Mancora Restaurant and Bar

This week special cocktail
Machu Picchu
(pisco, strawberries, basil, lime juice, jarabe de goma and bitters)

Worst Peruvian place I’ve ever eaten at. Only good thing about this place: nice atmosphere, good aji sauce, good plantain chips. As for the bad: the Sangria is cheap red wine with ice cubes and bits of fruit tossed in for appearance, didn’t taste like Sangria at all, I’ve had better Sangria at chain restaurants. The mango «margarita» was tequila and lime juice, no mango flavor, no balance whatsoever, just a lot of lime juice. The bistec was overcooked (I asked for medium and got well-​done), tough, and flavorless. Seriously, I think they ran out of salt, pepper, garlic, and anything that would have given their dishes flavor. The fried egg on the bistec looked and tasted like it was cooked in a teflon pan with PAM. No flavor, no salt or pepper, no seasoning whatsoever, and it was overcooked too, fried completely through until the yolk had that hard-​boiled grainy texture. The ceviche was over-​marinated and way too sour, the flounder was overcooked by the acid to the point that it was flaky. And for some reason they tossed all the side dishes for the ceviche into the marinade with the fish. Plaintain and Peruvian corn marinated in lime and fish juice — oh boy! Service was incredibly slow, food and drinks took forever to come out from the kitchen. We spent $ 60 with tip for a dinner for two, and could’ve had better Peruvian food for $ 20 at a local carry-​out joint. Avoid this place at all costs.

Mancora is my favorite Peruvian restaurant in the city. I always get the lomo saltado. It has generous portions and great taste. They make an excellent pisco sour and have pretty good guacamole.

Walked into this superior restaurant totally on a whim and will make a point of returning. The service is pleasant and efficient. The food is of excellent quality and superbly prepared with such a delightful South American accent.
Not a space for an over the top date night but perfect for interesting food and a happy time.

I love this place !! Always go for happy hour for their delicious sangria and cheap and delicious 6 $ apps. can’t go wrong !! Very friendly staff everyone is so nice. And the green salsa oh my god love it ! 4 thumbs up!

My boyfriend took me here for my birthday on April/​17. Being a born and raised Peruvian living in New York, I was really excited to see what this place had to offer. The service was very nice, the female bartender was polite and very friendly. As we waited for our table, my boyfriend and I ordered a Corona and a Cuzqueña. Although the tables are fixed very close to one another, and the music could be a little loud, the experience was awesome. The couple that sat next to us, asked us what would we recommend since I seemed to know alot about Peruvian gastronomy. However I was a little sad that most of the staff were not from Peru which killed off the vibe a little bit. Overall, Mancora gave me a great birthday dinner by remembering my culture’s food.

Don’t bother to make a reservation, especially for a special occasion, such as a birthday, anniversary, or business dinner. I made a reservation for 6 people for 9pm on a Saturday night. Main purpose of doing a reservation, i would assume, is making sure that you don’t wait to wait too long to get seated… unfortunately, even with a reservation, after 45 minutes I still had no table.
«They’re paying now», «10 more minutes», «5 more minutes»… I understand that Saturday nights are busy, and that the host was feeling the pressure, so I was OK with waiting up to 30 minutes… after that, my guests were getting cranky. After 45 minutes, and talking to a manager, who I consider just made it worse (certainly did not like his tone), we all agreed that it wasn’t worth giving them our business. A free round of drinks doesn’t make up a 45 minutes wait on a birthday dinner. I don’t think I’d be back.

Walking into this restaurant I was hesitant. It was a weekday lunch, and the store was empty, like… EMPTY! My friend and I didn’t actually even get recognized for an awkward five minutes, where we didn’t know if we should sit ourselves or wait for a server. After we sat down to eat and figured out our choices, the server took a good fifteen minutes to take our order, and the food was slow too.
Service was slow, but the food made up for it. We ordered the Cheviche and it was fantastic! Ask for some plantain chips on the side if you want a real treat. They were delicious. The crushed corn tamale was a very nice appetizer with a very subtle spice. The corn was very sweet and made a very nice appetizer. The arroz con mariscos was decent but it wasn’t too amazing. It just seemed like a jumble of stuff not very well seasoned. All in all, the appetizers were way better than the entrée and they in itself were worth it.

We ate here again! Our friends from Detroit insisted on going to Mancora after seeing our photos on facebook a few weeks ago. They ordered the sizzling steak, I had the churassco, and we also tried Peruvian beer this time. Everyone was happy. No complaints from our Friends. Mayo was our waiter again. he was our waiter last time. Good food– Good service!

Excellent excellent excellent excellent I can’t say enough time excellent fresh locally-​sourced food taste very well fantastic menu selection

My friend convinced me to come here and have a couple of drinks. I was very hesitant at 1^st but started reading the Unilocal reviews and they were really good. We sat at the bar and the bartender welcomed us with a big genuine smile. She was very nice and attentive. I got a Pisco sour and my friend got the Mango mojito. We weren’t thinking of eating there but the food smelled so good. That we just had to order. I had the «Aji de Gallina» it comes with rice and fried cassava. My friend got the «Tofu Saltado». She devoured her dish in 2 minutes. The food is just excellent, the drinks are amazing, the service is top notch. We will Definitely visit this place again

Stumbled upon this place when heading to Upstate. sadly we never got to upstate because the «Peruvian Tapas» sign and 5 – 8 happy hour caught our attention. Man am I ever glad, this place is banging… amazing service, pisco sours, margaritas, caipirinhas, delicious delicious drink for 6 dollas from 5 – 8. The food. mmmmmm. had to get some ceviche cause it was Unilocaled about but other than that we ordered off the $ 6 happy hour tapas menu, beef heart, chicken chicharrones, seafood salad, grilled squid, and the amazing plantains and green sauce. 100% coming back, num num num

Food = 1.5 stars, Service = 3 stars
I’m sorry but honestly the food at Mancora is just not good. The service was the only redeeming quality of this place. I was able to sample a number of dishes including the ceviche app, green mussels appetizer, roast chicken, grilled sirloin steak, and the rack of lamb. The only dish that I actually enjoyed was the green mussel appetizer with creamy garlic sauce. Everything else was below average. I found the most of the meat dishes tough and tasteless. Another thing to note is this place is very loud so it is quite hard to hold a conversation. Bottom line is that I won’t be returning and I can’t recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Came to Mancora for a friend’s birthday party. The food can be improved on.
Pros:
* Good for big groups. My friend easily made a reservation on OpenTable for a party of 10 people on a Saturday night.
* Décor was traditional Peruvian, the ambiance was fun and low-​key.
* Wide variety of drinks: I loved my Pico Passion $ 8 (Pisco, passion fruit pulp, lime juice and jarabe de goma). Drink was sweet and strong!
* Recommend their famous Roast Chicken (Pollo Rostizado) as meat was tender and juicy. Prices are affordable (½ Chicken $ 8.00, Whole Chicken $ 15). We also loved the Green Mussels cooked in Creamy Garlic Sauce and Ceviche Mancora $ 16 (Mussels, clams, octopus, shrimp, squid, scallops marinated in lime juice).
Cons:
* We were very disappointed with the meat entrees we ordered. Our Bistek A Lo Pobre $ 18 (Grilled sirloin steak with chimichurri sauce with French fries) and Entrana A La Parrilla $ 20 (Grilled skirt steak with chimichurri sauce, served with yucca and rice and beans) and Rack of Lamb tasted like cardboard — meat was bland and tough. Seriously, just go for the chicken… you cannot go wrong there. Get your steak fix elsewhere.
* Horrible flan, had the consistency and texture of a heavy cheese brick.

Walked in on a whim– AWESOME happy hour deal, drinks were fabulous. The food was also delicious! The mussel appetizer and the sauce was so good. I had the salmon, my boyfriend the skirt steak– we were extremely happy with everything. Great lower east side spot– looks like they have a good brunch/​lunch deal too!

Happy accident! We stayed just around the corner and the food smelled so good, we had to go in. The red snapper with sea food was fantastic and the sangria is homemade and very good.
Yes, it is loud but I find that makes the atmosphere — which is great! The waiters are very nice and helpful. Totally recommend it!

Ceviche is da BOMB, fresh and interesting mix of flavors. Very good but not fantastic.
THE PLACE IS SO LOUD YOU CANT TALK! This is a problem as I won’t return if I need to communicate during dinner, guess that means I be going back with my wife.

«Dark Peru»
I have been to this spot a few times over 8 years in the city. I have mainly stuck with the seafood dishes and I have not been dissatisfied. A couple of my Peruvian friends like the food and say that it somewhat represents the local cruise of Peru.
I will say that over the past few years the service has suffered, just a bit. For example, some times a waiter may forget your drink order or forget to bring you a drink menu when you have asked for one 2 – 3 times.
The restaurant itself is pretty dim and cozy but the tables are placed very closed together. You will be cozy with both your party and the people sitting next to you. For the area and the amount of food that you receive, the prices pretty generou, which probably is one of the reasons why the restaurant is packed during the weekends.

This is usually my plan B when in this neighborhood if where I want to actually go is overcrowded. They have a happy hour if you’re into Pisco Sours and they do make them good! The Capirinhas (not too sure how to spell it) are also pretty potent and so good– made with real limes mashed to sweet & sour alcoholic goodness.
The food here is good! Is it the best Peruvian I’ve had? No. Doesn’t beat the authenticity of Peruvian spots in Queens BUT it’s great for East Village and the prices are decent. Pretty good ceviche ($ 8) although sometimes the fish might be dished out fishy so if that’s the case… Well, do as you will. I’ve only had ceviche here twice & it was slightly fishy once.
The Jalea here is awesome & better than the one dished out at the popular NYC Peruvian chain, Pio Pio. It’s a variety of fried seafood (octopus, calamari, fish, etc) and quite addicting but it is ALL fried so not the healthiest if that’s what you’re looking for.
I’ve also had the lomo saltado (steak cooked with French fries) served with white rice. It’s filling and delicious!
Solid Peruvian spot. One of my favorite spots in this neighborhood if you’re in the mood for Peruvian. Small intimate bar in the back if interested in a solo date!

Come in for happy hr from 5−8pm & you will leave with your wallet and soul happy.
Absolutely love the tapas here, and highly recommend getting the mussels tapa. The acidity from the lime and sauce they put over it negates the often seafoody taste that comes with mussels. The same sauce it used for their red snapper ceviche, which I loved. I also really dig the pork tamalito and would choose it over the chicken one any day.
As for the entrees, they are mostly on the pricy side, but I do think that the steak entrees are good enough to share for 2 (girls at least: p). Don’t be afraid to ask for extra free tostones, because the waiters certainly do not look like they judge!
P. S. if you download the scoutmob app, they have an extra 30% deal off for this restaurant right now! :)
P. P. S. Also watch out for low headroom in the bathroom!

Durch Zufall sind wir abends an diesem Restaurant vorbeigekommen. Der einladene Eindruck von auußen hat sich auch drinnen bestätigt. Auch die Karte und Preise haben überzeugt. Ich habe zwar vorher noch peruanisch gegessen, aber meine Begleitung kannte sich etwas durch eine Südamerikareise aus und meinte, dass die Karte authentisch aussehe. Die Bedinung war freundlich und flott. Das Essen, wir hatten Muscheln als Vorspeise, Ceviche sowie ein Shrimpgericht als Hauptgericht waren sehr lecker. Auch die Cocktails, die bis 20Uhr nur 6 $ gekostet haben war sehr gut.