Machu Picchu Bar and Restaurant

January 2025

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Machu Picchu Bar and Restaurant

**** Machu Picchu Bar and Restaurant has closed

A few months ago, one of my coworkers mentioned a Peruvian place he and his wife loved. They are, like me, big fans of Peruvian food. I was surprised at the recommendation. It was a place in the Gaslamp, named after one of the places I'll never forget; Machu Picchu. He highly recommended the Pescado alo Macho; so I headed on down soon after.

The restaurant is located on 5th Avenue, next to Rockin' Baja Lobster. The interior is quite wide open and really looks like a sports bar with an additional dining area upstairs.

This being 1130 on a Sunday, the place was totally empty. The person tending the bar told me choose any table and I had a seat. A menu was provided and I started with a Chicha Morada; which wasn't overly sweet, though the cinnamon-clove flavor was also slightly muted. It was fine though.

In a short while my pretty generous plate arrived. The gentleman told me to be careful of the Aji sauce....which he pronounced Ah-Gee, rather than the correct Ah-hee...oh well.

The dish as a whole wasn't too bad at all. The fish, sea bass, was fried nicely, light and crisp, moist flesh with no off flavors.

Machu Picchu Rest 04 The rest of the seafood was a mixed bag; the calamari rings were tough and rubbery and the mussels overcooked. The shrimp edged on being dry and overcooked as well. The sauce was very thin; but quite spicy....it definitely was "macho".

I prefer my sauce for pescado alo macho with a combination of aji Amarillo and aji rocoto; this one was quite one-dimensional and could have used perhaps a bit more tanginess from tomato and some pungent-savory flavors. It wasn't too salty though.

And while the rice was on the dry side and the "salad" was quite simple....looking at it I was thinking some sarza criolla would be a nice pungent, slightly spicy way of helping things along....even though that sauce...and the Aji was quite spicy, it would help to refresh. But it was just a salad with a simple dressing.

Still, the fish was the star, and was not bad at all.

So, a little over a week ago, when I took the trolley and visited the Little Italy Mercato and the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, I decided to head on over to Machu Picchu. This time, the young man working was obviously Peruvian. Again the place was empty, except for two couples at the bar having mimosas.

This time, I started with the Causa Limena which was huge.

The sauce again had a good amount of spice. It was a bit too cold, the potatoes were on the mealy side. I like the potatoes in my causa to be moist and slightly creamy, this more mealy. The chicken filling had enough celery, but way too much mayonnaise for my taste. Lots of chicken though. Not my favorite version.....though it was quite hefty.

I couldn't help but order the cebiche pescado. The fish again was decent quality, but it had been in the citrus a bit too long and was starting to get mushy. The marinating liquid, the leche de tigre ("tiger's milk") was too thin and was much too sour. I prefer a bit more balance in my leche de tigre, a bit of oceany fish stock, pungent onion, cilantro, you get it. The sauce was again spicy Aji Rocoto based. I asked the young man if this was just Aji Rocoto; or if they snuck in some Aji Limo as well. He told me it was just Aji Rocoto. I wished for a bit more Canchita, but I really wouldn't have enjoyed eating it my favorite way....with a spoon of leche de tigre.

The camote was mushy and lacked the sweet and sometimes cinnamony tones of those in Peru. And corn on the cob replaced the wonderful large kernel "choclo", Peruvian corn.

Not a terrible version of cebiche pescado, but lacking in some of the details that make this dish one of our favorites.

Service was a bit slow, but friendly. The portions are quite generous but with typical Gaslamp prices.

Machu Picchu Bar & Restaurant
314 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101
Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 10pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 11pm

After that lunch, it was easy getting on the Green Line back to pick my car up. Perhaps I need to check out other places in the area when my car in in for service.