Piqueo’s

I’m so happy I discovered this amazing place ! Excellent food and amazing service ! A must go place !
We were craving Peruvian food on a Saturday night, we looked for the nearest place in the area and Piqueos was the one with better reviews, unfortunately nothing was open in our desire time, but we went there anyways to hope for a cancellation or bar seating. We got there and my first impression was … Wowww … The ambiance of this place was great, full house (must be good!) Great music and an open kitchen… We got greeted right away By hostess who was very cordial and friendly, we couldn’t get a table because there was a limit time since everything was reserved, so we went for the bar (unlimited time) … We were impressed with the talent of the chefs… Speedy cooking. Once helped by the waiter, who was very nice and professional, food came out in proper time… Wine was great… Dessert was good, we got the tiramisu special. Everyone is so friendly there that you feel welcomed and appreciated.
I will definitely come back, and will bring more friends !

One of the most emblematic food in the area! I was having a Dinner with my girlfriend last night. First the restaurant is a nice cozy place to have a moment for enjoy the night, perfect latin music. So about the atmosphere 5 Gold stars. I Ordered to start a Ceviche China nice an fresh tuna, with different types of corn, yummy! perfect to initiate the tasting. We share the food with a Bottle of white wine «Tempranillo» over the section of wines.
For the main course I decided to enjoy the lomo saltado the most emblematic peruvian dish, a mix of salted onions, tomatoes, scallion, serve with rice, just fantastic and my Girlfriend she enjoyed the Salmon with quinoa, a piece of salmon over quinoa light tasty, juicy. Definitely we had a wonderful dinner. After all this courses and food we ordered two desert, «alfajores» and «Suspiro a la limeña» the last it was my favorite!
To finish the whole staff was nice, humble, well known people about the menu and passionate about their own food. They brought the best energy, with charismatic latin attitude.

Man, what a disappointment. I’ve been wanting to try this neighborhood spot for awhile, so my boyfriend and I decided to pop in around 7:15 pm one weekend. We were told our table was needed at 8:45 for a reservation… okay, no problem. Considering the fact we had AN HOUR AND A HALF TO EAT OUR MEAL, I’m really baffled why we were rushed out the door THE ENTIRE TIME.
For example, my boyfriend hadn’t even set down his fork after finishing his meal before his plate was hastily whisked away without a word. Immediately after, the hostess asked if we wanted dessert and we couldn’t even respond because OUR MOUTHS WERE STILL FULL AND CHEWING FOOD. When we couldn’t reply because our mouths were FULL, she rudely walked away, again without a word. It’s insane how badly we were rushed here. Never felt that rushed at a restaurant in my life. Then our waiter asked us AGAIN if we wanted dessert after we had already given our credit cards to the hostess to pay — clearly some lack of cohesion and communication going on here as well. Total mess.
On top of that, the service sucked, the ambiance sucked, the price/​portion ratio sucked, and the food pretty much sucked also. The only thing I liked was our waiter’s Donald Duck tattoo (but he sucked too). Will not be back.

The food was tasty. The service was excellent. Even though the restaurant was small they mangled to make it a pleasant place to enjoy the meal. However, I believe they should advertise their restaurant as a fusion Peruvian. They don’t have a single plate that even remotely resembles the traditional Peruvian food. I also believe they should not use the name of the traditional plates. The pan con chicharron was a bbq pulled pork sandwich. They don’t do any favors to the plates they claim to serve at their restaurants. Instead they hurt the plate’s reputation. I would however recommend the chicha morada.

what a great experience I’ve had every time I come to eat here. phenomenal food, service, and atmosphere of the restaurant. Highly recommend piqueos.

Delicious food! We ordered and shared a bunch of small plates. I would definitely recommend the shrimp cake and spinach and cheese empanada. Great spot and good service.

Good food. Lots of different options. The service was a tad cold. I told them it was my boyfriend’s birthday and they didn’t even wish him happy birthday or anything. Good wine and plantains luckily.

I love eating at Piqueo’s because the food is so delicious, I have brought my mom here a couple times and she absolutely loves it as well. The chefs are really nice, and if you thank them they will smile back. They’re friendly people! My must-​try are the lomo saltado, chicharron de pollo, y hongos. The place is cozy and the music gives you a little bit of latin American taste to your ears. The wine is off the hook, I usually stick to red tempranillo and the Sauvignon Blanc, perfect for a romantic date. My experiences here have being marvelous, and will go back for the tasty fusion of flavors.

Thank goodness for good food, great company, and reservations with Piqueo’s.
In celebration for my boyfriend’s birthday, I assembled a squad of 11 (including birthday boy) to dine on a Saturday night. When we arrived, we barely fit around 3 small tables – thank goodness again for great company ;)
After playing people tetris, the next objective was to order for our large party. Fortunately, my friends aren’t too picky, so I asked my friend for a pen and began marking up their paper menu as if I was at a dimsum place (much to the surprise of the waiter hahaha). As I was scribbling down numbers, our party ordered their delightful, fruit-​filled sangria to get the party started ($ 8 for a glass, $ 28 for a pitcher). 1 pitcher came out to 1 glass per person, so we had to order a few to quench the thirst.
To make it easier to share, we ordered 2 of each dish, with 8 dishes and 2 sides total. And EVERYTHING was ON-​POINT. Tender meat, flavorful sauces, and hearty, hearty portions.
$ 12 SANGUCHÓN: pulled pork spareribs BBQ, coleslaw, peruano, potato chips, Panorama bun, and fried potatoes.
–Holy this is SUCH a good sandwich. We considered ordering another round.
$ 11 BOLITAS DE YUCCA: crispy yucca balls stuffed with ham and cheese, aji amarillo sauce, and berros.
–Tasty! Like upgraded potato balls from Porto’s Bakery.
$ 13 CHICHARRONES DE POLLO: Mary’s chicken marinated in cebiche with salsa criolla and rocoto aioli.
–With some calamari thrown in for good measure! Aioli is addicting.
$ 11 POBRECITO: tacu-​tacu (rice and bean cake), plantain, sunny-​side-​up egg, and salsa criolla.
–Interesting! Not my favorite though.
$ 18 AJI DE GALLINA: shredded chicken breast stewed in aji Amarillo sauce with potato, Botija olive, hard-​boiled egg, and side of steamed Jasmine rice.
–Tender juicy chicken in a curry-​esque sauce.
$ 19 LOMO SALTADO: stir-​fried beef tenderloin, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and soy sauce, served with fries and rice (add fried egg for $ 2).
–The generous pour-​over of sauce makes this dish salty and rich. While I question the authenticity of this dish, the fries on top are unique! Pro tip: mix extra rice into the remaining sauce.
$ 20 ARROZ CON PATO: duck paella, soffrito, cilantro-​beer base, choclo and pimento with huancaina sauce.
–A favorite. Fall-​off-​the-​bone duck meat and spiced rice.
$ 22 PAELLA: Peruvian-​style seafood paella with Aborio rice, pimento, and safrron base (negra paella cooked in squid ink base.
–So good, but duck paella was even better.
$ 7 YUCCA FRIES: yucca fries.
–Can’t go wrong with yucca fries. I think it’s the same aioli that comes with the chicharrones.
$ 6 PLATANO FRITTO: fried plantains.
–Can’t go wrong with plantains.
(complimentary) $ 8.50 SUSPIRO A LA LIMEÑA: dulce de leche with pisco whipped cream.
What are the must-​haves? The sanguchón and the arroz con pato. On-​point Peruvian food.
Generous portions with fabulous service at a price point that came out $ 53 pp after tax and tip (20% for parties of 6 or more), on top of being able to book reservations? No excuse not to go.

I have lived in San Francisco for over 15 years. One of the things we love about our city is the variety of nice restaurants. We go out to dinner 2 –3 times a week. I normally don’t take the time to write a review. But after our experience last evening, I felt the need to do this.
We had been to Piqueos for a friend’s birthday a while back. Our experience was really good so I decided to try it again for a group of 5 of us. We made a 7:00PM reservation last evening, a Friday. We arrived on time and were seated around 7:10.
The food, as with our previous experience was quite good. We all had wine with some excellent appetizers, main courses and dessert. The check came, we provided our credit cards, signed the bill and were wrapping things up.
As the waiter picked up our final signed bill and thanked us, the hostess appeared. She abruptly said: «You have to leave now… I have people waiting for this table.» Note this was at 8:40, exactly 1 ½ hours after being seated… Her tone was very cold and very rude. We were all in shock.
As we left the restaurant, I commented to her that I had never experienced such treatment in a San Francisco restaurant and that I would not be return. She looked up at me and in a dismissive tone of voice said: «Sorry!» Her actions totally ruined a nice evening for all of us.
What was even more interesting is that as we walked out, we noticed that there was no one standing waiting for a table!
I will never return to Piqueos and would never recommend going.

Nice enough place, but don’t take too long to eat… Otherwise they will just come up to you and say, «We have other people coming, we need the table.» So you, uhm, have to finish your drink quickly. And they were rather rude about it too.

I had never been here before tonight and went with a group of five for dinner. The food was great. The server was great. We were all about it. We paid the check and we were finishing the wine and that’s when it happened. The hostess came to our table, asked us to «finish up because we have to turn this table for other people waiting.» What? we had been there about an hour and a half, nothing crazy for apps dinner and drinks. Two people at our table had half full glasses of wine. I was thinking surely she did not say that. But we all kind of looked at each other and made our way to the door. I couldn’t help but ask her if she had indeed asked us to get up and leave because she was ready to sit someone else. She not only confirmed that she said that, but also waived the menu at other people and rolled her eyes.
Too bad this place had this person working. She did not ruin the overall experience, but I won’t be back. As I told her, I have never been told to leave to make room and I assured her I would never be back. And I won’t. If I owned this place she would not be returning either.

I will start off by saying that the food is pretty decent, albeit WAY overpriced. The service however, was some of the most horrendous I’ve ever had (and I’m from philly).
We arrived 30 minutes after the restaurant opened there were only two other people in the restaurant. The hostess was incredibly rude, sat us down. It took the waiter 15 MINUTES to come over to ask what we wanted to drink.
I couldn’t get out of this place fast enough. If I’m paying $ 13 for one «empanada» (really just stewed beef in puff pastry — that’s not an empanada) I at least expect the waiters pretend for a whole 5 seconds of interaction like they don’t actually wanna kill themselves.
Awful

I love peruvian food and Piqueos was one of my fav rest in the city. till last night! i went in with my brother in law. we had the ceviche mixto, anticuchos and Paella. first ceviche isn’t good like it used to be, paella wasn’t tasty as before (been coming here since 2008) but oh well we eat it and everything was «oook» until i went to bed last night. woke up @ 3:20am with chills, growling/​burning stomach, nausea and Vomiting. I GOT FOOD POISONING :(IDK maybe the ceviche or the paella wasn’t fresh. it was a rough night for me i barely had any sleep … I’ll probably think it twice before coming back here.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a good experience last Saturday. First, I made a reservation for 10 people to celebrate my wife’s birthday, and I was asked to provide with my credit card info so they will charge me $ 150 dollars if we don’t show up, I asked what if not all shows up? and they told me that it should be ok as long as 6 or 7 be present. This is the first time I made a reservation with such requirement but I accepted because I wanted to have a good time with family in a nice place and great food, I have to say that the food there is delicious! we definitely like the food.
Parking is not easy to find as many places in the city, but I was lucky to find one spot in less than 10 minutes two blocks away.
Now when we showed up to the restaurant, they took us to the back of the restaurant and our table was ready, the room was warm as they had heaters turned on in there.
The servers hardly smiled and be courteous to us, they need to work hard on this, as for me customer service is huge in this type of business, even better than great food … I come back to a restaurant where the food is ok but the service is excellent.
After a few minutes we were only 5 people and I told the receptionist that the other persons won’t come and we can move around to free up one of the tables, I apologized for the inconvenience. She came back saying that the manager was upset and they will still charge me on my credit card because they were losing money, so I was thinking if the manager was planning to charge me $ 150 dollars over whatever we consume during the dinner or what? Again, I had never been in this situation. So we apologize again and told her that I can’t force people to show up, unfortunately is not under my control, and she went back with the manager and then told us that everything is Ok and they started to moves the tables. Then we got a text from a couple we invited saying that they were late and looking for parking.
Everybody had the same impression, I haven’t experience this bad service in a long time and I ‘m not planning to come back again, sad because we like the food,

Good good food. Service was okay, it does get packed, environment was so-​so, intimate style casual dining. Solid local joint

Absolutely lovely!
Pros: super unique Peruvian fusion cuisine that is packed with flavor. The crab cake with cheese = BOMB! And so were the scallops with blue potato purée. Ceviche had a hefty portion with tangy and spicy sauce that I just could not stop sipping on
Cons: so dark, small space, hostess wasn’t the friendliest… she did not wanna be there.
Tip: call ahead to reserve, I would skip the paella as it’s nothing better. I would also skip the steak as it was just mediocre. Stick to the tapas! And get a bottle of red wine =D
Will be back for the lava chocolate cake that takes 15 minutes to make so order ahead of time!

One of the best dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. The boy and I went for date night after making reservation the same day. We told them on Open Table about my Celiac Disease and that we would need to be sure that they could accommodate a safe dinning experience. We felt comfortable with our dining choice because of all of the good Unilocal reviews about having many gluten free options. Well they sure lived up to it.
We arrived to find a gluten free menu already set at the table for us, and the waiter was extremely knowledgable and helpful about my options. We ordered 4 small plate options, and every dish was better than the last. We had the chicken avocado dish, the sweet corn with shrimp, the crab cake (yes a gluten free crab cake), and the scallops. Even though we ordered all of them at once, they were perfectly timed so that the dishes didn’t overlap, and we were able to enjoy each one individually (one of my big pet peeves when ordering small plates is when you have 4 plates sitting at your table all at once and you don’t get adequate time to enjoy one dish without the others getting cold). The waiters were attentive, filling water glasses often and offering new plates if old ones were covered in amazing sauce from the previous dish.
Every dish was perfectly cooked, so full of flavor and we basically licked the plate clean every time. While every dish was so amazing, I must say that the crab cake was so unique and delicious. I also haven’t been able to eat a crab cake in 6 years, so deprivation might have had something to do with it. I would absolutely recommend this place for dinner dates. Make a reservation, and take your time… it’s worth it!!!

From the start to the finish what a outstanding meal and service. Extremely friendly. The flavors that were on the dishes we had were outstanding! We went with a group of 5 and shared ceviche with tuna and white fish and a fried wanton with shrimp inside fan feeler tastic!
For main dishes we had paella traditional, pork adobo, beef tips and the braised lamb shoulder. How amazing were all these meals we all fought our forks to decide who ate what.
The biggest way I rate a place is if I would come back… And the answer is without a doubt with my whole party! I don’t know if I can say enough nice things about this meal but if you have any other adjectives to describe perfection let me know!!!

Step into the smells of Peruvian food, on my take of this dinner with the wife the food was excellent, let me break down what we had, and how it faired
Found in the Dogpatch of San Francisco/​Bernal Heights this spot was easy to find but difficult to find parking, inside the restaurant it was close to pitch black with small candles at every table to slightly gather some light so you can read your menu and see your food, if you sat next to a window the light peering in helps, honestly I liked that it was dark.
Causa Tasting — chicken & baby octopus with chilled mashed potatoes, flavored with aji amarillo & lime juice, on this dish the chicken is shredded, baby octopus was seasoned and delicious the mashed potatoes was standard and buttery
Crab Cake Peruano — Dungeness crab, sweet rocoto sauce, berros & Oaxaca cheese. One mid sized crab cake, order two, this is one of the items you don’t want to share, difficult to describe not like your average crab cake definitely different is all I can say
Pulpito Bebe — Baby octopus, papitas dorada & ocopa. chewy but flavorful slightly vinegary I think I liked the Causa Tasting better then dish, there was more ummph in the Causa
Lomo Saltado — stir fried beef tenderloin, onions, tomatoes, cilantro & soy sauce served with fries and rice, had this dish at several other restaurants sadly this place it was not the best I had more of the passing grade, fries did not have that piping hot crunch in the bite, the beef was tender for me it was sliced to small, a tad to salty for me, mind you I know there is soy sauce with the sauce but it seemed a tad overkill on the meat, onions and tomatoes were standard, set it up this way and the saltiness will cease, grab a helpful scoop of rice, on top of the rice add the onions tomatoes, throw the beef tenderloin on it then get 3 tbps of that soy sauce and throw some fries on top
Seco De Cordero — their version of braised lamb shank, it was good, not my favorite dish but it was good, tender, not too salty, meat portion wise was good for me I think I was looking for a more heartier sauce accompaniment.
definitely recommend this place for first date, second date, anniversary, etc
food ****
price $$$
service *****
ambiance **** very dark but I prefer the dark