Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

Happy Mother’s Day! Today we are going to Belgo for their Mother’s Day Brunch but I wanted to tell you about a new restaurant that my monthly lunch companion Roger and I just added to our rotation.

Inti Restaurant just opened in the Interpacific Business Park (the same strip mall that houses Clay Oven, another lunch favourite, among other eats) about a month ago. Owners Angela and Hans Puccinelli left The BottleHouse in Kensington to open what may possibly be Calgary’s only Peruvian restaurant. I have never had Peruvian food before, so had no idea what it would entail. “Don’t they eat guinea pig?” Fortunately, Roger did the Inca Trail trip last September so was able to guide me through some of the items on the menu.

Inti’s specialty is rotisserie chicken (as noted by their chicken logo). Roger decided to order the signature dish (well, he upped the quarter-chicken to a half-chicken… to prove his manliness) with a side of salad, garlic rice and spicy Ají Inti (again, manliness) for dipping. ($14.15)

Roger really liked this chicken. Proof: He didn’t offer me any, and he couldn’t stop raving about how moist and flavourful it was, adding that we can knock the other chicken restaurant on our lunch rotation off the list. The garlic rice, however, was nothing to write home about, and while the salad was hefty, with cucumbers, shredded carrot and slices of avocado, the lime dressing was a little too sweet for our liking.

I got the sandwich pictured above – Pan Con Chicharron, a pork belly sandwich with thin slices of sweet potato and a generous helping of salsa criolla (South American sliced onion “salsa”) between a crusty roll slathered with avocado mayo and Ají Inti with a side of yucca fritas. ($9.90)

This sandwich was AMAZING. The pork belly was well-seasoned and not too greasy. The salsa criolla was vinegary and fresh while the Ají Inti provided a mild curry flavour with just a hint of spice from the ají peppers. I was worried that the sweet potato would make the sandwich very heavy, but they were sliced so thin that you could barely notice they were there. The yucca fritas were crisp with just a teeny hint of sweetness… I was tempted to ask for ketchup but wasn’t sure if that was the “proper” way to eat them. They were still good (and very filling!) without.

The service at Inti was friendly. It was a little slow at the beginning (there was a big party that had arrived before us, and only one person working the room) but once we got our orders in, the food arrived pretty quickly. I would definitely be back so that I can try the chicken for myself, and also the Lomo Saltado, a stir-fried beef dish that is oddly on Appetite for China‘s 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die list.

Inti Restaurant
208 – 3132 26 St NE
Calgary AB T1Y 6Z1
(587) 352-5599
Open Mon-Thu 11 AM-9 PM, Fri 11 AM-10 PM, Sat 12 PM-10 PM. Closed Sundays. Ample free parking available.