Inca’s Restaurant and Bar
120-20 Queens Boulevard,
Kew Gardens
718-263-6767

Cuisine: Peruvian

Hours: Sun - Thurs, Noon-11; Fri - Sat, noon-1 a.m

Parking:  Street

Credit Cards Accepted:  All major

If you’ve never been to Peru, no need to worry. Your travel shortcomings can be taken care of with Queens cuisine from the mountainous South American country. 

Located across Queens Boulevard from Borough Hall, Inca’s welcomes guests with a blue color scheme, rock garden, and etchings in the stone walls that resemble the ancient Incan culture.

The lunch menu at Inca’s provides a quick getaway from the bustle of Queens. For a native Peruvian dish, try Ceviche de Corvina ($10.95), a diced fillet of sea trout served with yuca, and sweet potato. 

If you’re not a fan of fish, give the Entrana Sandwich ($6.95) the go-ahead, as the grilled skirt steak served on Italian bread is terrific.  Lunchtime diners at Inca’s may want to just escape the Queens wintertime cold with an item from the diverse soup menu.

For dinner, Inca’s does not disappoint, and the Arroz Con Mariscos ($16.95) — yellow rice cooked with shrimp, calamari, octopus, scallops, and New Zealand mussels — is an excellent choice.  Seafood lovers may also want to try the Corvina Frita ($13.95), fried sea trout with toasted potatoes.

If you’re going to visit the Andes with a taste for meat, Inca’s will prepare you for what Peru has to offer.  Among the splendid dinner menu choices are Seco de Cordero ($12.95) — lamb stew in a red pepper sauce with white rice and beans — and Seco de Costillas ($12.95), short ribs cooked in a cilantro stew with white rice and beans.

The restaurant also offers “family style” meals for Queensites who want to the kids for a taste of Peru.

After dinner at Inca’s, don’t pass up the opportunity to sample some of South America’s sweetest desserts.  Native to Peru are Alfajores ($2.50), a cookie pastry filled with dulce de leche, which may only be passed up for Mazamorra Morada ($4.75), a sweet blend of raisins, prunes, pineapples, and green apples that tastes like jelly.