Social
Av. la Paz 1099
Miraflores 15074
Lima
Peru
Telephone: +51-1-200-8000
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/peru/hilton-lima-miraflores-LIMMFHH/dining/index.html
Overall rating: 6/10
Date of visit: October 2016
We found Social by looking at Tripadvisor, and then I found some special they were running at certain times of the week, which made me think that this was a good but cheap restaurant. When we arrived, we found out that it was an expensive restaurant. The restaurant is on the ground level of the Hilton Hotel.
In any case, I believe Social also offer a tasting menu, but we went a la carte, as we weren’t super hungry. The prices here include taxes as well as “recargo por consumo” (rec. cons.), which is basically an automated tip included on the bill.
I went for a glass of juice, priced at 14 sol (€4) and a bottle of water, priced at 9 sol (€2.50), and my girlfriend had a glass of red wine, priced at 36 sol (€10)
To share we ordered octopus as a starter, priced at 36 sol (€10). This came with lentils, vegetables and edible flowers. Octopus and squid is often served spiced with chili, which is something I will never learn to understand, as it overpowers the flavour. This was also the case here, and we both felt it was too spicy – also my Peruvian girlfriend who enjoys spicy food.
For main course I had duck, priced at 59 sol (€17). This also came with a mix of vegetables:
My girlfriend had ravioli with vegetables and parmesan, priced at 45 sol (€13):
My dessert was the restaurant’s specialty, which was a chocolate casing that covered ice cream, toffee and a macaroon underneath. This cost 27 sol (€8):
My girlfriend had a chocolate fondant (molten lava cake) with vanilla ice cream, crumble and passion fruit sauce, priced at 29 sol (€8.25):
The total bill came to 255 sol (€72.50).
We both felt the food at Social was decent, but not that special. The duck was cooked more than I would have liked (here it was cooked close to well-done), and the accompaniments for both the duck and the octopus were a bit plain – just regular vegetables that I could have cooked as well myself. The chocolate fondant might have been my favourite dish here, but unfortunately my girlfriend felt it was too rich.
Nevertheless, I would say that given the standards of restaurants in Peru, even in Lima, Social offers good value for money if you want something a bit fancier than most of what is on offer in Peru.
As always, if we had ordered different dishes or had eaten the tasting menu, we might have had a completely different opinion, be it better or worse.
The service was actually very good and some of the best I’ve had in Peru. The restaurant was very empty this evening, so we could easily be pampered. The waitress explained to me in English and in Spanish to my girlfriend, and she offered to take pictures of us, even without us having to ask. We asked if we could try samples of wine and then decide. When I didn’t particularly like any of them, I asked for a glass of juice instead, and that was no problem at all.
In both Maido and Central I felt the service was not quite up to the standard you see in European top restaurants, but the service at Social definitely was, so my overall rating is in this case really only for the food. Only in Astrid y Gaston was the service in Peru as good as in Social.