Costa Verde Restaurant

Big fan of Peruvian food and this is very authentic. Unfortunately, Peruvian food tends to consist of a lot of starches (read fries and rice with meat on top). Keep that in mind. I can’t get enough of the Anticuchos (beef heart) or the Papa a la Huancaina (potatoes with cream and olives). Very Peruvian.

I’ve lived in the area longer than most, and the quality of the food at Costa Verde has always stood above the other Peruvian restaurants in VA and MD. Not anymore, something has recently changed.
Indeed, reading a few comments below it also seems to me the Peruvian chef has left the restaurant — my last couple of visits to the restaurant has convinced me of that. If you’re from Peru and were raised there, you know and can recognize the unique, authentic taste the food possesses when done by someone well versed in Peruvian cuisine and condiments. In addition, half of the menu now caters Mexican food!!! Has there been a change in ownership, or is this a ploy to attract more business?
To the owner (s) of the establishment — please explain to us long-​time customers what is going on.

I believe in second chances, and I just recently gave «Costa Verde» a second chance, and they blew it. A month ago I had lunch there and ordered a lomo saltado (dinner version, which I’ll explain later), and it was terrible; extremely salty, meat was stiff and bad cut, tomatoes were basically raw and the potatoes were like McDonalds french fries. This may be good for someone who doesn’t know good Peruvian cuisine, but
this claims to be a Peruvian restaurant.
So I gave them a second chance, and had lunch there again this past week. This time I ordered «Tallarin Saltado de Pollo», and again it was terrible. Super salty (I think that the cook uses that to compensate for his/​her shortcomings), very greasy, the amount of chicken was rather small, and it took forever for them to make it. Speaking of small portions, this time I ordered the lunch special version.
As a side note, they do something that qualifies as one of my pet peeves. They clean tables with Windex (since the table tops are glass), but they spray it regardless of whether there are customers around. So if the smell of WIndex grosses you out while eating, just bear that in mind.
I also wanted to mention that it seems pretty sleazy that they don’t give you the lunch special menu insert unless you asked for it. The first time I had lunch there I had the dinner version of the lomo saltado because I didn’t know they had lunch specials, and the menu didn’t say anything about them. The last time, I saw the lunch specials on a large sign outside the restaurant, but I had to ask for it when I got the menu.
Bottom line, I will never go to «Costa Verde» again.

This place is hard to notice behind the gas station. But I was really excited to go here because it looked like it could be fun and festive based on the tackiness of the outside. Finally we came for dinner the other day.
We were disappointed at first becuase it was empty on the inside and the décor was kind of underwhelming. Very plain in there. And we couldn’t believe we were the only people there on a Thursday night during prime dinner hours. How do they stay in business?
Despite the initial disappointment, everything went up from there. They gave me a strawberry margarita at happy hour price even though happy hour was only supposed to cover regular margaritas, which was very nice. Margaritas were really good. We got the guacamole appetizer and that came out with chips and salsa as well. The guacamole was OUTSTANDING. It was the best guacamole I have had at a restaurant so far. The salsa was also really good — slightly different tasting than the usual salsa you get, and boyfriend was raving about it. I only wish they had brought out more chips! Both the guac and the salsa were just incredible.
Next, I had chicken fajitas and boyfriend had a seafood burrito. He said «WOW» when he bit into his. It came with a hefty portion of crabmeat on the inside and boyfriend said it was flavored very well. He loved it. My chicken fajitas were great too. They came in a huge portion and included BOTH sour cream AND guacamole, which is something some other restaurants fail to do and it really aggravates me. I also liked that there was a huge pile of sizzling onions on the plate. Most places where I order fajitas kind of skimp on the onions. Altogether, the fajitas were delicious.
Lastly, I would like to praise their bathroom layout. The women’s room is a small space, but they managed to fit two stalls into it and still leave room for a sink. I really appreciate that. I am so sick of some bars in this area that are able to fit more toilets into the women’s room but choose to waste space and make it a single. First Down in Ballston, for instance, has a bathroom slightly larger than Costa Verde’s but only has one toilet in it. As a consequence girls have to wait in a long line there and I frequently have to use the men’s room. BOO! They could probably fit at least 3 toilets in there. Some of these places really need to learn how to use their bathroom space better and they can learn from Costa Verde. This is kind of a tangent, but bathrooms are important and this was the first thing I thought when I entered their bathroom.
So all in all, I really liked this place! I hope that it is more busy at lunch so they get enough business to stay around. Get the guac appetizer, it is awesome. And great meals.

I always have been a fan of Peruvian cuisine since it is very heavy on seafood. We came across this one looking for a place to eat for lunch near our office. The façade is very unattractive being right next to a Jiffy Lube and the décor is certainly austere. We were worried since we walked in at 1230 on a Tuesday and there were no patrons whatever. However, we sat down and they served us chips and salsa and took our drink orders. I had a drink made of purple corn which was very different and sweet. It looked like grape juice but had a very different taste.
I scanned the menu and they had ceviche, fish dishes, meat dishes and a large variety. I settled on fried red snapper (Pescado Rojo). When my dish arrived, the fish was fried perfectly and I commenced to dig in. My only regret was that I didn’t have my chopsticks and soy sauce but I made do with salsa verde and my hands! After I picked the fish clean of any discernible meat, I had the salad, fried potatoes that accompanied the dish. It was all very good.
Décor — not so good
Storefront — it’s next to a Jiffy Lube!
Food — great
Price — a bit high for lunch but I think it was worth it
Will return with other colleagues very soon.

The food was not good at all, ceviche was old and sour. Arroz a la pobre was ok. Papa a la huancayna was sooooo nasty, didn’t even taste like it was fresh, chicha was instant. the restaurant decoration looked like a whore house with xmas balls hanging of the ceiling and the price was extremly high. Overall I will not recommend this restaurant to nobody. will never comeback again the next time I visit Alexandria.

I came across Costa Verde while looking at deals on
. Being Bolivian, I really like going to Peruvian restaurants since our cuisines are similar, but I always have trouble finding vegetarian options. But I checked the menu online and figured that I would be ok since there seemed to be some promising non-​meat dishes.
After reading some of the other reviews on Unilocal,I knew I would most likely find the restaurant empty on a Tuesday night. I was right about that, the four of us were the only ones at the restaurant. We started the meal with chips and salsa which was a little disappointing since we (Bolivians and Peruvians) are used to starting out with a basked of bread and hot sauce. The chips and salsa were decent, however. My sister then asked for a Chicha Morada ($ 1.75), a traditional drink made from purple corn. It was a little sweet but, after adding a little water, very tasty. My mom got a Pisco Sour ($ 4.50) which was excellent. Really, excellent. I highly recommend it.
For my main meal, I opted for the Saltado de Vegetales ($ 9.95), or vegetables sauteed in olive oil served over french fries and rice. Now, I know that sounds like an exceedingly simple dish, BUT, somehow it translated into one flavorful plate of food. My sister, who ordered the Churrasco a lo Pobre ($ 13.95) and I both agreed that the best thing about the meal was the rice, and that although it looked like plain white rice, it had this amazing taste that neither of us could quite describe. Needless to say, I cleared my plate. Everyone at the table was equally satisfied and it is very likely that I will be back for more very soon.
It’s always great to find good South American restaurants that are also somewhat vegetarian-​friendly. Thank you for that Costa Verde.

I’m hovering between a 3 and 4.
I ordered the Lomo de Pobre dish. This consists of a steak, egg, yucca, rice, and fries. I’m really picky with my meat and the steak was extremely fatty. I basically cut ¹⁄₃ of fat off of it. The fries were really freakin’ good though and so was the rice.
I also ordered chicha morada, which is a purple corn drink. This was a little concentrated. I had to add water to it to make it less sweet. I did that twice to finally make it the perfect sweetness.
Both my sister and my mom enjoyed their meals. Maybe I jut got an A-​OK meal. My mom really like their pisco sour, which is an alcoholic peruvian drink that contains egg white. That was really good as well.
Service was pretty good, our waitress forgot what I asked for even though we were the ONLY ones there. Their «hot sauce» is their traditional salsa called llajua. That was quite spicy, which was great.
I’m not too sure if i’d come back here. I’ve been to better peruvian places and this probably sits at the bottom of my list.

I dined her for the third time last Sunday, and it was another stellar experience. The restaurant staff are very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. My boyfriend and I typically order the Ceviche Mixto, but this time we opted for the Ceviche a La Costa Brava as it comes with everything the Mixto does PLUS mussels. That was definitely a good move as the Costa Brava was more filling, so between that dish and the side of yucca we ordered, we were stuffed by the end.
The ceviche was fresh and very citrus-​y (yes, I know ceviche is marinated in citrus juices but it was at the high-​end of the citrus spectrum — fine by me) and the yucca was served hot — piping hot, actually, as it burned my mouth a bit. Oh well, my fault for not being able to wait until they cooled down. It’s worth mentioning that they now serve patrons a complimentary basket of chips and salsa. They were very tasty and a welcome addition to the Costa Verde experience.

The ceviche mixto was fantastic. Large portions. Full of flavor. My roommate, after he’d eaten all the ceviche on his plate, was literally spooning up the lemony goodness like soup. Some interesting (and tasty) Latin American beverages too.
I can’t wait to go back and try this lomo saltado that every seems to be raving about!
Also, they make a pretty decent pisco sour! (they actually use egg white in it too, unlike SOME bars/​restaurants…)

Costa Verde Restaurant menu has some changes .
New concepts which is more latin american cuisine .
It used to be only Peruvian cuisine.

Perhaps the problem was the the WP set expectations too high. Décor is bare-​bones. We had a fried seafood platter (calamari, fish, a scallop or 2, and a few shrimp) with fried potatoes and a tossed fish in sauce. Not bad, but the tartar sauce and ketchup really helped — a sign that the food needs help. And not cheap. But the kicker was at 7:12 on a Wednesday a singer comes out and jacks up a karaōke-​type soundtrack really loud and commences to croon. The only person paying any attention to him was his SO. Everyone else was struggling to converse. My last visit.

Mmm! Lomo Saltado was absolutely delicious, as many reviewers have already said. A coworker got the Machucha? Plato and that was also amazing.
The place is totally unassuming. Ugly from the outside and ugly on the inside (MDF tables covered with cloth and banquet style chairs), the wait can be a bit, and the prices are a little higher than what you’d have thought the minute you step inside, but the food makes it all worth it. I wanted to say you’ll be hard pressed to find more authentic food in the area, but Arlington seems to be blessed with authentic food. If you like this, try El Charrito Caminante for your taco needs.
I want more… now.
Apparently the location magically tranforms into «La Rumba» at night; music and dancing abound, but bring your Spanish dictionary or be able to speak it :)

My boyfriend and I have both been to Peru and to us, quality ceviche was all but a long lost memory. That is, until we came here. We were so tired of ordering ceviche and having it come to our table in a martini glass. When I found out that Costa Verde served theirs with a side of sweet potato and corn, my mouth salivated and the wonderful memories came rushing back.
We got the ceviche mixto and it was quite good; also a very generous serving. Now, my only complaint is that some of the little chunks of fish were not fresh. If it were, I would probably give this place 4 stars. maybe even 5. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was probably just off that night since many other people have said that it is very fresh.
For entrees, I got the lomo saltado and it is just what every other Unilocaler says. damn good! My boyfriend got pescado a lo macho which was not as satisfying as the lomo saltado, but good in its own right.
I have to thank Unilocal for leading me here and pushing me to order the lomo saltado. If i’d just gone there and ordered on my own, I wouldn’t have gotten it. The English description says, «flap meat» with french fries, peas, and onions. What the heck is flap meat? So if you go, I’m telling you to order it because I ended up licking my plate clean.

Restaurant was empty on a Thursday 7PM except for 2 other tables with latin guests (so it must be authentic). Service was by 1 sole waitress so was very accommodating.
Ceviche was very authentic and fresh. Lomo Saltana came partially cold. The Tres Leches cake was stale. The logistics could have been better – provide strong instructions to the waitress.

I didn’t realize there were so many south of the border restaurants in the area. We ordered a seafood dish that was suppose to be enough for two. Mixed seafood with yucca on the side for $ 20. The scallops, shrimp, and squid was well cooked but the fish still had a fishy flavor. It’s hard to find good seafood and they did a pretty good job aside from the fish. The portion was rather small and we left still hungry and had to get dessert. Other than the food, the service was good, and they also have a small parking lot so it’s pretty convenient.

I’ve been to Costa Verde quite a few times, although most of the time, I call it «that Peruvian place next to Jiffy Lube.» Hey, whatever works, right? The first time, I ordered the Lomo Saltado on the advice of the server — tender pieces of flap meat marinated in what tastes like a soy sauce-​based marinade, combined with french fries, peas, and onions, over a bed of white rice. Seriously people — meat, fries, white rice. Can it get any better?
The ceviche is also quite tasty — especially the octopus ceviche with the tasty sweet potato.
A couple of things to note: First, they always start you off with these corn nut looking things and a spicy green salsa of sorts. I usually dip the corn nut looking things into the spicy salsa and munch away, although I do so with the belief that a native Peruvian is laughing at my ineptitude. Second, the service at Costa Verde is not great. When I’ve gone, there’s been one person servicing the entire floor, and for all I know, she’s also cooking in the back, since she often disappears for quite some time.
But, the Lomo Saltado is so good that I have to give the place 4 stars.

I came here to meet a bunch of Unilocalers with a craving for Peruvian with auspices of welcoming Takaki closer to the city. Overall, not a bad place. Here are some of the high (and low) points of the night:
1. Food was interesting. The shrimp chowder soup was nice and tomatoey — a solid start. A tad soupy for what I was expecting — anytime the word «chowder» is involved, I think of nice and thick «gravy». The ceviche was also tasty — the yam that was on the dish was also a nice touch. Finally, I ordered the Chicharinos el Pollo (I think that was the name of it) which was an interesting fried chicken dish with a side of fried yuca. Overall, with some samplings from Pui Chi’s Mahi Mahi fried rich, I left very full.
2. The service left a little to be desired. They only had one waitress serving what seemed to be the entire restaurant — granted they were only at 25% capacity.
3. The restaurant was a tad cold. Granted, it could have been because of the winds blowing outside but I felt like they could have been a tad more generous with the heat.
Overall not a bad experience — I’ll have to keep this one as a nice little Arlington secret.

I’m not sure why Costa Verde is so highly scored… CV does have extensive items on the menu but I was really disappointed by quality and quantity of the food.
I got Arroz Con Mariscos. Seafood dish with steam rice. There is another dish for fried rice but this STEAM rice dish was simply seafood fried rice. The manager (waitress couldn’t speak english well enough to communicate and she couldn’t describe most of dishes in english) told me that it was steamed rice fried with seafood. Well. I wasn’t sure how the actual fried rice with seafood looked like then.
OK. Fine with rice type. Seafood wasn’t fresh either. Shrimp, chunks of fish (good amount), 2 pieces of scallops were fried and then put into the rice to be mixed and stir-​fried again. Those were EXACTLY same fried seafood that were in my friend”s dish, Picante De Mariscos (seafood in cream sauce with rice and potato). The seafood was on top of a HUGE potato piece so when you first look at the dish, you think you got lots of seafood but it was very clever trick. It is filling, of course because of big portion of rice and potato and VERY creamy sauce. But not-​fresh seafood (god knows when it was fried and how long it was sitting before being mixed up with other seasonings or sauce to be served) with majority portion composed of starch (potato, rice or both) is REALLY NOT worth $ 15!
I’ve had peruvian seafood dishes at other much smaller nearby restaurants or hole in the wall looking places in either VA/​MD, but they, at least, served FRESH seafood and very tasty sauce or seasonings and GOOD real amount of seafood.

How can I missed this place all this time that I’ve been going to El Pollo Rico (next street over)???
This hole in the wall restaurant is right next to the Jiffy Lube and right across the street from the Hess station near El Pollo Rico!
They have an extensive menu, so much choices, we were having trouble to finalize our selections tonight!
I tried the following:
–Ceviche de Mariscos (Shrimp, conch meat, octopus, squid, marinated in lemon juice, servied with sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob) $ 12.95
— Chupe de Camarones (Shrimp Chowder Soup) $ 7.95 YUMMMM — Tasty soup!!!
— Churrasco a la costa verde (Sirloin steak, grilled tasted, sauted shrimp marinated with garlic sauce (heavenly!!!), served with vegetables and rice $ 15.95.
Both my shrimp and steak is cooked just right, topped with that heavenly garlic sauce-​to die for.
Great price. Portion of everything is quite large. I packed half my entrée home for lunch tomorrow!!!
See Menu at:

Another place that I drive by all the time and never noticed. It’s right across from the Hess that has cheap gas. The food is sooo good and I left sooo full. The price is right too.
The inside is plain — we’re talking banquet hall chairs with the cushion still wrapped in plastic and the tables have tableclothes and a plate of glass over it. The food is amazingly good and there’s nothing fancy about the presentation. The six of us were the only ones there to boot — on a saturday night!
Ceviche De Mariscos is incredible. Shrimp, conch meat, octopus and squid marinated in lemon juice. There’s also a chunk of sweet potatoes and a small corn on the cob. A very refreshing appetizer dish to share for 3 – 4 people. It can also be a light entrée for one. Cost: $ 12.95
Part Two of my appetizer was Chupe De Camarones or shrimp chowder soup. A friend recommended it and boy was she right. It was more soupy than chowdery and it had some rice at the bottom. It was very flavorful. There is a cooked egg in the chowder and you break it open to reveal two shrimps. This is my must have dish at Costa Verde. It’s $ 7.95 but you won’t regret it.
For entrée I had Arroz Chaufa De Pescado or fried rice with mahi mahi. It was spectacular. Big pieces of mahi mahi, the soy sauce on the rice was perfect and there were bits of egg mixed in there. It was a huge plate for $ 14.95 — got through about ¹⁄₃ of it. Now I have lunch for tomorrow.
Entrees are a great deal ranging from $ 10.95-$ 17.95. The ceviches range from $ 10.95-$ 14.95. The menu is ridiculously long so I definitely have to go back about 10 times to order everything that I saw that I wanted tonight.