Rafael Osterling's Picnic is Ushering in a Smorgasbord of New Flavors
Picnic is a new restaurant in San Isidro with a retro-modern vibe offering an international menu built around a core of cevichería dishes.
Where else in Lima can you order Ceviche, Korean chicken, Schnitzel, Curry, and Spaghetti & Meatballs from the same menu? Whether or not it’s a good idea to pack all of this in one menu is up for debate. I’ll provide my take at the end.
Whenever I leave Lima, choosing where to have our final-for-now lunch is usually tough. This time it was a no-brainer. Picnic had just opened days ago, and we leaped at the opportunity to get our first taste of Chefs Rafael Osterling and Rodrigo Alzamora’s new offering.
I don’t generally follow chefs that closely, but Chef Osterling’s food has been interlaced with pivotal moments in my life. Chef Osterling is the chef behind El Mercado, the restaurant where Mariela and I met. It was also the place where I first tried Peruvian ceviche. Rafael, his namesake restaurant, was another one of Mariela and my first dates. His Felix Pizza pandemic popup delivered us pizzas that delighted the senses at the time we needed it.
The Ambiance
The restaurant is a bit hidden. We knew what we were looking for, but it still took us a little circling to find the stairs leading down to the restaurant.
I especially love the patio which lets in just enough natural light, making it feel like you’re enjoying a picnic in the shade at a park. The large dining area adjacent to the patio was a bit dark, and the structure felt a bit different, more like a mountain lodge.
With a theme like Picnic, it’s easy to be too on the nose. You could imagine the restaurant serving food out of Picnic baskets or even having guests sit on blankets draped on the floor. Luckily, Picnic steers clear of that and provides just the right amount of reference to its namesake. Check out the tableware, for example:
There are many beautiful touches throughout the restaurant. Even the coasters pop.
The Menu
There was no menu posted on the website or Instagram. The only thing I knew going in was that there was going to be ceviche and pasta which is a bit obvious if you’ve been to Chef Osterling’s other restaurants. However, I did not expect to find Korean Fried Chicken or Schnitzel.
Chef Rafael Osterling is known for elevated Peruvian cuisine with international touches. As alluded to above, the initial menu at Picnic is a bit eclectic. It takes the international touches that I associate with Chef Osterling’s style and amps them up.
The menu packs a lot of diverse dishes in a relatively compact menu. The menu is neatly organized into Pequeos (starters), Sanguches (sandwiches), Entradas (Appetizers), and Fondos (Mains). Ceviche, the first thing I look for in a Peruvian menu is included as an Entrada.
It’s difficult to summarize the menu without listing all of the dishes. For example, the Pequeos has just three dishes, but it features Middle Eastern flavors (hummus), Asian flavors (Korean fried chicken), and Italian flavors (Stracciatella).
Jumping to the mains, where we ended up in decision paralysis, there’s ravioli in buttermilk and spaghetti and meatballs, their version of Sudado, Thai curry, and … Schnitzel.
With six dishes, the dessert menu was disproportionately large (not that we’re complaining). The most classic dessert was the Crema Volteada. The dessert menu had a strong American presence with French Toast, NY Cheesecake, and an Ice Cream Sandwich.
The cocktail menu was decidedly summery with a whole section for spritzes and into verano. There was a good mix of cocktails with Pisco and other spirits. There’s also a section for negronis if you want something a tad bit bolder.
What We Ordered
We had to start with the Korean Fried Chicken. As an aside, Korean food is starting to emerge on the Lima food scene with restaurants like La Mar experimenting with Kimchi and a couple of Korean restaurants gaining popularity.
The chicken was tangy and well-prepared. A very solid start.
The Ceviche featured lenguado (sole) and a tortita (corn cake), an homage to the Northern-style of ceviche that is very popular in Lima nowadays. The leche de tigre was very liquidy which is a style that has been waxing and waning in popularity over the last few years. Personally, we think that this style of ceviche works better with a little more acidity.
Next, we had the Bun Chorrilanos, a sandwich inspired by the fish sandwiches you get from small shacks in Chorrilos or Callao. This version substitutes the traditional pejerrey (silverside, a fish that has traditionally been inexpensive) for lenguado, a luxurious fish.
The sandwich featured the same fish as the ceviche. I always enjoy trying an ingredient multiple ways in the same meal, and I never had lenguado fried so it was an interesting experience. After giving Mariela a bite (she doesn’t enjoy fish sandwiches nearly as much as I do), I quickly devoured the rest.
We got stuck on the main. I wanted to try the Spaghetti & Meatballs since Chef Osterling is a master at pasta, but we didn’t end up ordering it. Why not? With all of the commotion of packing and preparing for a red eye the next day, I just didn’t feel that I could handle the switch from cevichería fare to Spaghetti & Meatballs.
After going through the list of mains one by one, we decided that we were simply not feeling any of the mains so we decided to skip to the dessert which was a much easier choice. We went with the ice cream sandwich which features roasted apple, vanilla ice cream, and salted caramel in between two layers of Kouign Amann.
Finally, we ordered two cocktails—the chic sour and mi vida colada, the house versions of a Pisco sour and Piña Colada, respectively. They were refreshing and went well with the meal.
This Happened
I was sitting facing the wall, but Mariela could see everything. She spotted Chef Osterling and whispered to me, “he’s here.” I was surprised but not surprised. It made sense that he’d be there in person to oversee the first week. But at the same time, with his packed schedule, he’s been one more of the elusive chefs. Regardless, kudos to Mariela for making this photo happen.
Parting Thoughts
Overall, we enjoyed our lunch at Picnic and will be back. It takes time for new restaurants to find their groove, and Picnic is already most of the way there.
The hangups we had in choosing a main were very specific to us and how we were feeling in the moment so it’s not a critique of the menu. Having said that, I hope they fill out the menu a little to provide more natural groupings within the menu.
Now that I’ve had more time to look at the menu, I see that there are multiple paths through the menu:
You can have a wonderful Italian-inspired meal (Stracciatella, Tonnato, and pasta), a cevichería lunch (Ceviche Altamar, Fried Fish Sandwich, and the Corvinilla Costa Brava), or an Asian fusion meal (Korean Fried Chicken and Pesca Curry Thai).
Or you can enjoy a couple of cocktails with some small plates for snacks which seems to be what the other tables around us were doing.
You can just go for it and have your ceviche with schnitzel.
A lot of my favorite restaurants are the ones that challenge me. I look forward to seeing how Picnic evolves and how our perspective on it changes. Maybe, I will have my ceviche with spaghetti and meatballs next time.
Picnic is located at Tudela & Varela 191, San Isidro, Lima. You can follow them at @picnicclubpe.
Check out my thoughts on other restaurants in Peru in the restaurant notes section (I will start posting new notes in May but there are already several to check out).
Thanks for another fun article. My wife and I are heading to lima right now. Any suggestions?
Your personal anecdotes and insights into each dish add an extra layer of authenticity to the review. I look forward to hearing more about your future culinary posts.