Essencia

Came by last night (Thursday) and they were closed :(EaterSF says they are down. Sadness.

Come here for food that is good but overpriced.
Went for dinner awhile back. Had a super rich, but tasty braised lamb shank. I remember that everything was pretty good overall, but the price at more than $ 100 for the total for 2 people is a bit too high for my personal taste. This is likely because they tend to cater to the Opera crowd here. Anywhere else the prices would be more reasonable for a room this size and the menu offered.

Went there for lunch, and despite the MASSIVE warnings about not finding a table, we were quickly seated by the capable staff.
Let me say for the record that ESSENCIA has the BEST dinner bread in the bay. I would go just to gorge myself on that alone. YUMMMMM…
I ordered the empaneda plate which brought some concern to my tummy since the portion size was a tad small…
However, although a little «toasty» it was a nicely made meal.
However, as I’ve noticed lately at other bay area establishments, the meat wasn’t seasoned all that well. Almost as if people are scared they’re going to get sued if their dishes are too spicy!
If you can, you MUST try the Purple Corn drink! I won’t say more, just that its yuuuuuumy.
Didn’t get a chance to tryout any of the desserts, but that’s only gives me a reason to go back.

We were there for lunch service, and were delighted by the quaint feel of the place. Upon entering we were promptly seated, given water and then left to our own means for about fifteen minutes. Lunch service, in my opinion, should be efficient being that we had other places to be that day.
Another runner saw that we were being ignored and had to tell our server to come and take our orders. I ordered the burger, which was noted as being uniquely South American, and it was everything but. It was served on the same stale «Peruvian Bread» that was given to us before getting our food. This under-​proofed foccacia was just lacking substance, any form of flavor. The wedge style French fries that accompanied the dish were equally disappointing — raw and tough in the center.
My co-​worker ordered the Platanos, which were listed as an entrée, but they were presented as a light appetizer. No frijoles negros or side salad, just fried bananas that too lacked seasoning. He was finished with his entire plate by the time I was halfway through my burger. The server noticed the unequal portions offering «Peruvian Bread» as a supplement.
There are so many great restaurants in this area, but this restaurant is so utterly inferior to some delicious places in the area.

Love, love, LOVE this place! A friend and I have been wanting to experience Essencia for quite some time now, and boy are we glad we did!
Kalamata olive butter and bread started our evening just right. Ordering the chicken skewers, we were very much pleased with the accompanying potato wedges and under-​laying sauce. It was amazing!
I had ordered the pork loin which was cooked to perfection and covered with pickled red onions. Served a top brown rice was a quail egg with a side of mixed greens drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was heaven! My friend has the steak which melted in your mouth.
Wino are ya? I highly recommend the 2007 Novellum Chardonnay. This very light and pallet cleansing wine would taste amazing with any entrée on the menu.
Walking out of Essencia, we both were full and merry. Definitely check out this neighborhood gem.

Not to be too petty, but Essencia just doesn’t feel all that essential. There are quite a few excellent Peruvian restaurants in the city from Fresca to Destino to Piqueo’s to La Mar to Mi Lindo Peru, so many good ones that I’m afraid Essencia just doesn’t quite make the grade despite a prime Hayes Valley location at Gough and Hayes across from Absinthe. Their prices are higher than the median, but the flair you would expect in the dishes are on the hit-​and-​miss side. Jamie W. and I decided to come here when we concluded that we were going to the well once too often with our standby, Stelline.
Traveling from Italy to Peru only took ninety seconds, but the plane had a bumpy landing if you catch my drift. The place is nattily appointed in warm tones and just one folk-​art triptych dominating the compact dining room. The menu sounded nice, though I have to say the waiter was not forthcoming on recommendations or anything really to help us decide. Jamie ordered the $ 12 Causa Fritters with yucca, huancaina and some minced crabmeat piled on top (see my photo). He was decidedly disappointed the crabmeat was not inside the fritter like a crab puff. I went for the $ 12 Pulpo Salad, bits of grilled octopus marinated strongly with botija olive aioli and mixed with celery bits (see my photo). It suffered from overseasoning that put my mouth on permanent pucker.
The entrees were good but on the ordinary side. Jamie went for the low-​risk $ 16 Roasted Chicken, two tender pieces dry-​rubbed with spices and accompanied with fries and a green salad (see my photo). Not sure how the dish was that uniquely Peruvian. Probably because I would have ordered the ossobucco at Stelline had we gone there, I went for the $ 22 Lamb Seco, an extravagantly priced counterpart to ossobucco that is apparently braised in cilantro and beer (couldn’t tell) and served on what appeared to be a polenta thick enough to stand the shank upright. Two spears of asparagus leaned against it like a game of jenga (see my photo). Nice try but it was just lamb after all.
I have to admit the most satisfying part of the meal was the hot roll that came at the beginning, almost perfectly round and steaming when you tore into it (see my photo). I think the place is honestly somewhere between adequate and pretty good, but in this city of pretentious foodies, you have to do a lot more than that. I think if the owner gave deeper thought on what would give Essencia a more unique identity relative to other Peruvian or even Hayes Valley options, it might have a fighting chance.
FOOD — 3 stars… okay, really just okay
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… warm tones but nothing that distinctive except the funky shape of the table we sat at… it was cut to conform to the window angles
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… nice guy but really didn’t offer much guidance unless asked
TOTAL — 3 stars… Peruvian bland

We had a birthday dinner here the other night and ended up ordering a bunch of starters, entrees, and desserts. We shared everything so had a taste of just about everything — I really enjoyed this way of dining. If we had all ordered an individual entrée to ourselves, I actually don’t think it would have been as enjoyable of an experience because nothing was extraordinary. The two dishes that stuck out were the halibut ceviche and the salmon entrée.
The desserts? I could’ve passed on them. Therefore, I was really glad we shared those as well. I wasn’t stuck eating something I didn’t like.

The Pervian food here is okay. I came here with a friend and we both had the Pervian steak. I ordered mine’s rare and my friend ordered hers medium rare and both orders came out wrong so we ask the waiter to come over. My steak came out medium rare and her’s came out well done so we swapped steaks. One good thing was that my steak came out 5 minutes after he brought the overcooked steak into the kitchen and came out with a rare steak. The steak came with mixed spring salad and it was just okay. The steak definitely not worth $ 30.00 and I would never order that again. I could make it better for ¹⁄₃ of the price. My friend ordered a beer here and she said it was good.
Food wise 2 stars. Service wise I would say 4 stars.

Hayves Valley is a trendy hipster bastard that rapes my wallet.
*sigh*
I gave Essencia a shot. Granted the food is good, but not for the price. Portions are too small for that kind pricing.
PLUS the service can be slow. ALSO!!! The menus said a glass of chicha is $ 3 but we were all charged $ 4 each. What’s up with that?
It just seems so unreasonable especially since there was 5 of us. They don’t offer it by the pitcher, which i’m thinking they should. But oh well… I guess i’ll have to keep trekking to Mi Lindo Peru.

Short and sweet …
I’m with Cara Y. on everything she touched bases with, especially the SAD desserts. The Tres Leches Cake and Flan were C-​R-​U-​M-​B-​L-​Y … who makes crumbly, stale ass flan? It should be silky and smooth like Angie Everhearts’ legs, dammit. :)

Excellent service.
Nice wine list. More reds than whites, and not a lot of options for wine by the glass, but good selection, and wines are very reasonably priced in the $ 30 – 40 range.
The coolest bathroom sink ever.
The food… the food was…“meh.“
I loved the idea of a whole selection of ceviche, but the execution was off. Platanos fritos were good, but I’ve had just as good at Chalateco in Hayward, and those came with delicious black beans, as well as crema and cheese. The parmesan scallop appetizer could have been a high point, but it was drastically salty.
The part of the meal that most disappointed was definitely dessert. As far as I’m concerned, you can never go wrong with flan. Sadly, the flan at Essencia was no bueno. Too dense, and completely lacking in flavor. They offer a variety of «caramelized flavors» for their flan selection, but if you can’t execute a basic caramel flan, none of that is going to matter. It was also disturbing to see that it was plated with several slices of canned peaches.
CANNED peaches. Yeah, I know my food snobbiness is probably off the radar right now, but a semi-​upscale place in SF like Essencia has no business putting canned fruit with ANYthing they serve. And with caramel flan? Hell to the no.
I would definitely return for the wine and the service, but the food needs some work, in this Unilocaler’s humble opinion.

Came here for a birthday party with a group of 14. It’s very sweet of them to print out special menus with the birthday boy’s name and lay them on the table before we arrived. And, when it’s time for the cake to come out, they dimmed the light and have everyone in the restaurant sing the H song. It’s so sweet!
The food was not outstanding however. We shared a 10 course meal, and almost every single dish has some side salad. I love that every single salad has their own dressing. The sea bass was so overcooked, so was the beef tongue even though it’s very nicely seasoned (it’s more like… beef tongue jerky). The absolute best dish is the steak, cooked perfectly medium rare.
This place has a lot of potential. Everything about the place is of high quality, they just need to improve their food…

It feels weird giving this place such a low rating because everyone seems to like it. I wish I had the same good experience they did. Obviously I did not.
Pretty much everything that we ordered tasted bleh. I’m not happy with the pricing either.
Have made up my mind that I will not go back– unless somebody else buys me dinner.

We had a very nice meal here and my only complaint is that it is pricey. I had the mushroom lomo saltado and my wife had the chupe (seafood stew) — we both asked for them to hold and ingredient and they did so easily. Also had the platanos — while mine are better I enjoyed them too and the pickled onions they came with were nice. I asked for hot sauce and they brought out a little dish of aji amarillo salsa — yum. The butter has olives (perhaps alfonsos) mixed in. A very nice experience and I’ll be returning but for a special occasion since it isn’t an inexpensive place.
Love the real towels in the bathroom.

Cozy atmosphere and a great date place. We sat outside, which was a bonus and I want their bathroom in my place
*Good food with balanced flavors — love the bread
*Friendly wait staff, never felt rushed or that I needed to get their attention
*Reasonalbe prices could make it a regular stop

Found another date place with a swanky bathroom! Talk about going green! They have fresh rolled up towels to wipe your hands after you wash them in this basin (not a sink, a basin) with a crazy cool looking faucet! Sweet. Okay, onto the more important aspect of, well, a restaurant, the food. Sorry, folks…
Had a glass of Chardonnay with my Chupe (spicy shrimp and halibut stew), and the quinoa cannoli with Lumuca mouse — what tha? Such a small meal but so much flavor and what a pairing. I don’t normally drink wine but I started to with really nice meals and it makes a difference. The wait staff is incredibly sweet and offers up great suggestions if it is your first time visiting Essencia. The place does look ritzy but it really is quite welcoming and on a busy corner in the HV that you can get loads of people watching in. Oh, while you wait for your meal, you get warm bread with this black olive tapenade butter. Yum! Although there are Peruvian places around the city (i.e., Mom and Pop Peruvian places in Noe Valley and the Mission), Essencia is worth it after a night out on the town (at the ballet or after a City Arts and Lectures event).

A charming little Peruvian restaurant in Hayes valley setting new standards for unevenness in service and food. Not that this is a terrible thing — to reach such heights of inconsistency, your strong dishes must be truly exotic and wonderful.
And the strong dishes were:
— Causa Fritas: basically, some fried croquettes (with a hint of crab in them) and probably yucca, served over a rich piquant sauce with a good dose of cilantro. Popular among several at our table.
— the «caliente» ceviche (recommended by server): a winner according to my friends.
— The pulled chicken entrée: yummy yummy yummy… served with a perfect spicy creamy sauce… but a very small dish, especially at $ 14.
— The cannoli dessert (recommended by server): nice and light, especially with the fruit they served.
Just decent:
— The «second» butterfish ceviche (there were two on the menu, and this is the one with cilantro): decent, with a lovely creamy texture. Yet it seemed overpowering and too simple when compared with the causa.
— The lamb one: very good according to my friends.
— Butter cookies: even within this dish there were inconsistencies: the carmel-​looking cookie was great but the coconut looking one was off.
Downers:
— Red Snapper Entrée (recommended by server): a loser… bones everywhere and not a lot of freshness or flavor. And at $ 29, the most expensive thing on the whole menu. But the vegetables and sauce they put on top were decent, and the lime helped the flavor.
— The pork one: dry as hell. Cafeteria food anyone?
— Passionfruit mousse thing (complimentary): the passionfruit part was excellent, especially the glaze on top, but they served it on a very bitter dark chocolate cookie. The fruity part by itself was great but the combination was a disaster — like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. According to three of us.
— Butter for the bread: they brought out both regular butter and olive butter (which is usually a huge hit with me) but both were unsalted and they brought no salt out for the table. The result was that we thought the butter just tasted weird and flavorless, perhaps even dulling the flavor of the bread rather than enchancing it.
Service:
Just plain weird. They’d keep water glasses very full, and then forget about them for awhile. They waited a good 10 or 15 minutes after we got there and ordered drinks before bringing out butter for bread — but no bread! Then after another 10 minutes they brought bread, which was itself very good, but tasted worse when we added the butter. Which was unsalted, and they brought out no salt. And they only brought a minimal amount of bread anyway, as in one tiny slice per person. Which lated about 25 seconds. Weird. The food itself must have taken over an hour to arrive, but when it did, it arrived together for our large group. I’ve heard it’s a new restaurant so maybe they’re still settling in… and it is a small place too.
Overall:
Be careful what you order, only trust half their recommendations, and go in a small group to avoid the service issues.

It’s a wonderful thing to have another Peruvian restaurant in the city. Essencia is a great alternative to Destino when you’re in the mood for soothing conversation over wine instead of antics over cocktails.
The ceviches are gorgeous and emit a burst of fresh flavor with every crunchy bite. The vegetable salad is an exotic and artistically colorful sampling of purple, green and orange organic cuts. The causa fritters and artichoke hearts are also not to be missed.
And of course, don’t pass up the Alfajores — little butter bombs of joy. While I’m sure there are other reasons to go to Peru, I think my trek will be for the sole purpose of searching out these homemade cookies right out of the oven. Yum…

My friend Ed and I tried Essencia today, their first official day open to the public. The dining room is cozy and almost quaint, well in comparison to Absinthe across Gough Street.
The cuisine is Peruvian but also takes advantage of organic local ingredients, a nod to our Bay Area. While we didn’t order any appetizers, both the Halibut Ceviche and the Grilled Beef Hearts looked tempting, as did the Artichoke filled with Quinoa Salad.
The menu is relatively small — five appetizer, five entrees, three desserts — and that can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending. Tonight, it was a good thing as both the Sliced Beef with Stir Fried Onion and Yucca Fries and the Roast Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Lentil Rice and Bacon Strip proved delicious. Next time, it’s the Slow Cooked Chicken for me.
One drawback — and this being opening night it’s forgiven — was the lack of any bread. On our way out the door, the owner stopped us and graciously asked us about our meal. I mentioned the lack of bread, and she was sadder than I was — turned out her bakery had some sort of snafu — but it was this pleasant and neighborly manner that convinced me I’d be coming back again for a more complete expereince.
The wine list is well-​thought out as well, the majority being of SpaNish origin. And they serve Blue Bottle Coffee and Modern Tea, keeping it local. Definitely a nice touch for Hayes Valley, and outside seating along Hayes Street is on the way.

The door was open and people were sitting inside so I walked in.
I know what you’re thinking. Why did they have to close down the messy donut shop? Hayes Valley doesn’t need yet another high concept nuevo Cal-​Peruvian restaurant. But this one is special. Celebrity chef Anne Gingrass of the (formerly) husband /​wife team that opened Hawthorne Lane is partnering with a (currently) husband /​wife team from Peru! The interior looks delicious as does the menu.
After a six month plus delay the new opening day is May 15, and I think they’ll make it this time.
I know what else you’re thinking, g i l is a first-​to-​review slut who has no business Unilocaling a restaurant before it opens. Wrong again, buster. You know, it’s all in the fingers. Yada yada. Whatever.
Technically, because set at least one foot completely over the door threshold line before the manager chased me out, this review is legit!