El Calamar

I’m docking them 2 stars for misgendering me. When a customer approaches your truck wearing about 3 pounds of makeup, bright nail polish, and has breasts, you might not want to address them as «sir»

El Calamar has to work better their recipes and pricing. The portions are small but more important it doesn’t taste like Peruvian food. I tried to be positive, but they definitely have to improve a lot.

Generally speaking, Lomo Saltado is one of my favorite dishes. For $ 12, I got a serving that was ²⁄₃ completely plain, dry white rice, and ¹⁄₃ Lomo. The Lomo was dry, and flavorless. The tomatoes were unripe and under-​cooked. The photo showed purple onions, but the actual dish was served with white onions. I’ve been to Peru twice, and eaten Lomo Saltado in Lima, Huancayo, Cusco, and Puno, as well as at several Peruvian restaurants here in the US. This is the first time I’ve been served Lomo Saltado that didn’t contain Aji Amarillo. This took place at the Soma Street Food Park, which is two blocks from Rainbow Grocery, where you can easily obtain Aji Amarillo in either a fresh paste, or in dried form. Even if the staff of this food truck were unaware that Aji Amarillo was available in San Francisco, they should have at least tried to substitute it with *something* spicy. Even something as mundane as a little bit of jalapeño would have helped this dish dramatically.
It was an over-​priced, small, bland, and dry portion. I wound up having to throw away half of the dish, because all that was left at that point was plain, dry, white rice. The cheapest, nastiest Lomo Saltado I ever had in Peru was part of a 3-​course lunch in Huancayo that cost about $ 0.79, and contained some serious gristle. Even that was considerably better than this $ 12 plate.

This food truck is a must @ soma street foods. I tried the tilapia it was great tasting, well seasoned & fresh. Can’t wait to go back!

MOBILE PERUVIAN FOOD
(3.25 stars)
I’m a sucker for Peruvian food. Been to practically all the Peruvian restaurants in the city, time to venture and try Peruvian food trucks. I shouldn’t have high expectation for food trucks but I do have high expectations for Peruvian food. My favorite kind of food so I’ll know what is good and what needs improvement.
LOMO SALTADO ($ 11) — portion to price was TERRIBLE. The price could have easily been lowered 4 dollars because the taste wasn’t work the $ 11. I wasn’t a fan of this Lomo Saltado as the meat was kind of the tough and the taste didn’t give the «wow» factor as it tasted like a typical beef dish anybody could whip up. Where’s the Peruvian flare?! The dish came with a small serving of house-​made spicy sauce… AKA purée of jalapeño. If you like EXTREME SPICY that sauce would be for your palette as it was not so much for mine.
Will I be back? Maybe to try other things.
Until the next review…

Bottom line: expected more flavor, nothing outstanding
I chose this place at the Soma streat food Park. I ordered the fish tacos ($ 8). The fish, tilapia, was prepared well and it wasn’t overcooked but the tacos overall lacked flavor. The ingredients tasted fresh though. I am not sure what was missing maybe the sauce needs more kick. The salad underneath was actually fantastic.
My fiancée ordered the salchipapa and that was great! Spicy sausage, fries, guacamole, and other goodness.
I would go back and actually recommend the salchipapa especially if you’re trying to gain weight.

Salchi papa fries soo good. Peruvian cheese good too

Tried their fried calamari and papa rellena (fried mash potato with ground beef inside). I’ve definitely had better fried calamari before. Their batter was stiff with lack of flavor and the calamari itself was over done to the point where it was slightly chewy.
I came back for the second time because the fried mash potatoe sounded so good. It was decent with a nice spicy kick to it if you had the green chilli sauce on top. However, I wasn’t wow’ed to the point that I feel like I wanted seconds. The mash potato was fried to a nice crisp and it was actually stuffed with a mixture if ground beef with a lot of vegetable. I just wish there was a little something more in the flavor profile to excite me.
With that said, the quality of food doesn’t live up to their price. I guess they priced their product based on the fact that they are selling in financial district. But judging of their short line, they should learn that employees in financial district likes good food too.

Amazing fish taco with fast service! Thank you for coming during lunch time in front of SFGH, we all so appreciate it!!! We’ve been suffering from years of horrible cafeteria food (although it has improved)!!
Fish tacos came with a tiny side salad and although I could have had 4 of these tacos it only comes with two tiny tacos for $ 8, the only downside. You guys totally saved the day and our seems like never ending 12 hour shift with your amazing flavors and kind spirit! Thank you!!!

I ordered Lomo Saltado, which is sautéed beef with fries and rice. The food was okay… neither great nor bad. It felt like I could make this dish easily and it wasn’t really worth the $ 11 that I paid for it.
El Calamar is a food truck in the SOMA StrEAT Food Park. If you are really craving Peruvian food then you can go here otherwise there are better options for food.

By far the best truck chicken sanwhich amazing! Tried a few things off the menu food is really on point always hot and served quickly staff are always happy and smiling I will be returning if you see this truck you must try 5stars from me

Had the lomo over rice. Not bad.

Good Peruvian food. I really enjoyed the lomo saltado. They were super nice and gave me a half order. But, it’s not the best Peruvian I’ve had, unfortunately. My advice is that it’s a good sub but you’ll have to look towards other restaurants if you want the truly spectacular. Worth the money, though, so that’s a plus. Big portions.

SLOOOW SERVICE, GOOD FOOD, WRONG ORDER
We went here yesterday, placed an order for fish tacos and for chicken tacos, then stood there for 30 minutes, listening to Honda generators and reggae music. Finally the guy hands me some tacos, but it was two orders of fish tacos, oh well, not worth another 30 minute wait so I ate them anyway. Holy Cow! they were spicy obviously not meant for me and then the taco truck guy runs up to me with some chicken tacos — oops. He was nice to comp me so I left with sore feet, hot lips and a full tummy. Oh, btw the tacos were delicious.

This is a review for the lomo saltado. First of all @$ 11 it better be either really good or an abundance of food. I have to say that it falls in neither category. The flavor just wasn’t there.
I will have to pass.

Update 9-​12-​2014
Had their Talapia over Rice, served with Onion Slaw, Peruvian Corn Nuts, & Lemon.
Fish was cooked nicely, and had just enough spice.
It was a nice entrée portion, and I really enjoyed the brightness the dish obtained by adding the lime, and eating this Fish, Slaw, and Rice together, I ate the corn nuts solo :)
still think this is a good choice
— — — — — — –
Fresh, Light, and Bright, those are some of the things that I enjoy when having Fish Tacos, and in this case El Calamar delivered.
I really enjoyed my Fish Tacos, found the Salad to be flavorful and well dressed, and very grateful it came with Sauce on the side that took the dish to the next level.
For me this was a great Lunch choice, and very easy to recommend.

Tamale — with chicken, egg and olive. red onions on the side.
Really good, but when they say olive they mean ONE black olive tucked inside. Odd. Maybe that’s just my luck with the filling on my tamale. Other than that, it’s delicious.

I’m not Peruvian and don’t eat a lot of Peruvian food, so take this with a grain of salt. Came across El Calamar at Streatfood and I got really excited when I saw the Jalea. Fried calamari, fish, shrimp, and giant Peruvian corn… how could that not be good?
$ 13 and 2000 calories later, I’ll tell you how — it won’t be good if the batter has no salt/​pepper, if the fish tastes super fishy, the shrimp is super dry, and the yucca is a flavorless oily mess. The one saving grace is the tasty corn (think toasted chickpeas/​garbanzo beans) — I think they could have a successful business selling JUST the corn.
Overall two stars for a family run business for trying something different but unfortunately the result is expensive and not tasty — kind of like most food trucks in SF these days.

I think all Peruvians claim their stake when reviewing Peruvian food so here I go:
Dear Unilocal,I’m Peruvian.
Now that we got that out of the way (phew!), let me tell you how excited I was to see a Peruvian food truck at the SOMA Street eats. Although I get pretty bitter at cash-​only places, I was lucky to be in one of the very few times I actually had bills in my pocket. The menu is short: papa a la huancaina, ceviche with shrimp, tamales, lomo saltado and some american items (which I didn’t pay attention too).
At $ 8ish, I got a plate of lomo saltado served with rice and Huacatay sauce. The loin was a little dry and missed some of the juices to mix with the dish. The fries were incredibly executed and the onions and rice were well cooked. The huacatay was very very spicy but a great mix to serve with the lomo. The dryness was my only complaint. They kept it pretty traditional.

El Calamar sells peruvian eats.
menu: peruvian tamale, papa rellen, platos, ajajores, fried calamari, french fries, etc.
locale: soma street food park (²⁄₂₈)
eats: peruvian tamale (5.5 +.50 tax)
–red onion salad
–masa thick/​dense (no lard?) not smooth
–chicken, olives and eggs within, not much flavor
–came with spicy hot green salsa.
–tamale good sized
3.5 stars
foodnotes:
–food pricey?
–ingredients tasted fresh.
–undecided whether to try anything else. probably the ajajores.