Andes Café

Came here at a cold Tuesday late evening. The food was amazing. We came in half an hour around closing time. The restaurant was quiet, and was a little bit cold. The owners were nice and attentive. We would definitely come again.

Great place to grab lunch. Good food and good service.

Amazing food! I’ll definitely come back. I recommend Yucas Fritas and Arroz con Pollo.

I just bought two empanadas to use up a
coupon. They were out of beef ones so, I opted for chicken. It was absolutely delicious!

Guy with the glasses overcharged me for a milkshake. Don’t know what crawled up his ass, but I’d rather not go to a place where I feel like I’m going to get ripped off.

Such a cute little family atmosphere restaurant. By family, I mean family owned and operated atmosphere, despite the little kid crying his eyes out on the other side of the restaurant…
Discovered this place from a Livingsocial deal. Between 2 people, we ordered just enough food to have a small box to go in the end. It made a good lunch too!
*House Sangria — Our server was generous enough to offer more wine once I drank ¼ of it!
*Fried Calamari — It was decent. The salsa salad on the side was what made the dish yummy. Those onions though… who would have thought it would have SO MUCH flavor!
*Lomo Saltado — This is pretty mainstream at any Peruvian restaurant and Unilocal recommended it based off most of the reviews. Gave it a shot, and it was just ok. Good dish though for those who have never been to a Peruvian restaurant.
*Carapulcra — MUST GET!!! This was the BEST TASTING dish I have yet to try at any Peruvian restaurant! Mmm I’m craving it just thinking about it. It was kind of a like a stew with meat and potatoes served with rice. It was on their specials menu, so hopefully they add it to their main one! Sooooo good!
Overall, we had a great time dining here. If we lived closer, I would probably come back again just for that Carapulcra!

Where can I start? We ordered «Pollo a la Brasa» the bestttt peruvian roasted chicken in bay area. Delicious and tasty. Not necessary going to LA to find a good one. Born and raised in Peru. I know what I’m talking about.

I really wanted to like this place since I rarely get to eat authentic Peruvian food. Alas, my effort to trek over here was rather disappointing.
I came with a friend on weekday afternoon and we spent about $ 60 here for 5 dishes and 2 drinks. Nothing was terrible, but nothing was stellar.
All I have to say was that it was a quiet dining experience and interesting trying things. Good points were the freshness of all the seafood, but nothing really stood out as something I’d want to try again or order again. Flavors seemed to be plain and uninteresting. Paella was slightly bland. I wanted more spices!
Our waiter recommended the fried donuts for dessert and they were bad. Just fried dough, nothing special about it! Also ordered the tres leches cake which wasn’t bad but nothing I’d need to go back for.
I did like the gopro videos they were playing on the big screen of Peru!
All in all, I’m glad I gave it a shot but I wouldn’t come back.

Tasty food; friendly, helpful service.
I’d had the food before through DoorDash and enjoyed the meal. Then, one of my friends suggested the restaurant for dinner, so I was excited to try the food again.
The kitchen couldn’t quite deliver on the salad with cilantro dressing that I wanted (the waiter said the chef who made the dressing was no longer there), so I got a different salad, but I was offered an empanada on the house. The salad was very fresh, though it had a few too many onions for my taste. I got a vegetarian empanada with a delicious creamy spinach filling and a dipping sauce on the side.
For dessert, I couldn’t decide between a purple corn pudding or rice pudding. The waiter said that it is common to have the two together, so I ordered one, and one of my friends ordered the other, and we shared. It was great combo. The purple corn was tart, but the rice pudding tones it down; the rice pudding would have been boring by itself.
I had a nice time with my friends at Andes Café.

Blink, and you will definitely miss it as you whiz past on El Camino.
There’s not really an easy or safe way to reach Andes, especially during traffic, other than being stubborn and using your turn-​signal early. That being said, it’s definitely worth the hassle to check out.
SERVICE.
Varies drastically. We had a younger guy and another women serve us, and while the young guy didn’t want to give us the time of day and seemed very angsty at having to work on a Saturday, the other woman was very friendly, helpful, and efficient.
THE FOOD.
Quite good — our ceviche was fresh, tangy, and tasty, and if anything, we were left wishing we had ordered more dishes. The stuffed avocado was fantastic as well! You can definitely tell a lot of love and effort goes into every dish, which is especially positive in a smaller location like this. Even cuter, they give you an Andes mint at the end of your meal.
Andes, we’ll be sure to brave the traffic to visit once again!

Had dinner here on a Sunday evening — ordered Papa a la huancaina for appetizer, pescado encebollado (fish in onion/​tomato spicy sauce with rice) and Arroz chaufa vegetariano (Peruvian spices added veggie fried rice) for entrees. The appetizer had boiled potatoes with some creamy mayo-​like sauce, it was quite filling. Veggie rice tasted like bought from any other chinese eatouts. The fish entrée was good. Service was friendly and the décor had many Peruvian artifacts.

para quien lo entienda un buen ceviche… tamales…empanadas…lomo saltado… chicha morada… andes café es el lugar no acepten imitaciones, se los digo yo.

Good food, vegetarian options and American breakfast options. I’ve gone to this place several times both for special Peruvian breakfast and for dinner. The food is good and I love that they have real vegetarian options. They also serve American breakfast staples (like scrambled eggs or pancakes) so that you can still have Peruvian food even if your child refuses to eat anything new or you just like having french toast along with your tamales. There are also a few dishes that they’ve made up like the causa acevichada which is a mix of 2 other traditional dishes that go great together! If you have room for dessert, try the picarones (awesome) or something more familiar like cherry pie.

We had breakfast there before and it was just ok. Then we went back for dinner. My husband ordered «traditional sangria».
Omg, they put Canned fruits in it!!! We could not believe it. So we looked it up to make sure that’s not how it’s made in Peru. It does not appear they use CANNED FRUITS in sangria there.
Yucca fries were mushy also. Ceviche was good, but we will not go back…

A little dive-​y, but that’s part of the charm. We came here on a random Sunday evening while around and were pleasantly surprised.
The service is friendly (though a little slow — but this might have been the large party ahead of us) and the décor is nothing to write home about. But the food generally shines.
The tamals (tamales) were OK. The ceviche was pretty good, and there was a lot of it.
We also had the chicken empanadas which were really good — great filling, great sauce and not too much breading. And the Pollo Saltado was excellent — especially good with the rice. Well-​seasoned, moist and tender.
If I’m ever back in San Mateo, I’ll probably be back.

Came here on a weeknight and tried 4 different dishes. I eat a lot of Peruvian food so the fact that I liked all the dishes is high praise. Empanada (chicken) was soft and moist — just right. The chicken saltado was delicious. The chupe de camarones was hot and tasty– lots of shrimp. The pescado a lo macho had lots of different seafood– salty but also had good taste.
Rice was a little dry but otherwise everything was very good.

Was pretty excited to try something new for lunch this week with my coworker. We decided on this place bc it’s close to our work place and my coworker loves Peruvian.
The place was completely empty at noon on Friday which was a little surprising for San Mateo.
We shared an empanada and the Peruvian fried rice both with chicken. I really wasn’t impressed. Not to mention I got a piece of bone in my rice. The server was very friendly hence the 3 stars but the food def was nothing I would want to try again.

My boyfriend and some friends and I came here for lunch after looking for some places to eat. We got a groupon too! The lady there was really nice and the food was good. The décor was nice as well, better ventilated than other restaurants in the area, because it was a super hot day.
3.5 is my rating, because I’d like to try more of the food! They have a small parking lot behind the restaurant as well, which is always nice, because it’s located on the El Camino.

The ceviche here is 5 stars while the steak with pesto pasta is 3 stars.
The fish ceviche is so amazing with generous portions.
I ordered the match a milkshake and regretted it a lot. I think they put icecream and some stuff in it I didn’t really like. The boy loved it though.
Skip the steak at all costs. Ordered medium rare and it came out well done. It was such a disappointment. The pasta was the worst pasta ever.

I found this restaurant on
so I thought I would try it out!
It is located where the old Manacora used to be, so they basically replaced the Peruvian restaurant with another Peruvian restaurant.
As always we parked in back and came through to the front where we were greeted by the friendly staff.
I ordered the Lomo Saltado, one of my favorite Peruvian dishes, it did not disappoint, it was actually better than most.
My husband ordered the Aji de Gallina, which was pretty good, not as good as the one we just had in New York. It is not on their regular menu, it is a special. They told us they do have it every Thursday!
Prices are reasonable, service was friendly, parking can be tough on the El Camino.

A really great addition to the Peruvian food scene in the Peninsula.
We got there about 30 minutes before closing and not once did we feel rushed. In fact, the staff was making sure we enjoyed our food and graciously offered us dessert, well after closing. The pescado a lo macho and a la chorrillana were excellent — I’ve had these dishes at many other Peruvian restaurants and Andes Café blew them away. The sauce for the a lo macho was just right, not too thick or overly creamy, with plenty of shrimp and mussels on the side. The chorrillana was also on point. The staff is super friendly and I’ll definitely be coming back to try the rest of the menu.
Another huge plus is they have plenty of breakfast options (unlike many other Peruvian restaurants). Give them a try!