Omar Restaurant (Comida Peruana Omar) in Stamford

This little Peruvian restaurant is in the same space formerly occupied by Rolando’s Tacos, which closed back in 2004 (sniff), and then Al’s Texas Chili, which closed in 2007-ish (hooray). Sitting next door to the Guatemalan Antojitos Chapines and just up the hill from the Mexican Casa Villa, it forms a nice trifecta of Latin food in this little corner of Stamford.

Ever since it opened about a year ago, I’ve been meaning to stop in and see how it fares compared with some of the other Peruvian places in Stamford. I decided to try the Peruvian standard, Lomo Saltado ($7) and was very impressed. The beef was freshly cooked, served piping hot with the usual stir-fried onions and tomatoes, topped with fresh cilantro, all sitting atop a huge mound of rice and french fries. Overall, this lomo saltado was quite good. A bit salty, but certainly up to par with any other lomo saltado in Stamford. Oh, and don’t fret when they bring you a red ketchup bottle. It’s actually filled with that wonderful spicy green aji sauce.

The restaurant has English menus, which is good because as far as I can tell, the staff speaks none. But the nice older lady manning the counter was very attentive and endearingly sweet. I’d like to go back and try all the other options on their menus, which seems to cover all the usual Peruvian suspects (Lomo saltado, pollo saltado, papas a la huancaina, caldo de gallina, pollo ala brasa, etc., etc….).

Definitely worth a return visit.