Puca Puca

This is one of the best kept secrets in the city.
I had been driving by this place for the last 15 years and wondered about it.
Food was great… not good but great.
Everything is made from scratch.
No menu, the one man show/​owner gives a choice of 3 different meats as a daily special.
After that, your in and out in 25 minutes for $ 10.00 or less including tip.
If you’re not picky about the décor as the inside hasn’t been renovated in decades, it is a great place for lunch.

Came here for lunch with the office. This place is a one man show and it’s good.
Small menu selection with a small price to match. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s homey and hearty.

Man this place reminds me Ie le de cuca (brazilian place that burned down few years ago). Kinda like u r down in Cuba or Mexico. Awesome owner + awesome good + super cheap… Go u will love it

Ceux qui ont déjà voyagé au Pérou vivront un petit moment de nostalgie en allant manger chez Puca Puca. Pas seulement pour la cuisine, qui soit dit en passant, n’est pas appréciée à sa juste valeur, mais aussi pour la chaleur, le respect et la jovialité du personnel. Dans une décoration photographique relativement sobre, nettement plus déployée sur des couleurs de terre cuite, l’on est invité à découvrir des mets locaux hors du commun. D’ailleurs, le terme inca «Puca Puca «de la langue quechua, signifie littéralement «rouge rouge «. Ciro, propriétaire des plus attachants, est né dans la contrée péruvienne de Pucallpa, signifiant «terre rouge»…Petit clin d’œil à la Pachamama…
Les spécialités du restaurant se distinguent en trois grands volets: les patates! (le Pérou est le jardin d’Éden des patates), les viandes et les poissons. Personnellement, il m’est impossible d’ingurgiter quoi que ce soit qui provienne de l’océan; mais les engoués de fruits de mer feront des découvertes exotiques.
Sacrilège! Il n’y a pas très longtemps de cela, il était possible de se procurer la très prisée Cusquena Negra, une bière noire inca, au bon goût de caramel et très désaltérante, brassé avec de l’eau des glaciers des Andes! La distribution au Québec s’est malheureusement interrompue… Quoique très éloignée du Soleil de Cusco, comme prix de consolation, vous pourrez toujours siroter une Boréale fraîche…ou encore un Pisco.
–Vous vous en tirerez pas si mal pour une vingtaine de $
–Dommage qu’il n’y ait pas de décoctions à la feuille de coca… oups…j’oubliais…c’est illégal au Canada.

New neighbors of indeterminate origin recently moved in next door, and such luxuriously mouthwatering, deeply rich cooking smells issue forth from under their door every eve that I dream of befriending them so that at some point they will invite me over for a homecooked meal, slapping me on the back with gaiety and smiling benevolently as I exclaim with a shimmer of tears in my eyes, that I’ve never had anything as delicious as what they’ve cooked in the comfort of their home, just for me.
Well, that will probably never happen because in my apartment complex no one ever acknowledges the existence of another unless there is a Problem. However, this past Friday I got a scrumptious taste of what that reverie would feel like if made tangible at the Peruvian restaurant Pucapuca. The square, austere dining salon at that time was relatively empty but immediately the owner (also waiter, maitre d’ and cook… in fact I’m pretty sure he was the only one in the whole establishment) filled the place up with his warmth and kindly smiling eyes, immediately making us feel like his favored grandchirren. When he described the prix-​fixe menu though, we just about fell out of our seats: 15 CAD for a starter, entrée, hot drink and dessert? On a Friday night in Mile End in Montréal? We quickly composed ourselves and took to scrutinizing the menu– for entrees, among us four we got dishes of quail, smothered pork chops, spicy beef stew, and stewed chicken in peanut sauce. The salads and soups we ordered as starters were satisfying, homey and flavorful. But the entrees!!! Tabarnak! Each plate came heaving with a non-​fussy array of food, a scoop of stewed root veggies, a hill of aromatic rice, a mess of peas, and then the meat front and center. Our table devolved into a chaotic tangle of forks and knives as we dived into our own and each others’ dishes… every one was sublime. The pork chop, smothered in a tomato and beer sauce, was especially wonderful; the best pork dish I’ve ever tasted in a restaurant. Even though we were at breaking point after the dinner, we all wedged in a small slice of cake for dessert.
All this, handled with genuine familial feeling from the delightful owner/​chef/​waiter… it was quite the dining experience. I’m sad that my return trips back there will be broken up by months of time. If you live in or visit Montréal, you MUST go here!

I go here for lunch all the time. The menu is small but its cheap and tons of food. For lunch: Meat (or fish) + rice + vegi+ soup+ desert + coffe for $ 8. Can’t beat that. I love the owner as well. He’s totally awesome.