Nazca

Nazca is a prime spot for high-quality Peruvian cuisine. Located in American Fork near the main street exit, it’s not too far out of the way for anybody living in the Northern part of Utah valley, and is definitely worth a trip. The restaurant is located in a strip of stores and can easily be missed if you’re not looking for it. Although the location makes it seem like it would be a cheap, run-down restaurant, it is actually rather up-scale and new. There’s plenty of places to sit and the area is very well kept and clean. If you’re looking for a fancy, sit-down meal that’s out of the ordinary for Utah, this is the place to go.

The menu of Nazca is rather small, but still has a pretty wide variety of options to choose from. We chose two different authentic Peruvian dishes, chicken lomo soltado and mahi-mahi ceviche. Lomo soltado is a stir-fried dish served with meat, sliced red onion, peppers, steak-fries, and rice, all covered in a delicious sauce. This classic dish is offered with your choice of chicken, steak, or shrimp at Nazca. I ordered the chicken, and it was amazing! It was probably some of the best chicken I have ever had. This dish also came with a lovely donut shaped pile or rice. I ate it with the sauce and it was great. The fries that come on this dish are also really good. They are not like McDonald’s fries, were they can be soggy and super salty. These fries are thick, soft but not soggy, and not too salty. They taste great.

Ceviche is lemon-cured seafood served with thinly cut ribbons of red onions. The options for ceviche included mahi-mahi, shrimp, and a seafood mix. You can choose a level of spiciness between 1 and 5, which can get very, very spicy. The ceviche came with baked nuts on a giant leaf of lettuce, special corn (that are absolutely huge), and flowers (which are edible). The fish was very spicy. The nuts were really good. Nothing like nuts you find in trail mix, candies, or the store. They taste really good. The flowers didn’t have a taste to them, but the waitress was very excited for us to try them as we ate our food.

Both meals were super filling and absolutely delicious. The waitress was very nice and recommended plates that are better to try for your first time eating Peruvian food. There were not a lot of people there, but we also got there around 2pm, so the lunch rush was already over. The restaurant was very clean and organized. The hostess made sure to sit us down where there wouldn’t be any sunlight in our eyes as we ate our food. The plates can be a bit pricey, but it is absolutely worth it. I had never had Peruvian food before, and I thought both dishes were amazing. The restaurant has lots of pictures of Peru and Machu Picchu which is cool to see. You will truly feel like you are visiting a restaurant in Peru while you are here!