of friends. Being new to Springfield, I’m always open to try a new restaurant out.
It is beautiful… The décor is stunning I will admit. The backstory plainly displayed on their menu (a touch that I love) is whimsical and cute as well. But to put it simply… Their food simply is not that good.
The rice was dried out as well as their tortillas and their was not a kid friendly option at all to their menu. Which may or may not interest other food goers.

We just had an awesome lunch at Cuzco Café! It was amazing! The Pisco Sour was prepared to perfection. Then I had Chupe, I had not had it for quite a while and it was delicious. My husband had the ‘Pork/​Rice/​Peruvian seasoned dish and also was amazing!
Our stop in this wonderful restaurant, was well worth it, on our way back from Florida to Lawrence KS. We were fortunate to be hosted by Ryan, who could not have been more professional and nice!
Hope this place would be closer to KS… We will be there very often!!!

Friendly staff; everyone ordered and enjoyed their meal. however, I found the tilapia to have a almost dusty taste so I would personally avoid the tilapia dishes. Chicken and steak dishes were phenomenal!
Esp. Chicken para Rayos & the loma saltado!
Ps get the coconut tres leche dessert!
But very authentic since we’ve been to Peru;)
Ambiance is very fun and loved the live classical guitar with dinner.

What an amazing little experience! Café Cusco is great! My wife and I stopped in here on our date night and I am glad we did. Our waiter was very prepared and prompt. He explained the intricate, I say intricate because to my non Peruvian experienced palette it was overwhelming, menu very professionally and gave us wonderful advice that my wife and I both took. The food was absolutely amazing. My wife and I both ordered the Loma Saltado which is dangerous in my opinion for both to order the same thing at a new restaurant but we were both grateful that we did. I ate my entire entrée which isn’t typically my thing. That just goes to show how wonderful it tasted. I can’t wait to take my wife back to this beautiful little place!

Considering Ive never had a real Peruvian cuisine experience (I’m not counting Tineo since I only ordered sandwich), I wasn’t sure what to expect. There are plenty ingredients they use that Ive had before, but never in combination.
First off, this place has a wonderful atmosphere! I personally enjoy the ground level to the balcony level, but to each their own. The waiting staff is quite friendly and are helpful when it comes to recommendations. I started of with the fried guacamole, and then had the puca picante with pork as my entrée. My friend ordered the tamale. Its labeled under an appetizer, but it you eat small meals, then this can easily be an entrée.
The fried guacamole was certainly different. The mango sauce that they used was a little weird for my taste. My friend really liked it, but I thought the mango was a little too sweet. The batter they used was very light and was certainly not state fair deep fried.
The puca picante I had was also quite an experience. Its hard for me to compare it to anything I’ve had, but I enjoyed it. The mixture of peanuts, pork, spinach, potatoes, and honey all worked quite well together. I would say I wish the potato slices were half the size, since it was hard getting all the ingredients in one bite, but that’s a minor issue. My friend’s tamale was quite moist and had a good flavor. We both wished there was a little spice added to it, but oh well.
This is quite a cultural gem in Springfield. I would have never imagined eating Peruvian food in this town. If you’re in the mood for something different, come here!

I came here for lunch with my parents on our way back to Kansas City from Branson. They were celebrating their birthdays and we decided upon this restaurant after the raving reviews on Unilocal.
True enough, this little gem lives up to its hype. First of all, the service was fantastic. Unike a lot of other reviewers, I’m not a stickler on service as long as the food is good. But it’s always a bonus when your server gives good recommendations. She was polite, friendly and very helpful. She recommended the Aji de Gallina (which was fantastic!) and the Escebeche Wahoo (very tasty!). We also got the ceviche starter and a soup.
Overall, the food was absolutely delicious and really captures the essence of Peruvian cuisine — a fusion of different spices and cooking method from their diverse culture.
To top it off, the owner and his mother came by our table during the end of the meal and spoke with my parents. They even gave us a complimentary tres leches as a birthday treat! Yes, it was delicious!
I would highly recommend this place because, let’s be honest, how often does one get to eat authentic Peruvian cuisine in Missouri?

What do you want rated?
* Great staff and owner interaction with patrons?
* Relaxing atmosphere that is only accented by its history?
* Comparable prices to chain restaurants but without the cookie-​cutter taste and quickly cooled food?
* Authentic dishes that are as delicious to the eyes as to the stomach?
Wow! Each of these points are made even with our late evening visit on a Wednesday. The dishes were fresh and stayed warm during our meal. They were still having patrons come in as we left at 8:00 and were making cozy spots to sit away from the doorway.
We had the Black Olive Trout and the Pollo Oliva. I can’t wait to try some of the other suggestions!