Panka Peruvian Chicken (Des Moines, IA) Review

4.25* (out of 5)

Food: 4*

Atmosphere: 4*

Value: 5*

Service: 4*

Value oriented quick service (order at the counter) format restaurant with tasty sandwiches and desserts tailored to college students and near the Drake campus.

10/18/2023 Panka Peruvian Chicken (515) 257-4037

I’m happy to report that the owner reached out to me after the earlier post and offered a replacement dessert on a future visit to show how good the desserts really are – and I can tell you that both the Suspiro A La Limena (see picture) and the Peruvian Chocolate Cake (see picture) were absolutely delicious! The best way I can describe the Suspiro A La Limena is a creamy, cinnamony, citrus pudding topped with whipped cream – thin enough that it was tough to heap on your spoon and get to your mouth, but oh, so tasty!

But I digress when thinking about great desserts. I also ordered a new sandwich while I was there – the Triple Clasico (see picture) and thought that it too was very good. Three layers of fresh, quality bread with layers of avocado and hard boiled egg slices along with diced tomatoes.

I’m satisfied that the faulty cooler compressor was the fault of the earlier dessert issue and it is now fixed. Given the quality and taste of all of the foods and the corrective actions taken by the owner, I’m happy to give Panka my recommendation for great sandwiches and desserts. If you are in the area, give it a try – and tell them The Food and Drink Guy sent you!

10/14/2023

I’ve traveled to Peru on a mission trip, enjoy their food and found the food very good at the ‘sister’ Panka restaurant on Ingersoll – so looked forward to giving this place a try. Last night was the opportunity, as it was my turn to choose a restaurant after Mass.

I admittedly thought twice about actually stopping after our initial drive-by and seeing that it was an order-at-the-counter format with no customers early on a Saturday evening. I was anxious to experience the food though, so we looped back and committed to giving it try.

The counter server was friendly and freely offered her suggestions on what to order. We each started with a Peruvian Pilsen beer (see picture), which we both enjoyed – and at $3.50, along with the sub-$10 sandwiches was the reason for the 5* Value rating.

For our meals, my wife ordered the Traditional Peruano sandwich (see picture) and I ordered the Chicken Croissant sandwich (see picture). We found both of them to be very good. The pork belly in the Peruano was very tender and flavorful and the toasting on the croissant was perfect, as it held together quite well and tasted good. The chicken salad itself was somewhat bland (not a lot of spice for someone who likes it), but it was a solid choice if you like chicken salad.

The fries were also tasty (though admittedly short if you like dipping) – a good crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. My wife asked for a dipping sauce and they provided a spicy dip cup for each that was very good – and had a nice kick to it. My favorite though was the Corn in a Cup – sweet corn with a creamy, zesty (lime flavor) sauce that we later learned was their homemade mayonnaise. It was delicious and I highly recommend it if you stop by for a meal.

Where things went downhill fast and caused the 2* Food rating came after the meal. If you follow my posts, you know that I love desserts – so I was looking forward to trying the Tres Leches when I saw it on the menu. Unfortunately, when I commented on it, the server told us that all of the dessert options were sold out except the Suspiro A La Limena (see picture). We each took a spoonful and while I was still processing the flavor, my wife immediately commented on it tasting bad. I tried another bite to concentrate more on the flavor and my initial thoughts were ‘diesel fuel’…but another smaller taste led me to adjust the description to an acetone-like smell / taste such as fingernail polish remover.

I told the server at the counter and suggested they taste it as there seemed to be something wrong with it, but didn’t get much of a response. She did ultimately take another sample to the back and taste it though, as she later offered a refund after admitting that there was something wrong with it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the gift that kept on giving, as both of us kept burping up that terrible taste the rest of the evening and worried about food poisoning. Fortunately, we both feel ok the next morning, but for something that bad I would have expected something more than a refund of the cost of the dessert. Maybe worst of all though was that when we left, there was still one of the desserts left in the display case…they weren’t cleaned out and disposed of immediately. Until I understand what went wrong and what precautions they are taking to not repeat that in the future, the food quality is a concern to me and I can’t recommend eating here. I’ve tried to speak with a manager, but the phone number shown on Google just rings and rings without an answer.

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