by MARK SLUTSKY

Situated in a beautiful room on the corner of Marie-Anne and St-André, La Selva's warm ambience stands out even in a neighbourhood full of cozy restaurants. It's not very large, but high, pressed-tin ceilings give the place a certain spaciousness. Add to that the dark painted walls (adorned with photos of Machu Picchu and other places in Peru), pretty wooden tables, huge picture windows and hanging plants, and you've got one pretty-looking spot for an autumn night.

La Selva (Spanish for "jungle") specializes in Peruvian food, a cuisine derived from a meeting of Spanish and Incan cookery. There's lots of fish and seafood to be had, as well as a selection of poultry and red meat. Also included on the menu are a few items for vegetarians, the main one being a platter that seems to change from night to night.

A recent visit found La Selva to indeed be an inviting place with very friendly service. To start off, my two buddies each went for an appetizer, while I chose the soup. One pal picked the mixed salad, which was actually included in his special (for $15, it covered the salad, his main course of swordfish, coffee, and dessert). Fairly straight-ahead, it featured the mixed-green regulars, as well as niblets of corn and sliced avocado. He pronounced satisfaction with it.

My other buddy had the ocopa de camarones ($4), which was an odd one to be sure. Half of a big boiled potato sat in the middle of the plate, covered in a sauce of onions, cheese and peanuts. Adorning the spud were four small shrimp, and half a hard-boiled egg topped the whole thing off. The ocopa sauce had a nice tang, though the sheer size of the potato was daunting, and the shrimp were bland. Still, an interesting dish. Also offered on the appetizer menu, which we didn't get to check out, was the ceviche ($5), a classic Peruvian dish consisting of slices of fish marinated in lemon and served with onions and peppers. Perhaps next time.

I had the chupe de camarones ($4), which was billed as a delight for chowder-lovers. As I count myself an inveterate chowder-lover it was an easy choice. The broth was rich and tasty, a creamy, pink-tinted velouté of shrimp. Floating in the soup were tender little cubes of potato, an entire, extremely poached egg (took me a little while to figure out what exactly that ominous white mass was), and, unfortunately, more of those little bland shrimps. Shrimp aside though, it was a rather toothsome soup; the broth in particular held the balance between sweet and savoury very satisfactorily.

Of our main courses, perhaps the least exciting of the three, strangely enough, was my friend's swordfish, a dish that usually has a little pizzazz. Though it was cooked to a nice tenderness, it could've used a little more flavour, as its slight tanginess was a little thin. It wasn't bad, mind you, just not great.

I fared better with the churrasco a la parrilla ($10), a large, thinly sliced steak. Grilled just right, it had a nice zest to it and was actually a little more than I could eat. My other friend went in for the pollo en salsa de mani (also $10), a chicken filet liberally coated in peanut sauce. The sauce was rich and silky, somewhat reminiscent of the stuff on the ocopa de camarones but somehow stronger and more concentrated in taste. All of our dishes were accompanied by a plain, but fresh, green salad, rice, and some very tasty, sweet baked beans, which went well mixed into the rice.

No doubt about it, La Selva is a charming spot, and the prices are quite reasonable. The food's solid, if not entirely consistent-some dishes are definitely better than others, and in a few cases some more seasoning would've been very welcome.

La Selva
ADDRESS: 862 Marie-Anne E.
PHONE: 525-1798
HOURS: Tue-Sat 5:30pm-11PM
BEST FEATURES: The warm, cozy room and friendly staff
ALCOHOL: Bring your own
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: No (and no Interac either)
NO-SMOKING SECTION: Yes
PRICE: $10-$15 per person, before tax and tip
RATING: ** out of ****