ANCOR RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Baja California

OK, so it was a Friday night at 8:30 PM when we were seated on the patio. I cannot say enough good things about the quality of the service. Impeccable, and very professional. The interior is very hip, and you can tell the design is to attract the female clientele. The drink menu is totally geared to women, although there are offerings of beer and liquors for men should they not want a foo-foo fruity drink. Menu prices, both for drinks and food are high - but I guess given that this is in the Agua Caliente neighborhood maybe it is in line with other restaurants. For example, $100 EU for a 600 gram Australian Ribeye steak is ridiculous. Note: they do not serve Wagyu beef nor Kobe beef which one would expect for that price!

As for the food, well, that’s another story. Poorly cooked and poor quality. Started out with roasted marrow bones and an order of fried calamari. The calamari was very greasy and overly salty. The (3) beef marrow bone halves looked delicious, but the sauce that accompanies it on top is both very rich and the flavor overpowered the delicate taste of the beef marrow. It could have been anything inside the center of the beef bones that we were served.

For our main course, we had an order of broiled octopus with fried potato wedges, and the lemon salmon with roasted vegetables and some white paste I think could have been mashed potatoes. The fish was way too lemony. Could barely taste the salmon flavor. The octopus was not cooked correctly. It was very tough in the middle and difficult to cut through, let alone chew. The entire octopus plate, including the fried potato wedges, were covered in lemon juice, making it very acidic to eat and quite unpleasant.

In summary, this appears to me to be something of a “hipster crowd” restaurant; somewhere you go to be seen and to take selfies. It definitely caters to a more feminine crowd based on the menu design and offerings. Both the decor and the general atmosphere capture the “Glam” modernistic feel, something akin to being in a woman’s boudoir. It might be a good place for a couple to have dinner, but I would not consider it romantic, just Loud and busy. This is more of a place to celebrate birthdays and special occasions, or to gather with friends, as was the case at many of the tables Friday night.

I give it 3 stars only because of the Service being so professional. . It gets 2 stars for Value, and max of 2 stars for food quality. 1 stars for cleanliness of bathrooms and sanitary handling of food.

Our check for 2 appetizers and 2 mid-priced dinner entrees along with 1 whiskey and 2 mezcal fruit drinks was $148 EU plus a 20% tip (for the outstanding service). I do not plan on returning with so many other good options...

We decided to try Ancor after seeing many good reviews. This is going to be a mixed review—there’s a lot to say.

Let’s start with the decor. From the outside, the place feels a bit flashy and ostentatious. It has marble-like ceramic (not actual marble) and a lot of gold fixtures. Once inside, you get the sense that they aimed for something elegant and trendy, but it crosses into loud territory design-wise. There are three main areas: the terrace, the bar, and the restaurant. Next time, I’d definitely choose the terrace or bar area, because the section we were seated in lacked good taste, and the lighting was oddly harsh and uninviting.

The first thing I noticed? The stained white fabric on the chairs. Calling all restaurant owners and designers: chairs in a high-traffic commercial space should not look like something from your living room. These white fabric chairs were visibly dirty—especially around the handrests and the top backs where people grab them. (🤢 Attaching photo so you can see what I mean.)

And then, there’s the staff uniform. The electric blue suits? OMG, why? They’re jarring and don’t complement the space or concept.

By the time someone came over to take our drink order, we were honestly debating whether to stay or just leave. But here's where things turned around: the waiter was genuinely kind and attentive, so we decided to give the place a fair shot and look past the chairs, the uniforms, and the QR-code-only menu (seriously, restaurants should always have at least one printed menu—for people with low battery or dining with seniors, it’s a must).

And I’m SO glad we stayed. The food was amazing. I ordered the grilled octopus and my sister had the salmon—both were excellent. We also shared the burrata, which was just okay in comparison, but the main dishes truly stood out.

So yes, we might come back—for the food. But next time we’ll request a different seating area and hope they consider changing those white fabric chairs. Ancor has great potential, but the details matter—especially when aiming for a...

Weird experience for me. The food was extremely perfect. I ordered a medium rare filet, and it was cooked perfectly, with excellently balanced flavors of rosemary butter. The bacon was a bit undercooked, but nothing serious.

We were initially greeted by the waiter Hector, who was very kind, 10/10 for Hector. Then Javier took over. Javier made quite awkard and odd comments towards me. We also had dirty plates on the table for quite some time until another waiter cleared them.

Hector asked if we were celebrating a special occasion and mentioned they would take it into account since they sing happy birthday. Perhaps it was because we were tucked away in a corner next to the kitchen entrance that the only music we heard was a waiter singing.

We tried a grilled octopus, and it was exquisite, perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of garlic to complement the flavor of the octopus. The food was excellent. The appetizers were also very fresh, especially the salmon, tuna, and shrimp tartare.

And what impressed me the most (in a bad way) was that when I gave the valet parking attendant our ticket, he handed me the keys to another car. I mentioned that it wasn't my car, and he told me to go with it and made me search for my keys in a drawer where there were many keys from other cars. Honestly, the overall service of the restaurant and valet parking seemed quite poor to me, which is a shame because the food was some of the best I've had in Tijuana.

Congratulations to the chefs and to waiter Hector. The drinks were average, and the service was...