New World Cafe is run by the Peruvian chef-owner Jorge Sebastiani from Trujillo, Peru. It is hidden in some small office building near the airport. Walking into the office building, the chef’s paintings await you. No worries about trying to find the cafe inside the building. Its near the front door, and the smell of the food and kitchen just waft out from the dining room.
I was picking up the family from the airport so I only had a chance to try two things: the lomo saltado, and the alfajor. But they were both good.
The lomo saltado dish was delicious. Seemingly simple dish, but its often not cooked well. Sebastiani’s version is easily one of the better lomo saltado around. As you can see in the picture below, chef fired the sirloin at a high temperature and that helped keep the meat tender and juicy.
The caramel alfajor was very, very good. Just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess. Better than e.g. the in my opinion overly sweet ones from Wooden Table. He said it took two days to make these so it didn’t crumble.
I chatted with the chef a bit. He said he worked at Milan before, and went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris before he moved to the Bay Area. The dining room had some what looked like patrons from Peru who seemed to know the chef well. A good sign. The server was from Lima. The menu had some interesting Peruvian items on their Spanish only page- sudado lenguado, lenguado chorrillana, etc.
Overall, despite the limited sampling, the kitchen seemed very promising, I’d very much love to try their other Peruvian items. And if anyone went there, please for sure report back.
Menu:
Peruvian breakfast and lunch:
A mish-mash of other cuisines:
Dining room:
