Fresca

This used to be a nice place, but not any more.
New menu with new small portions and is not even that good any more. :(

This place is very, very cute. The chicharrón de pollo is dangerously amazing, and the paella is great as well. Adorable little neighborhood restaurant.

I love this place. Every time I’ve been here I’ve gotten the Lomo Saltado because it’s just so good I can’t bring myself to try any other type of main dish. The Anticuchos Corazon is pretty good too although I was not a huge fan of the sauce it came with. I always get an Inca Cola, but recently they changed the type of glass it comes in and the straws always rise to the top. Kind of annoying, but I’m here to talk about how good the food is and not complain about rising drink straws. The staff members are friendly as well. It is a small restaurant so call ahead of time and make a reservation. Overall it’s great food and the staff members are friendly and knowledgeable.

This place is great. We had tried a lot of Peruvian food back in LA and we wanted to try a restaurant around the bay area. The food here is very good and fresh. We ordered their lomo saltado, empanadas, paella and the lucuma ice cream as dessert. Their food totally reminded me of the same great quality as the Peruvian restaurant i had tried in LA. Carlos, our server was really great as well as the rest of the staff. Food came on time and everything was handled very professionally. Next time I think of Peruvian food I will for sure come back.

By far one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Fresca is a gift from the food gods! I used to live right around the corner and stumbled up this restaurant during a casual walk along West Portal. SO HAPPY THAT I DID! The food is here phenomenal. I’ve come here on several occasions and have tried multiple entrees without a single complaint.
To start off, I ALWAYS order the sangria. It’s fruity and super strong! One glass and you’re already pretty tipsy. I also always get their yuca frita that’s extremely flavorful and always cooked perfectly. Their paella is to die for as is their lomo saltado. Staff is super friendly and highly attentive also. Added bonus!
I can’t give this place more praises. HIGHLY recommend. It is well worth it!

Went here with some friends on Saturday night, I highly recommend making a reservation because it was packed at 645pm. The place is tiny and it gets loud. Tables are very close to each other which makes conversations with friends a bit difficult.
The food was great! we ordered ceviche, pescado a lo macho, lomo saltado and the trucha encebollada, they were all delicious. The service is average, the waiters must be tired given how busy it gets. Overall, i recommend this place and will come back.

This is the original Fresca location and it was good enough here for me to try out the other locations.
Across all the locations, the food for the most part is stellar. The ceviche’s depend on your palate (whether you like sweet or salty that day) and mood and I can’t say I care too much for it here, but goodness gracious, that tiradito. A Peruvian friend agrees… you must try the tiraditos at Fresca. The presentation is beautiful, the fish is fresh, and the flavor of the sauces that come with it are out of this world.
I prefer the causas at La Mar, and think Fresca’s are average. They look beautiful, but the flavor is just meh. As for main courses, the the arroz con pata here is fabolous. The duck is roasted to perfection and while I try to stick to low carb, I say eff it and eat the cilantro rice because it is that good.
My gripw with this location though is the lack of a heater. You need a jacket to dine here and be happy. And if you sit near the door or windows at night, forget it if you’re not dressed properly!

Even though I recently reviewed the Fresca in Pac Heights, this one is closest to me, and I visit every two weeks as a result. This location consistently serves excellent food, although there’s something about the Pac Heights location that I like just a tad more. Can’t put my finger on it but I must add that I was recently told that all menus have been standardized… so that removes my bias for the old menu differences.
So Fresca’s fish dishes are why I keep coming back and their ceviches are tops. They’ve got all the classic ceviches and tiraditos … but also some new school «fusion» inspirations. But my favorite thing about Limon are the traditional peruvian cuisine favorites that you don’t always find properly executed. Fresca pulls these off: I get causa every time … their huancaina sauce, traditionally served with potatoes, eggs and Alfonso olives (native to Chile/​Peru) is unbeatable in San Francisco (except when my grandmother is in town) … and their lomo soltado is an excellent version of a peruvian staple. Some other favorites are the empanadas and the aji de gallina, both expertly recreated renditions of the standards.
I’ve recently revisited all the fish dishes, mostly when I’m not in the mood for ceviche. Fish is where Fresca shines. I love pairing it with a Leche de Tigre, especially for the real peruchos missing home.
Overall one of my favorite restaurants in the city, consistently excellent food, very well priced, and very friendly staff. I’ll keep coming back as long as that recipe never changes.

Wanted to try this place based on recommendations. Will not come back.
Service was lackluster, ceviches were unbalanced, and we had to send the anticucho back, as it was cold.
At least I had great company.

Checking out some peruvian cuisine at a familiar and very good place.
Can get loud (in a piercing way) when it is a full house, which is what I walked into tonight.
Dinner consisted of the Ceviche sampler (mahi, salmon, and ahi) and the Causas sampler (mashed potato topped with dungeness crab, ahi tuna tartar, bert salad, and chicken salad.
Cevichi was fresh accompanied by flavorful and vibrant sauces.
The Causas os a nice medley of flavors and texture.
Finally, the platano was lightly deep-​fried which added to its crunchy texture. This was a nice sweet pairing to all the other tastes.
Everything Is yummy and especially nice topped by a house made Sangria (which they nicely split in 2).
Service is efficient and accommodating.
A good place for delicious food.

Great hidden gem! Take Lyft or the M Muni train as parking is limited. It’s worth it.
The steak was delicious and mixed with veggies and rice. Extremely flavorful! The pork adobo dish was also pretty damn good.
Lots of fish and seafood on the menu but alas I’m allergic and cannot partake.
This is a great casual date spot. And by casual, I don’t mean bring a lady of the night here. Bring your lady and it will feel semi-​adventurous to eat here :)

Sorry not sorry. I hate writing bad reviews but it’s imperative I share my most recent Fresca experience.
The restaurant is half full. We ask for a booth and immediately we get a nasty response. «10 minutes» she says. There is an open booth but we still have to wait.
We ordered the ceviche sampler, paella and the causa criolla. The causa criolla is a whipped Yukon gold potato layered with avocado, crab and aioli. This dish is outstanding. Truly. But not spectacular enough to detract from the bad aspects of our meal.
We ordered their largest ceviche sampler — four different preparations. No plantain chips included, but they are available at an additional cost. When the server explained this she was very uptight. She seems overworked and irritated about the plantain chip situation.
Our ceviche was fine. Not the best ever but it was satisfactory. Unfortunately, the table next to us also ordered the sampler. There’s came before ours and we heard them complain of ants in their ceviche. GROSS. And the sad thing is, I saw the ants. Repulsive! When they notified their server he aggressively said «well what do you want me to do about it?!» Bizarre.
Note to Owners: stop squishing the tables so close together. It’s intrusive. Everyone can hear and see everything. If this isn’t reason enough to space out the tables then I don’t know what is.
Lastly, we received the paella. It was carelessly prepared and inferior to standard paella. The flavor, spices and chorizo were good. But the chicken was tough, like it was old. There was wayyyyy too much liquid which shouldn’t be present in paella. And the clams were dead. How hard is it to check and see if every shell opened? When I notified our server of the dead seafood she apologized but it was noticeably insincere.
The worse part of the paella: There was NO CRISPY CRUST. None. The pinnacle of perfect paella lies in the crispy rice crust on the bottom of the pan. The bottom layer of the rice must yield a golden caramelized crust in order to be sufficient. This «paella» was more like a rice soup. And for $ 30 it was utterly disgraceful.
We finished off our meal with the tres leches cake. Pass.
It saddens me to write this review since I’ve experienced good lunches here in the past. I feel like we spent $ 100+ to be mistreated and ripped off. Low quality food and service. Based on tonight’s experience I don’t think I will be returning.

Excellent food, friendly and helpful staff in the quaint downtown walking village of West Portal. Being new to the neighborhood I wanted to try something new. I don’t think I have ever been to a Peruvian restaurant before and found this intriguing as well as the ample selection of seafood options. The pacing of the food delivery was good as well. I did not feel rushed and could take my time. Will definitely be back.

My friends and I to eat here after we found out that the Colombian restaurant was closed so we decided to try a different country in South America. With me (Peruvian), and my friends (Colombian and Mexicans) we came in and ordered our dishes. i had the Lomo Saltado, which is my favorite dish in Peru, Anticucho classico, a bull’s heart that’s skewered, and picarones for desert. The food here is delicious and pretty on point to the taste of Peru. My friend ordered aji de gallina, which is a really creamy sauce of chicken with rice which is delicious and on point to the taste. Another friend of mine ordered this lamb dish which the meat wa really tender and was also delicious. It reminded me of Peru when my grandma did panchamanca at her home. Another dish that my friend ordered was cevihe, another excellent dish to try here.
For dessert, we had flan, picarones, and cookies, all of which which is good. We left the place completely stuffed and satisfied.
All in all, this restaurant is excellent. Really good service, great food, and the price is worth it for the amount they give you here in San Francisco. I will be coming back to this place into the future.

This place is going down rather quickly.
I’m Peruvian, and it hurts me to even post this, but enough is enough. First, I’ve been told by many friends that their customer service is quite bad nowadays, and so I’ve been avoiding going since my last visit last year. when they burned my fries. Seriously, french fries.
But then, I was watching the game with a friend two doors down last night and decided to stop by after. They turned us away, telling us they are closed. It was only 8:30PM! The hours state that they are open until 10PM
This place is over-​hyped and overrated. I can tell you about 3 different places in the city where the food is more authentic, better served, and absolutely more affordable.
Keep your money and go somewhere else.

Should have heeded the warnings from the other reviews on bad service, but I did not think it was going to be THAT bad…
Came at 2PM on Memorial Day, and the restaurant was near empty. The waiter was so rude and basically walked away when we asked to clarify on the menu. The other server didn’t speak English, didn’t know what was what on the menu, and basically just served and refilled drinks.
They have lunch specials for $ 15 which comes with soup and a drink. We ordered the lomo saltado and chicken.
They had the nerve just to bring ONE soup out. They forgot about us despite us insisting on them bringing another one yet. They finally brought one out literally 20 minutes later and there was barely any chicken in it…
Our entrees took another 20 – 30 minutes, and the food was so plain…
I also ordered the Tiradito sampler and they couldn’t tell me what was what… wtf…
This whole nightmare of a dining experience took over 2 hours. They only have one restroom for the whole restaurant, and it was a pain waiting for it cause you basically block the kitchen and the cashier…
This was my last meal with my friend before I sent her off to the airport. Thanks for ruining our trip… ugh…

This review is not for the food but for the opening times of this establishment.
I reserved a table for a lunch meeting on Monday for 11:00 on opentable. I walked in to the restaurant at 11:10 and it was still closed. No lights and the cooks in the back told me to come back at 12.
Luckily my clients were running late otherwise this would have been an embarrassment!
Your sign on the door states that you’re open at 11. Unilocal says you’re open at 11. Your website states you’re open at 11.
So why aren’t you opened at 11?

UGH.
I hate downgrading restaurants but I was so upset last night after my meal that I just had to.
1) We had a reservation at 5:45, the restaurant was half empty. As we sat, one guy came to ask what we wanted to drink, then brought us our waters.
2) While we were waiting for the water, another guy came over and asked if anyone had helped us (??). We said someone else just took our drink order, and he said ok, I can take your order now. That was kind of odd and confusing.
3) They changed their menu — added new items and took out old items and increased the price of everything; basically their ceviche menu was completely changed. I wanted a ceviche, but I had a difficult time finding one that sounded good. Finally I decided on the Ceviche Chifa — it sounded promising, with ahi tuna and avocado. Unfortunately it didn’t taste the same — tiiiiny portion that tasted like the ahi had gone swimming in soy sauce, drowned, and they gave us the soy sauce ocean with some paltry pieces of ahi tuna, and three razor-​thin slices of avocado. No freshness, no different notes and flavors that I’m accustomed to in actual delicious ceviche.
4) Tequenos (wonton fritters with cream cheese, shrimp and crab) were 99.5% cream cheese, with microscopic pieces of crab and shrimp.
5) Lomo saltado, which is usually one of my favorites, was overcooked and now prepared using a different, lower quality of meat, which made it a lot chewier and dry. When I told this to waiter #1 (the one who took our drink order) and mentioned the menu changes, he said, well it’s just different people’s opinions, we’ll have to wait and see what other people think. EXCUSE ME?
6) My aunt ordered the trucha encebollada (trout) and said not only was the portion smaller, it tasted way different than before — not as good.
7) Last time we went, we had the tres leches cake, which was extremely dry (which is uncharacteristic of tres leches cake, because it’s normally soaked in the three-​milk mixture for hours). This time, we ordered the mango cheesecake and the tres leches cake (which is no longer served with ice cream btw). After TEN MINUTES, I had to flag down waiter #2 to ask what was taking so long — maybe there was a miscommunication because we ordered with waiter #1?
This was what appalled me and made me decide I never wanted to come back: when asked if our dessert was on our way since it’d been ten minutes already, he said, «oh, they’re making it to order.»
I’m sorry — I’m a baker and I’ve made both multiple times. Neither cheesecake nor tres leches cake are MADE TO ORDER. Cheesecake takes hours of setting in the refrigerator prior to serving, and tres leches, as mentioned before, soaks happily in the milk before serving. When I mentioned this to him, he goes, oh well they had to pour the milk over the cake.
Well no WONDER it was dry the last time we ate it! After a few more minutes, he came by and said «Oh, it’s taking a long time because they can’t get the cheesecake together.»
No apologies for anything that happened last night from either waiter — not for the dry beef or the ridiculous wait for desserts that should have been pre-​made.
I canceled the order, got the check, and got the hell out of there. $ 100 that I’ll never get back. UGH UGH UGH.

Came in on a rainy day with family without reservations.
Food=4
Ceviché Mixto: White fish, calamari, shrimp, scallops served with corn, red onion, and cilantro. The seafood was fresh and the acidity didn’t overshadow its flavor. More of a summertime dish, but refreshing nonetheless.
Choros al Vapor: Mussels in this tomato broth. The broth wasn’t too salty and tasted great. They give you a lot of mussels (enough for 3 people to share) and weren’t tough.
Salmon Andino: Quinoa crusted Salmon served on top of a squid ink rice and a chimichurri sauce. The salmon was cooked medium and was moist. The rice was a little dry.
Lamb Chops with Prawns: This surf and turf dish was served with a rich wine sauce over mashed potatoes and a side of quinoa. The prawns were slightly overcooked and dry. The lamb was cooked nicely, but considering the price ($ 31), I wished they gave us more lamb.
Tres Leches Cake: Served with ice cream, strawberries, chocolate, and milky sauce. I really enjoyed their tres leches cake. Unlike other places, they let the cake soak the creamy milk mixture, which makes it more moist and flavorful.
Service=3.5
We didn’t have a reservation, but the hostess told us she could seat us at a table but we’d have to finish in like an hour because of an existing reservation on the table. With this in mind, she took ~20 minutes until taking our order, which I was a little upset by. Our food came out in a decent pace.
Ambiance=4
This place is in a quaint neighborhood in SF called West Portal, which is populated with more retirees. The restaurant had an average noise level, quiet enough to have a conversation in a normal voice. The restaurant has a rustic feel to it and is kind of cramped.

Yum! What to do when the M-​Line is busy and the next train won’t show up for another 20 or so minutes? Uh… EAT, duh! If you are close-​by, please come try this place out if you are feeling adventurous –OR– if you’re craving some delish ceviche.
SETTING
–Cozy, tight space, dark ambiance, with a huge open window at the front — great for the cool breezes in the afternoon/​evening.
–Most people make reservations (which we did not). The first thing our waitress asked us when we entered was if we had a reservation. Luckily the place wasn’t full yet so we got the small table for 2 by the window in the front.
MENU
–For a starter we ordered the Papa Rellena — crispy potato croquette with beef on the inside. I loved the red onions and thought they added the perfect touch. Tastyyy :9
–Ceviche Mixto. If you love seafood then get this one. Sour and spritzy, the lemon was great with the calamari, clams, and squid. The giant corn had a surprisingly soft texture. Very good, I would recommend!
–And now for THE DISH THAT YOU MUST ORDER: Churrasco a lo pobre. New York Steak, fried egg, banana, and some other tasty peruvian magic! I think I might always have to order this everytime I come to this place. It’s too good not to get!
–Chica Morada. Great if you’re in the mood for a sweet traditional non-​alcoholic beverage. Our waitress recommended it and it complimented the rest of our savory meal. It came in a tall skinny glass and has bits of apple in it.
PROS
–Super close to the muni line
–Great peruvian food!

soy Peruana siempre me gusta llevar a mi familia a comer el pollo a la brasa, pero creo que la señorita Gabriela necesita mas entrenamiento con respecto a como tratar a sus clientes, ya que cuando ella esta preferimos lordenar para llevar.
Por otro lado deberian aumentar nuevamente elcombinado de seco y frejoles y la papa huancaina como lo tenian antes