Reviews of Restaurants in San Diego and everywhere I go…

El Q’ero restaurant in Encinitas is a tiny little place in downtown Encinitas that probably holds a maximum of 34 people in the entire restaurant, but a place I’d recommend to pretty much anyone. It’s not cheap but when the food is this good I really don’t care. It’s a unique restaurant that serves Peruvian and South American food and it’s just exceptional. It’s suprising to find this place in Encinitas….seems more like a downtown kind of place to me. If I were single, this would be a great place to try and impress a date so if that’s your situation, do it and thank me later. Apparently they have great sangria there but the night I went I wasn’t drinking as I was trying to fight off a cold. The last time I was at When in Rome Restaurant in Encinitas I told Daniel (the owner) I was going to dinner at Q’ero and he suggested I try their house special drink called Chicha Morada which is a Peruvian non-alcoholic purple corn drink that is simultaneously sweet, spicy, and fruity. I wish I could get that drink somewhere else because it is so tasty and healthy at the same time. If you go you have to try it. You can order it hot or cold, but I prefer the cold version. The restaurant is kind of a tapas style place although they do have regular entres here. I ordered the ceviche which was freaking phenomenal. Best ceviche I’ve ever had in San Diego. Tabule in Downtown San Diego is good too but I give this place the nod. My buddy has family in Peru and he always raves about the ceviche in Peru so I want to see what he thinks about the ceviche here but it’s as good as it gets for me. Sea bass marinated in lemon juice and served with thin slices of red onions… oh so good. We also had the Papa Rellena (seasoned mashed potatoes with a filling of tasty ground beef) which I really enjoyed. I ended up splitting an entre with my wife and we ordered a special that wasn’t on the menu (a buffalo rib eye steak). It was very good but actually cooked a little too much on the outside for my tastes. The inside was cooked perfectly medium rare as we ordered it.  It came with the Platano Relleno (plantain cakes filled with black beans, topped with sour cream and scallions. I wouldn’t order it again though because there are so many unique dishes on the menu and I felt this was a little too “normal”.  For a side we also had the Maduros (caramelized ripe sweet plantains topped with sour cream & scallions). We were pretty much stuffed but my wife thinks she’s Bill Cosby with his Jello so of course she always has room for deserts. We ordered a bittersweet chocolate cake that came with hommade beer ice cream. You could actually taste the beer fizz in each bite which was pretty cool. I didn’t totally love the flavor but I was glad I tried it because I had never seen or even heard of beer ice cream before and I love trying new things.  I definitely ate too much thanks to the desert….and I told myself what I tell myself every time I overeat “I’m just going to have to hit the gym realy hard this week.” Uh huh. Anyways, I will definitely be back to Qero. It is one of my new favorite restaurants in all of San Diego.