Cafe Secret

Is this really authentic Peruvian food?
It’s not lousy but it’s not great either especially for the price. If it wasn’t for the great service and the awesome tres leches dessert I would give it 2 stars.

I’m not a very adventurous eater comparing to a lot of the other Unilocalers. It’s my first time trying Peruvian food and I Love it!!! I actually did taste a hint of «asian» flavor in it and that might be why I love it so much! The ceviche is a must try!
The servers were very nice and the environment was perfect for a girls night out or a little gathering (tables are quite limited)
The only downside is that the portion is a little small for the price

Came here for lunch on a rainy day and luckily for us, there was still some seating in the covered area outside. I’ve never had Peruvian food so if Café Secret is a good representative of this type, then call me a fan. We ordered all of the ceviche type appetizers and they did not disappoint. Portions are enough to share among 4 or 5 people. For my main dish, I ordered the Lomito Saltado which is a stir fried filet mignon served with vegetables, yucca and rice. Talk about depths of flavor. Surprisingly, I was able to tell there was heavy use of soy sauce and vinegar which is a combination I use frequently with some of my own Asian dishes. Service was excellent as we were checked on frequently.
Tip: Parking can be troublesome depending on the time of day.

I took one of my friends here to celebrate her birthday and loved the food so much! It made me miss Peru… We sat outside and had heat lamps surrounding us to keep warm. There was a dog on a leash near the entrance that belonged to the owner? that looked very sad, so my friend was playing with him a for a little bit in between dishes.
After looking over the menu and asking for recommendations, we decided to order the clasico ceviche, shrimp causa, and lomito saltado to share. The dishes were brought out one at a time and were nicely presented. I loved every bite of everything and we kept asking for more of the complimentary canchitas (toasted corn nuts) — they were so addicting. The filet mignon in my lomo saltado was very tender, but a bit bloody even though I asked for medium well, so I had them refire it. I thought that the whipped potato stack in the shrimp causa had interesting flavor combinations and was so filling! The ceviche was really limey and good– they used yellowtail as the fresh catch that day. For dessert, I was secretly hoping that she would get the quatro leches, and that’s what she ordered! The cake was so moist and delicious! It was nice of them to surprise her with a few candles and a complimentary alfajor cookie to go! We tried a few bites and it was yummy as well.
I was so stuffed! Although the restaurant was pretty empty, service was pretty slow. My water never got refilled at all! Luckily the food was so good. I’ll definitely come back when I’m craving for some Peruvian food!

Their food is excellent and the flavor profiles are complex and rich. Proportions are large but not heavy. I suggest you share dishes with the people you come with. Service is attentive to your needs but not overly so. They may forget a thing or two, but they will work hard to fix any errors that arise. This isn’t a michelin star restaurant, but it is very good.

Have to admit, I was surprised. Cute little outdoor eating area. Not busy at all on a Wednesday evening in October. We had a corner of the restaurant all to ourselves!
We started with the Wednesday special of $ 10 fish ceviche and half priced bottles of wine. Great day to have dinner. The ceviche was medium spicy and it was a tad spicy, good but with much heat, if you know what I mean.
Next up was the shredded chicken in aji sauce «aji de gallina.» We shared it and after eating it all, we were both stuffed. It was creamy, a little garlicky, and a bit cheesy. It was served with garlic rice and purple potatoes. It was good!
Great atmosphere, quiet enough to chat, good food and great service.
I’d come here here again! Total cost about $ 50 before tip :)

Flies!
Yuck!
It’s a pity, this place is adorable, the staff was super friendly, the mahi mahi was delicious,…but the flies?! Ugh. Everywhere!
I probably would have given 4 stars, and maybe under different,…ugh,…I dunno,…atmospheric conditions, this would have been a wonderful lunch spot.
Hey, give it a try, maybe it will be different for you?

The BEST Peruvian food I’ve EVER had. Their ceviche is freshly tossed in lime juice and so authentic that I’m drooling typing this. It’s quaint «secret» location is adorable. The vibe is friendly and owners Bratzo & Daniella make you feel like family. They truly care about the customers experience and go above and beyond to ensure a fun and delicious experience.
The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. Their service is unparalleled. Very attentive and make amazing recommendations if you’re unsure where to start on the menu. I love Alex & Rodrigo, their brothers and are expert at serving and make you feel like royalty.
My favorite dishes are the picante ceviche, Classico ceviche and the lomito saltado. Highly recommend to drive from any ends of the earth to experience this expertly authentic Peruvian cuisine.

A cute little place tucked away beneath some lovely foliage. There’s not much space inside but lots of room sitting on their patio. I had the Mixto Ceviche ($ 20) and it was delicious and fresh! It doesn’t come with crackers or chips though, so may be less filling than expected if you’re having it as an entrée. It does come with massive corn kernel things as your «starch», along with fresh fish, octopus, scallops, shrimp, and mussels. I sampled a bit of the «Chaufa» which is Peruvian-​Cantonese style fried rice with shrimp and pork… Not too greasy, but super tasty and chock full of shrimp and pork. Basically tastes like Chinese fried rice, and realized the name sounds like Chow-​Fun!
Shared the bread pudding dessert and it is phenomenal! Had to stop myself from consuming the whole thing and let other people get a stab at it. They also have a chocolate dessert which was delicious, but too sweet for my tastes.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this cozy place and will return for lunch soon!

I really, really wanted to like Café Secret and while it wasn’t bad, it didn’t blow me away either. If I could, I’d bump it to 3.5 stars.
The sidewalk café style restaurant is so cute and I absolutely loved the environment. With all the plants, it’s almost like eating in a secret garden right on the main strip of Del Mar. My friend and I sat on the sidewalk side of the patio and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine that seeped through the leaves.
The restaurant is dog friendly, which is great as my spoiled pug likes to tag along on outings. The waiter scored big points for bringing a water bowl for my dog without being asked.
I’ve only eaten Peruvian food once at Q’ero in Encinitas and decided it was time to try again. This time though, I tried lunch items and I wasn’t as impressed. My friend and I split a chicken empanada and a chicken sandwich. I was really excited to try the empanada but was disappointed to discover far more onions (which I strongly dislike) than chicken in the flaky crust. The chicken sandwich was better than the empanada though. The shoestring potatoes on the sandwich, despite sounding strange, provided a welcome crunch and the pulled chicken had great flavor. The only issue is that pulled chicken is difficult to eat as pieces were constantly falling out of the sandwich. The plantain chips tasted exactly like potato chips. I’m not very familiar with plantain chips so I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing but they tasted good.
Side note: I thought it was fun that the check is brought out inside of a book. Very unique!
I know that I loved Q’ero’s lomo saltado so I may have to return to Café Secret to try their version of the dish. Hopefully it’ll leave me with a stronger impression and I can revisit my review.

This place had been on the bookmarks for a while. I have been interested in trying their take on Peruvian Food for quite some time. Reading the descriptions there is hints of a Chinese influence in the flavors here. Asking my Peruvian friend and its a tradition that has been going on since Chinese immigrants went to Peru int the mid to late 1800’s. That’s news to me. I was interested to find out how it tasted! Anyway, it’s a charming little place in Del Mar for sure. Perfect for a date plans or even a whimsical meal out.
We had a beef empenada to start then split dishes of the Mixto, the lomita saltado and the Macho. Standouts for me the mixto with its fresh succulent seafood which they didn’t skimp on and the macho with it’s creamy buttery flavors. The emepnada and saltado were fine, though when it came to beef, it tasted just like something I could get at any chinese restaurant (for cheaper i might add).
If good company and sangrias weren’t enough to make for a fun evening the dessert sealed the deal. We all agreed it was the best dish of the evening… even me who is lukewarm about desserts at best. Bread pudding is often too sweet for me or too dense but this wasn’t the case. It was still sweet but what won us all over was the dark decadent vein of chocolate running through it. We all agreed the return for just the bread pudding would be worth it!

Came here in the middle of the week for dinner and ordered the beef empenada, mixto, lomita saltado, macho, and the bread pudding.
The beef empenada was excellent! It’s made from scratch and contains a mix of spinach, arugula, and your choice of beef, chicken, or portobello. The empenada comes out HOT and the crust is flaky with just the right amount of crunch. I’m not exactly sure what’s in the filling, but whatever it is, it’s delicious! I could’ve eaten 2 more all to myself!
The Mixto was a ceviche containing fish, octopus, shrimp, scallops, muscles and calamari in a zesty, limey sauce. The seafood was extremely fresh and the zesty sauce was pretty good, although a little too tangy for my taste. Try taking a bite of this without puckering your face!
The lomita saltado is a filet mignon stir fry with tomatoes, onions, and peppers. The taste is Asian inspired and is similar to a Chinese black pepper sauce. Although the dish was pretty decent, it wasn’t really anything special and tasted like something you can get at almost any Chinese restaurant. And at $ 20 a plate, probably wouldn’t order this again.
The macho was very interesting. It looks like a curry, but definitely doesn’t taste like a curry. There is no spiciness to it, and it almost tastes like a buttery seafood gravy. Very unique and extremely tasty and consists of shrimp, mussels, and squid. Great with the garlic rice!
And last but not least, the bread pudding was amazing and by far my favorite dish which is very surprising as desserts are not usually my favorite. The bittersweet chocolate that’s baked into bread pudding is SO good and the bread pudding is perfect. Soft and spongy, but not soggy, and topped with a vanilla bean sauce. If this place opened earlier, I’d come here on a morning weekend just for an order of the bread pudding with a coffee. Order this if you come here… seriously!

Very authentic Pervuvian restaurant in Del Mar. These are hard to find in San Diego, but I was recommended by a friend to come.
The staff was very friendly and the location was convenient to get to. They have a café inside with pastries as well as outdoor seating. I highly recommend trying the ceviche mixto, gaucha fried rice and the dried lamb. It was all very tasty.
The portions are big enough to share and it’s a great place to take the family out on a Sunday.

My husband and I ordered the lomo Saltado to go and it was not worth the price at all. Flavor of the tomatoes in the meal was good though.
We tried to return it because we asked for the meat to be cooked medium rare and it was very very chewy. Imagine getting 3 scrawny pieces of meat in a meal for 26 bucks !!! Not good.
The website menu says $ 18 bucks for the lomo Saltado but when we picked it up it was 22 bucks plus 2 bucks extra as we requested extra tomatoes because we knew that’s one thing they would short us on… Didn’t know we needed to ask for extra meat! Maybe it would have doubled the price !
My husband had the most brutal confrontation with the owner and his staff when he tried to return the meal. Where has customer service gone when being dissatisfied with a meal is WAR !!!

After hiking the beautiful Torrey Pines State Reserve, the BF and I decided to go to this charming Peruvian café just a 5 minute drive away. It’s not hard to find. Just look for luscious greenery with pink flowers. Sitting here will makes it feel like you’ve been transported to a secret garden complete with a fountain.
Looking at the menu, it looks like they are vegetarian and gluten-​free friendly. For example, they offer quinoa tamale or a ceviche made with mushrooms. Service was friendly and attentive.
Ceviche Mixto — Nice ceviche of mixed seafood accompanied by yams, canchas (giant crunchy roasted kernels), and hominy. The yams were surprisingly good with the acidic ceviche juice. Although this was good dish, I’m don’t think I’d get it again because of the price ($ 20).
Beef Empanada — Nice plump empanada served with a small side salad. The delicious pastry was PACKED with savory filling.
Chicharron Sandwich — Great braised pork sandwich served with plantain chips and side salad. Definitely a must have!
Now that you know the café’s secret, you know what to do… come and eat!

Where is my review? I thought I wrote one for this place!
If you have never tried Peruvian food, you should check it out at Café Secret. Great location in Del Mar downtown. Café Secret is a little lovely restaurant, with both indoor and patio seating. Very reasonable prices, especially for the location!
They offer this little snack which is some dry-​roasted corn kernels (cancha) for every table, delicious, addictive… perfect snack to go with a beer! For drinks we ordered a pitcher of chicha morada, you can think of it as Peruvian Sangria, it has purple corn which gives the color together with a bunch of fruits, healthy stuff.
For entrees we got the Aji de gallina and Lomita saltado. Both were flavorful and delicious, very unique dishes you don’t get for other cuisines. Aji de gallina is some pulled chicken breast topped with some creamy aji sauce, served with potatoes and rice. Lomit saltado is basically filet Mignon with onions, tomato, and peppers, served with yuca and rice. Depending on your mood, chicken or beef, both were yummy.
Total for two people with drinks was less than $ 70, very reasonable!

Um, this place is sneak attack delicious — we were staying down the street and had that 4pm hanger that can only come from neglecting to eat a proper lunch and spending all day at the San Diego Safari Park trying to lure tigers through the fence and into our car with my charming personality, which, weirdly didn’t work — so honestly, pretty much anything that Café Secret fed me would have won me over — but even after I had been slightly sated and my starvation goggles had been removed, we both decided that Café Secret was truly excellent.
Went w an order of yuca fries w spicy aji sauce, the quinoa/​cilantro/​choclo tamale for me, a beef empanada for M, and the daily ceviche — honestly, this is some of the best ceviche I’ve eaten in a while, perhaps the most tangy/​sweet/​lovely I’ve had outside of Ecuador (b/​c I’m a dick) — the yuca fries were crisped to perfection and not overly greasy, the tamale had a kick to it that was unexpected and glorious, and per the report I received, the empanada was a hand-​held wonder that put Hot Pockets everywhere to shame.
We took everything to go as M had a work call to take, but I would have happily spent the afternoon lounging on their cute front deck and making small talk w our adorbs waiter, Ricardo — who, in his infinite wisdom, saw the fire in my belly as I sat to wait for our order to be ready and immediately brought me a dish of fried sea-​salted choclo, which is a one way ticket into my heart.
Not inexpensive, but portions are healthy and the quality is outstanding — most starers (tamale, empanadas) are $ 9 – 12, though the fish-​based choices are closer to $ 17 – 20, as are the ceviches, sandos are $ 14ish (pork, fish, chicken — though why you would forgo going Peruvian at a place like this is beyond me), and salads are $ 13ish — if you’re in the San Diego area and looking for something unexpectedly wonderful, make a stop here.

We’ve been here a handful of times over the past year. We still love the flare of the food and the great corn snack/​appetizers. Beers are in bottles, but are worth a try and have a good selection. The non-​alcoholic version of the sangria was fantastic. This is a wonderfully unique place with dog friendly seating.
I’ve rated this place at 5 stars in the past, but I had to drop a star because of a couple issues. My seafood fried rice didn’t have much seafood in it, but all the seafood was very good. The attention to detail in the fried rice was lacking, as giant chunks of white rice was stuck together with uncooked rice in the middle. The fried rice usually has egg mixed in with it, but this one had a chunk of egg, hidden under a prawn. It just wasn’t the top quality we had had before.
They no longer have the Leche cookies, which is fine. They were awesome, but two staff members explained to us that they can’t make them anymore and make money. This didn’t make sense to me, if you want to make a profit off something do the math and figure out what to charge. It was also uncomfortable to hear them explain why there were no cookies. I would have preferred «sorry, that is no longer our specialty».

My parents and I came here for lunch recently. I happen to live down the street but have never had a chance to eat here.
We were really hungry so we ordered a variety of plates to share. First we ordered the ceviche which was incredible. I love that peruvian ceviche includes an assortment of ingredients and textures in addition to flavor. You will find fish, sweet potatoes, crunchy and soft maize, onions, and spices.
We also shared two chicken empanadas which came with a side of arugula salad and dressing. They tasted great.
We shared two Lomo Saltados which is steak, rice, potatoes with a great tasting sauce. The peruvian food I am used to has this on top of fries in addition to rice and its more greasy. However, Café Secret does not include fries and grease in their lomo. It definitely tasted healthier and I didn’t feel weighed down after my meal.
This was more than enough food for three people. We were stuffed.
Unlike the other peruvian places I’ve been to, this one was a bit more pricey. I guess I expect that because it is Del Mar. Also, the location is right by the water and restaurant is really cute. Regardless, I think I will be coming back for more.

Came for dinner on a Saturday night. Delicious food, hidden gem, cozy restaurant. A bit on the spendy side. Spent $ 60 on two entrees and two non-​alcoholic drinks (incl 20% tip).
**Suggestion for management: Make the seafood chaufa spicy :)