Piqueo's

VERY DISAPPOINTING!! As a native Peruvian I have ventured into many Peruvian restaurants in the Bay Area; and Piqueo?s has made it to the bottom of my list. To start it was over priced for the amount of food you get ? we ordered 3 appetizers, 7 entrees, and a pitcher of chicha morada (filled only 4 glasses) ? the bill was $260 if you include the tip the total was $300. Way too much for a casual dinner out. I wouldn?t mind paying that much if the food justified the prices, the appetizers were a JOKE; the ?Chifles? were just potato (they gave us plain potatoes even thou the menu said purple potato), yucca, and sweet potato chips served with guacamole and a tamarind sauce?the chips were not fresh, especially the yucca was stale and no longer crisp. The ?Yuquitas Fritas? were tasty and the sauce it came with was yummy, but you only got 5 gumball size stuffed yuccas for $10 ? I felt robbed! To make the long bad experience short: the steak was over cooked, the salmon did not have a quinoa crust (as described in the menu), what seemed to be ?Lomo Saltado? was nothing more than tasteless tough pieces of meat in a red sauce. The rest of our plates were average. I read the reviews before going to Piqueo?s especially the bad ones, and still decided to try it out?bad, bad idea. Every one of my friends was disappointed that night and swears never to go back again.

We had great expectations about this small ?fusion? restaurant in South San Francisco especially since we have visited t Astrid Gaston, La Mar in Peru and Limon in San Francisco and read about it on AAA magazine this month. First impressions are important; unfortunately Piqueos didn?t live to the expectations.
We wanted to try humitas and aji de gallina, unfortunately not available that night; we would have liked to try their aji de gallina.
Their list of wines was nothing to write home about it, most of them middle of the road unknown wines.
Among the tapas (small plates) we tried a dish made out of Andean potato chips, the chips were saggy so we had to return the dish
Then tried their Arroz con Mariscos, but had to return it since it was gritty due to poor cleaning of the shellfish. Not a good idea eating sand for dinner and a second dish returned for the night.
Peruvian cooking flag dish, Lomo Saltado, is a dish to try in any so called Peruvian fusion restaurant. It was a total disappointment. Piqueos claims in their menu that this dish is a Sauteed marinated New York Strip but what you get is a stew of cheaper meat. Interesting that when we talked about this faux pas with Piqueo?s chef he said that it was the owner?s recipe, that it was cheaper to prepare it that way and that their food was not for Peruvians.
About the service, it was mediocre and dishes took a long time to arrive to the table.

We had a great experience, the food was excellent and the staff was great! First time dinning at Piqueo's for all 10 people in our party. The place is small, but they did a great job of accommodating the entire party (half of who were 30min+ late) despite the size and tardiness of our party the staff at Piqueo's assured those of us who were there, not to worry and even received a delicious complimentary appetizer (sweet corn and shrimp tamale, excellent)! The atmosphere was busy and loud, but we are loud too so it worked! The appetizers were great, we had the fried yuca with cheese, the mixed seafood, the grilled oysters, the fried yuca....all were perfect! The entree's were also delicious....the seafood paella, rib eye steak, lomito saltado, calamari stuffed with chorizo, the pork......everyone in our party was satisfied with the food! The sangria was very tasty, sweat with lots of fresh fruit! Considering this was the fiirst time for all of us and the diversity of our group due to culture and palates, I was surprised everyone walked away satisfied with the food. When you have a large group, it can be difficult to satisfy everyone but we can't wait to go back!!!

I completely have to disagree with the review the other person wrote. A friend of ours recently moved ot the area and he's been there 3 or 4 times and loved it. And he's a very discriminating customer. He wanted to introduce the place to friends so he made a reservation and we went. The menu offers many choices - tapas and entree's. We had a hard time deciding because everything looked so good. We settled on a mixed green salad, quail, and crab stuffed wontons as our appetizers. They were all delicious. For our entrees, I had the lamb with a wonderful risotto; my boyfriend had the New York Strip steak, and our friend had the Duck. All were amazing - so flavorful! Our friend also recommended the Rabbit but they had already sold the last order before we got there. I can't wait to go back - you could even just order several tapas and skip the entree depending on how hungry you are. I would not have expected this restaurant in this neighborhood but you won't be dissppointed if you like flavorful and creative food. Good Sangria too. Prices were average for a San Francisco restaurant.

It`s a busy restaurant, but you can make reservation online, which is great. The restaurant is fancy, but really loud. We went there with friends, 3 out of 6 dinner plates was spicy (didn`t say it on the menu), one was way just mouth burning. The dinner plates were not much bigger than the tapas plates... The salad and the sangria was good.
Hardly any Peruvian wine on the wine list.
Too expensive for what they offer.