A night of celebrations for a dear friend brought us to the Peruvian restaurant, Yakumanka (by Gaston Acurio), in the Madarin Oriental, Geneva. As I’d never been to the hotel before, I took it as my duty to arrive early for a pre-dinner drink and scope out the bar. While I was dressed for dinner, in the stuffy bar I felt a bit lady-of-the-night-esque. Which, actually you could see for this bar as it was defo not clean. It had the low, sunken furniture of a tired airport lounge, with crumbs and newspapers throughout to really seal the vibe. While some tables received apero nibbles with their orders, I did not. One lukewarm glass of champagne would be it…. so…skip apero at the Mandarin and run towards the delicious Yakumanka instead.

See the flowers, hang a right, do not pass go.

The restaurant was far more casual than what the Mandarin was trying to do, so it felt a bit like a campish, fun surprise, with all of its many fishing nets strewn about as decor. The cocktails were delicious! (Unheard of in Switzerland) and we started with this artful whitefish ceviche which was as delicious as it was beautiful.

Then moved to a red tuna dish, which was good, but not as good as the whitefish counterpart.

Of course there were yucca fries with spicy mayo- great while hot, less so later.

We each had a beef empanada- standout is still the ceviche!

Shared the lomo saltado main which was wayyyy heavy.

And finished with a coconut tres leches cake which we hated as did the table next to us- no one was eating this dessert!

The dinner started off on a high note with fish and yucca fries, but as each new dish came out of the kitchen, we were less and less impressed. I would indeed return, and absolutely be thrilled to, I just now know what to order- the classic fish and chips, or in this case, ceviche and yucca fries.