Wasiiki By Mancora Peruvian

Christmas eve with family and exotic food!!! Start with fresh passion fruit juice with appetizer of fresh fish soaked in lemon juice & Peruvian orange sauce… Fry chicken not bad compare to Taiwanese famous fry chicken (if you have not try take a trip to Taiwan :) main course are seafood paella, steak with fries and egg on top of rice… And fry seafood in Peruvian sauce. Again we always end dinner with? Dessert — fermented vanilla ice cream (with some flavor of alcohol), doche de leche, fry banana, anyways I can still dream the food! Great service and just delicious!

This was a great treat and this Mancora restaurant excels in every way from the friendly and most informative waiter Efrain who became a friend by the time we left to the absolutely delicious food. I had the Bistrek a lo Pobre and the Sirloin steak was cooked to perfection and fried plantains added a fantastic savory taste. The rice was beautiful and tasty and the best fries I’ve ever had. So it was loaded with carbs but you don’t have this kind of cuisine everyday. They will be moving soon, thankfully
only a few blocks away but they are are going to really add on to the dining area plus have Peruvian entertainment and a special out-​side area for those of us who enjoy the fine pleasure of Premium hand-​man cigars. I can hardly wait for them to open up their new place.

Sorry to see that they are closed but not really surprised as the place always seem somewhat empty.
Service while friendly is lacking. We had the ceviche, which was way too tart. The beef heart was ok, a little tough. The seafood cilantro rice was just ok as well.
At this location, you’ll need to be stellar so it becomes a destination for followers and sadly it was not.

First impressions: Empty for lunch, but that was on a Monday when they are normally closed and I literally happened to be passing by.
Second impression: the place smelled like grease. I left there with it clinging to me.
But I decided to have the daily special: Beef Stew. And it was actually pretty good but it was a surprising wait considering that I was the only customer, that it was served with a simple side of white rice (an inverted bowl of it) and that it was stew. It should not take that long to serve your only customer stew with rice.
The quality was mixed, great beefy flavor and portion, but the beef was not as tender as I’d hoped. Thank goodness it was not dry because that can be worse – tender but very dry is worse than moist and just a little chewy. It had small peas and onions cooked down in a very tasty (but oily) stew/​sauce. Garnished with a few slices of fresh red onion.
I liked what I heard about the daily special, which varies each day. Today’s was about $ 8 and was a nice change. I will try this place again to see if the ventilation is better and the more ethnic food choices are available.

Valerie, the owner is SUPER sweet. Best service. Ever. This review is way overdue. I have been coming to this restaurant and all I can say is «WOW». Definitely a hidden treasure — the place is a little bit hard to find as it is on the El Camino and the sign is White against a white building, so be careful not to miss this one!
First off, I am very PICKY, but I LOVE this restaurant. Here’s my recommendations (everything is AWESOME on the menu).
CHICKEN: Saltado de Pollo –chicken with gravy, tomatoes, onions and french fries served with rice
SEAFOOD: Saltado de Mariscos — sauteed seafood with onions, tomatoes and french fries served with rice.
FISH: Pescado en Salsa de Mariscos: fried fish and seafood sauce served with rice.
STEAK (HUGE STEAK): Bisteck a lo Pobre — 12oz steak, eggs and rice
DESSERT: Helado de Lucuma! This ice cream is an orange fruity one that is absolutely to die for!
They have Peruvian soda too! Sooooo delicious — try the Inca Cola!

I ate here with three friends, and we shared the following:
* Ceviche
* Paella
* Beef heart brochettes
* Lomo saltado
Everything was good, although portions were a bit small for sharing among four people.
The restaurant was fairly empty on a Wednesday evening, but service was still a bit slow. The water I was given tasted a bit sour, as if there were a few drops of fermenting yogurt in my glass. When I mentioned this to the server, he brought us bottled water for the rest of the meal.
As an SF resident, I would not choose Wasiiki over Peruvian options in SF, such as Limon or Mi Lindo Peru. If you do find yourself in the area, Wasiiki is a good option to try.

Recently bought a Groupon for this place. I’d never tried Peruvian food before. I didn’t think it was anything super exotic. Seemed like American food but seasoned slightly different. I had the half chicken at the bf had a steak.
I was impressed with how my chicken tasted. I couldn’t put a finger on what spices they used. However, the chicken got dry near the center. Loved the fries though! The bf really liked his steak. It was HUGE and very juicy and tender.
The waitress was very nice about suggesting items. The bathrooms were super small but clean. You need to park on the street.

My colleague had bought the groupon deal so came here to check it out. There were not many in the resto around 1230 for lunch. We got seated and the waitress is very friendly. After scanning, we decided to go with what she suggested:
Pescado En Salsa de Mariscos — it looked like paella, with assortment of seafood. tasted good and liked the flavor of rice.
Lomo saltado: comes with rice, well cooked meat with glazed onions and potato wedges. Bit salty but goes good with the white rice.
Ceviche de mixto: trout, shrimp, octopus, mussels sitting on some peruvian thin sauce.
They also served complimentary bread with some green dip. very spicy. The service was good and great for seafood lovers. Bit pricey but since its mostly seafood can’t complain.

I’m seriously SHOCKED that i haven’t reviewed this place yet… this place is a MUST GO when friends/​family visit because it is just THAT GOOD.
Try this family style:
1. Lomo Saltado
2. Paella (Oh my freak, so good)
3. Pescado ensalsa de Mariscos (creamy orange sauce and the fish is still so perfectly cooked)
4. Ceviche Mixto (the fish is so fresh and have you seen corn kernels like that before??)
If you love bread as much as I do, come for lunch when the bread is still warm and right out of the oven.
Oh myyy. I am drooling while writing this review. YEE! lovvveeeee.

Wasiiki has set the bar amazingly high for peruvian cuisine!
My friends and gf wanted to try this place out one night… we got there at 8pm (they close at 9) and the waiter notified us that they were sold out of their food.
Sold out an hour before closing? Wow, must be pretty good.
Since that day, I’ve gone probably 4 times in addition to trying other Peruvian restaurants, of which 0 came even CLOSE to the quality and freshness of Wasiiki.
Must Have Dishes: Ceviche Mixto — fresh fish + mixed seafood in a tangy sauce. Also has gigantic corn that I had never seen in my life and a sweet yam.
Paella — The paella is hands down the best paella i’ve ever had. Fresh seafood + just the right amount of spices is a recipe for goodness. One order is good enough to split between 4 people (along with other dishes of course)
Really Good Dishes: Everything else. Lomos Saltado is a famous peruvian dish which is pretty good. Contains beef stir fried with onions, FRENCH FRIES, and other spices.
This is definitely a go-​to place whenever someone visits town!

I am surprised how quiet this place is on a Friday night even when they are running a pretty good Groupon deal. The food is excellent here. I guess the slightly awkward location is really hurting their business. Wassiiki is on the other side of El Camino not too far from the 25^th Avenue where a lot of the neighborhood gems are. The restaurant is not hard to find at all. In fact, I have noticed this place many times when driven by. The problem is really the parking. There are very limited parking spots located in the back but you have to make a huge loop to get to. It is connected to the same parking lot for the very busy Little Shanghai which makes it quite hard to navigate.
The food is good. I bet if this restaurant is located in downtown San Mateo, the line will be out the door. Their Anticucho de Corauzon (Grilled cow heart skewers) is easily one of the best I have had. Very tender. Very flavorful. The stapled dish Lomo Saltado is average. A little salty and watery. The fries got too soggy swimming in the gravy. Parihuela was decent but not as rich as i would like. The soup is weak on tomato. They also ran out of crab that day so it might be more interesting otherwise. Do save room for dessert. They have some really good Alfajores cookies. You can also pick up a box of these goodies to go. If you are greedy, grab a dessert platter and you can try their cookies, Helado de Lucuma (ice cream) and Crema Volteada (caramel flan).
Service is friendly and efficient. Ambiance is simple and clean. Good place to get some authentic Peruvian cuisine.

The Pescado a lo Macho is the truth!
Everything else is arguable.
And try the Chicharron, it’s ok.

Great food. I loved the ceviche, so tasty!
The rest of the food was tasty too, cooked just right from the steak to the chicken all was tender, and high quality.
Good sangria too.
The only thing they need to fix is the ambience. They were playing terrible Kenny G music when we were there, i’d rather hear peruvian music :) (this is the 1 star off).
The service was slow but they were packed and the food was so good that we didn’t care.

Anticucho de Corazon: Appetizer
Lomo Saltado: hubby’s main dish (Gud Stuffff)
Pescado en salsa de Mariscos: my dish (EXCELLENT: See my photo)
+ 2 Cusquenas each
= HOMERUN!
Service was top notch
We had all of this on our Unilocal coupon and even had a few dollars unspent. Super duper :)

This was my first time trying Peruvian food. If you are trying to eat a healthy diet that is low on the grease and/​or you are a vegetarian or vegan, this is not the place for you.
There are a couple choices that have tofu or potatoes as the main dish, but they are very greasy, lacking any other vegetables and served with only white rice. The sauce over the dishes was flavorful, but like I mentioned, greasy.

Wasiiki is now Mancora, under new management. The friendly service, clean dining, and savory dishes are still top-​notch for its value. It’s a gem of a Peruvian restaurant here in the Peninsula and there is no need to trek up to the city to enjoy fresh ceviche and a glass of chicha morada (unless you want a swanky establishment with all the bells and whistles). It’s simplicity at its best. Just sit down, eat, maybe enjoy a game of soccer, and leave satisfied!
My favorite dishes are the ceviche and pescado a lo macho (tender white fish smothered in a creamy seafood sauce). I also always order a sweet yet refreshing chicha morada, a purple corn juice. The portions are large so you could share a dish between two … or order a few appetizers such as anticuchos and papa a la huancaina. As for the desserts, I wish that they had lucuma ice cream but alas they only had pisco ice cream the last time I went. You can also satiate your sweet tooth with alfajores.
Note: Parking is difficult on El Camino (fortunately, I live nearby!).

Best. Ceviche. Ever. No joke.
It was so delicious that all of us, who adopted the family-​style sharing of the ceviche, had to scoop out the last remaining drops of the tangy lemon dressing, after we inhaled the heaping of prawns, squid, clams and sweet potatoes within minutes.
The rest of the dishes were pretty good — lomo saltado, skirt steak with sauteed bell peppers and onion (which may well be the Peruvian version of beef fajita sans beans and tortilla); pescado a la chorrillana, breaded and lightly fried fish with soy sauce and deep-​fried yuca (which is almost like the lighter version of the awful English fish-​and-​chips with less batter); and seco, braised short ribs with cilantro-​based sauce.
A word of caution: do not schedule a meeting at 1PM. If you get here by noon, you won’t be out by then. But for those who want to either (a) take it easy or (b) do an OWL (one-​way lunch), while the wait for the food is somewhat long, there’s always the Inca Kola (bubble gum-​flavored fizz that looks a bit like piss of a TB patient on medication) to make the wait bearable.

«I would not change my native land, for rich Peru with all her gold» — Isaac Watts
The reason 3^rd World Cuisine is always tasty and unique is because they lack the resources to throw a slab of tasty meat on a plate. They counter this problem by mixing in unique, local ingredients and typically spices or herbs to create a smörgåsbord of flavors that touch all your tastebuds.
The Peruvians do it right. They use spices, tomatoes, beans and the best part — a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and African flavors as a result of the inter-​trading hundreds of years ago, to create unique flavors.
I’ve had the usuals over 30 times (lomo saltado, bistec a la pobre, etc.) so I opted for:
Ceviche — A great mix! Normally places just give halibut in lime sauce, but the lime sauce here was perfect. Strong sour flavors along with mussels, shrimp, calamari, and fish. Topped off with a sweet potato and corn-​nuts. The fish wasn’t as fresh as I’d have liked it, but the flavors and lime marinade made it delish. Aesthetically it was pleasing as well.
Seco — braised short ribs in Peruvian bean sauce. Wow — the meat was melt off your bones. I’d come back for this. Tender and juicy, with a side of rice and beans. The extras mixed with the rice perfectly. A must try.
I also tried the corn drink. It was purple and odd. Sort of like wine without the alchy. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good. Skip it.
The owner was very friendly and attentive to service. I highly recommend this spot and would go back for other dishes.

Came here tonight with a friend after some shopping at Hillsdale. I just thought the place was okay.
You walk in and the ambiance was not there. They had white table cloth which made it nice, but the chairs seemed like it was left over from a previous Restaurant. Also, it felt like they have not finished decorating the place. It was kinda blah.
We decided to order — for appetizer, we got the ceviche mixto and i got the chicken dish and my friend got the lightly battered white fish. The ceviche came and had lots of seafood. I just thought it was okay. I had better. I been to Fresco in the city and i liked their presentation better and it tasted more fresh.
Our main dish came and the chicken was huge on top of some rice. the chicken was good, alittle dry in some places, but it was fine. My friend’s fish was good but nothing too special about it.
This place definitely gives you big portions at a reasonable price. The food was so-​so.
The service was good where they checked up on us often. We had questions about some of the food, but the younger lady working there didn’t know the answer which was kinda disappointing. She may be new, but she could have got someone to get us the answer. Also, service is also based on how soon they fill-​up your water and our water was low for sometime.

I have found I like Peruvian food, and I like going for Peruvian food with a group, since you get to taste new and different dishes that way.
We got there late, (about 45 minutes before closing) so we were seated immediately.
The server was pleasant, but very forgetful.
She never brought out the requested bread refill, and also brought our gluten intolerant friend a dish swimming in soy sauce, (when he had specified he couldn’t eat soy.)
I did really like the ceviche mixto. It was fresh and a perfect combo of textures and flavors., Luckily i was able to easily pick out the red onion. Had I known it was going to be so big I would have ordered it for my entrée.
The big disappointment was my entrée. It was basically the exact same mix of fish as in the ceviche, but warm, and with a piece of fried fish. The fried fish wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the description, had it been I would have ordered something else.
I tasted it, and it was ok, but I don’t eat fried fish.
I did really enjoy my friend’s beef heart skewers, they were so tender and totally delicious. Mmm, i may just have to order those myself next time I see them on a menu!
If someone wanted to come here, i would give it another chance.
Although, for my money and calories, Isabella’s is my pick for Peruvian, (outside of SF.)