San Diego Eats: Qala Peruvian Seafood & Grill
During these COVID times, my mom and I have basically stayed at home since March. We’ve ventured out for just one dentist appointment, a smog check, and a few weeks ago we went to a couple supermarkets for the very first time in months. We were running low on Asian ingredients, and Instacart just doesn’t work well with our favorite Asian supermarkets!
Anyway, we’ve experimented with ordering in, thanks to some pretty good promotions. Uber Eats has a $30 off first order deal, and on top of that we got a $50 gift certificate, so we decided to treat ourselves to something. I just searched “Peruvian” to get something that I wouldn’t normally make on my own and that seemed a bit special, and there was one result: Qala Peruvian Seafood and Grill. And better yet, it was in downtown La Jolla on Pearl Street, so the delivery wouldn’t be too far!
We of course had to order the Lomo Saltado. The rice came in the typical Peruvian pyramid shape! I was glad that they made the pyramid shape, and that the pyramid survived the delivery. The beef was decently tender though a bit on the dry side, and I liked the potatoes which seemed homemade.
We debated for a while if we wanted fried fish or fried calamari, and in the end we ordered both, in the form of the jalea mixta. This is a Peruvian mix of fried fish and seafood - calamari, shrimp, and octopus in this case. We got a few pieces of fried cassava too.
It’s topped, or served with pickled red onions, tomatoes, and cilantro.
The fried coating miraculously survived the delivery process without becoming soggy, and the flavor was well-seasoned and savory, if a bit salty. The shrimp, calamari, and octopus were a bit on the tough and rubbery side - perhaps a consequence of sitting in the tray for the 10 minute drive over, but the fish pieces were nice and tender.
Finally, we ordered the anticuchos, or grilled beef heart. I had had this before in Valencia, but we didn’t get a chance to sample this when we visited Peru. Recently we saw anticuchos featured on Netflix’s Street Food episode set in Lima, and it’s been on our minds since then.
This had that deep marinated flavor that I associate with anticuchos, and even had a big of the smoky grill flavor too. It was served with potatoes and also the big Peruvian corn choclo. The choclo was was a bit tasteless though.
We also got a can of Inca Cola, for my mom to try the taste. The Lomo Saltado was $22 on Uber Eats, the Jalea Mixta $28, the Anticuchos $16, and the Inca Cola $3.50. For a restaurant meal, these were on the high side, but then adding on top Uber Eat’s 15% service fee, tax, and another 15% tip to the driver, the total was $97! Of course, with our $30 first order promotion, and the $50 gift certificate, that brought the cost down significantly, but that is one splurge of a meal! Of course though, we have enough leftovers for another meal. (Now, interestingly enough, the price for each item was maybe 10+% more on DoorDash. I wonder how they set the prices, and more insidiously, if we’re shown higher prices on DoorDash because we’re DashPass members and therefore “save” in the delivery fee? This whole world of online ordering in the US is new!)
Overall, I’d certainly visit Qala for a special occasion sometime when things “get back to normal.” It was a delightful “adventure” to Peru through food, and I wish the restaurant success through these hard times!
