No one comes to La Granja Parrilla & Seafood for the salad. Families and friends flock here on weeknights and Sundays after church for generous, family-style platters of Peruvian-style grilled chicken, pork, steak, seafood, rice and beans, fried yuca and garlic potatoes.

La Granja (''The Farm'') is a family-owned chain of fast-food restaurants that serves Peruvian favorites in a casual atmosphere. The places are no frills, but quick, pleasing and filling.

What elevates them are unexpected touches like four kinds of squeeze-bottle sauces, including creamy garlic and huacatay (laced with an anise-scented herb called black marigold), and a salad bar of onion salsas (best are the creamy pale yellow huancaina with ají amarillo and the zingy hot rocoto chile).

Customers place their orders at the counter, then wait in a fast-moving line as the food is plunked on plastic trays for toting to tables and banquettes. Behind the counter in the large open kitchen, huge parrilla (grills) sizzle with meats.

The concept was born in 1993, when Gustavo Bartra moved his family to Aruba to escape kidnappings then plaguing Lima. He owned a construction business, but was a chef at heart, always taking cooking classes and testing new recipes on the family. He opened two La Granjas in Aruba, and two years later sons Racso and Gus and daughter Claudia began expanding the chain into Florida. Today there are 13 here, from Orlando to Kendall, with seafood recently added to the Hollywood, Margate and Tamarac outlets.

The atmosphere is boisterous, and tables are often pushed together to accommodate groups of 20 or more. Many start with platters of ceviche (tilapia or mixed seafood) thatched with sliced red onions and plated with a sweet potato chunk, crisp cancha (toasted popping corn) and starchy kernels of choclo (giant white corn).

There's also a kind of paella, more like moist, clumpy yellow rice, studded with mixed seafood. Jalea is an overflowing heap of flour-dusted, deep-fried seafood with strips of fried yuca, topped with tomato, onion and cilantro salsa and served with tartar.

Chupe is an enormous bowl of seafood chowder bobbing with chunks of white cheese, peas, red pepper strips and choclo and crested with a poached egg. Another favorite is Chifa seafood, a Chinese-Peruvian stir fry.

Many regulars come for the marinated, grilled half chicken, while others are fans of the lomo saltado (steak strips tossed with fries).

You can end with house-made alfajores (dulce de leche sandwich cookies) or lucuma ice cream made from a tropical fruit with a butterscotch-date flavor and pale peach color.