Fresca

Me: Borned and raised in Peru so this tells you I know what Peruvian food tastes like, smells like and looks like. My girl Julie and I just moved to the Bay from LA and we love ceviche. We ordered a ceviche the first time and it was not bad but it could have been better. The second time the plate was smaller, the ceviche was dry, no juice at all and the quality of the seafood was terrible. The service is great, the place is clean and nice, but don't go there if you are looking for authentic Peruvian food. They serve you chips and salsa, what da hell? It is a Peruvian restaurant!!!!! get it right. The pescado a lo macho was better than the ceviche, I gave it a C+. Ceviche F. We also ordered the sangria and I liked it, so we gave it an A.

Do not understand how come folks are posting complaints about the Fillmore restaurant on the West Portal site. They're probably under different management because the West Portal service was pretty good. We walked in w/o reservations near 6PM and got seats at the bar, which is kind of a nice place to view the action in the kitchen. The yucca appetizer ($9)was very tasty, similiar to large thick country fries but not as starchy. It came with thin slices of marinated raw purple onions and a delicious spicy green citrus dipping sauce. I had the seafood paella ($22) which was very good. It had fresh mussels, white fish, sweet shrimp and clams all in a large bowl, There was so much that I had to take it home. The loco salido was delicious. Tasty marinated slices of beef mixed with fries and served with white rice. Didn't care much for the sangria ($6.50/glass) but their fruity beverage was refreshing. We were too full to try dessert but saw a flan pass by that looked good. Service was good, but perhaps we were so close to the kitchen, they couldn't ignore us.

Priced as an upper-end restaurant, the food and service here is amateur at best. Went to the Fillmore Street location. The decor and atmosphere seemed rundown; the tables looked like they would fit better in a breakfast place than at $27 entree restaurant. The waitstaff served like they had no experience or sophistication. They were always checking in when we didn't want them there, and were never there when we needed them. The whole tai snapper was undercooked--so raw it would not come off the bones of the fish, which the waiter did not offer to fillet even though he should have. Outside of that, the food was mediocre. The silverware was dirty. Despite the prices, there was no indication by taste or otherwise that the ingredients for the dishers were selected with care for quality. In short, this restaurant is pretending by its prices and menu to be a big league San Francisco, but it is not even close.

From the moment we got there it was Hell! The service is ridiculous. The service is ridiculous. I had to mention it twice. It took so long to get our menus. It took so long to get anything!!! If there are so busy they should hurry the heck up to get us on and out the door to turnover the table. People who were seated after us got their menus and food before us. Snappy staff. The food was good, but with service being that awful, i'll take my business where it's appreciated. We will never go there again. I will tell 10 of my friends and will tell 10 of their friends and so forth. Read the reviews!!!!

I really like the ceviche here. I usuallly call ahead and bring it home but their restaurant has a nice feel to it too. I'd recommend this place to a friend.