Olga y Juanita's Deli aka Biggest Lunch Ever

Olga y Juanita’s Deli

17 White Street, West Orange
(Corner of White & Ashland, one block east of Main)

It was the cheerful murals that first inspired us to check out this Peruvian spot in West Orange. Its official name is Olga y Juanita’s Deli – for the owner, Juanita, and her late mother – but we started calling it Biggest Lunch Ever halfway through our first visit: the food is delicious, and there is a lot of it.

Don’t try to order off the menu; just ask for the daily special. This will set you back just $6.00, and includes soup, a main course (choose one of two options) and a drink. As you wait, you nibble on puff-roasted jumbo corn kernels called cancha, a forerunner to popcorn. The ambiance is upbeat: there are colourful tapestries on the walls; the television is always on, playing telenovelas; the staff are friendly; and the customers will pitch in with suggestions if you have trouble deciding what to order, as we often do.

Then the majesty of Lunch begins. Forget those prissy little soup bowls you can barely fit your spoon in: the bowl is as big as your head. It’s usually a hunk of chicken or beef with noodles, though we have gotten an excellent seafood bisque on occasion as well. We season it liberally with limes and hot salsa, which features onions and garlic (a note of caution: since the salsa is homemade, its spiciness varies; do a taste-check before adding that second spoonful). Before you’ve reached the bottom of the soup, the main course appears – and the table starts to look like Thanksgiving for a rather large family.

The main course is a large platter of rice with stew – chicken with beans, grilled chicken with stewed vegetables, grilled fish – which, again, goes well with a dash of the hot sauce. We were pleased even with our more adventurous choices, such as trepa – tripe – served in bite-sized pieces with green beans, and as flavorful as everything we’d come to expect at Biggest Lunch Ever. To wash it all down you get a tall glass of something cold and sweet, again depending on the day: sometimes lemonade, sometimes mango, and we especially like the chicha, a deep red drink made out of maize.

The biggest surprise at Biggest Lunch Ever is that you’re actually able to eat most of it – it’s that good. We finish with a café con leche, which comes piping hot in a (what else?) very large mug. The consistently happy food has made Olga y Juanita’s a favourite spot for our team; as deadlines approach and projects loom, we retreat to Biggest Lunch Ever to recharge.

Biggest.Lunch.Ever.