Red Panka — Restaurant in Redlands

I went on a date and we both agreed on having some Peruvian food. My date was Peruvian and Colombian so being here and tasting the food made him have strong memories of his childhood and his roots. Thank you. I'm writing this review for my experience that I had on September 13th.

I felt welcome here, the staff made sure to make me feel comfortable and always had a smile on their face. I'm sure I reminded one of the employees of someone she knew because I had a huge fro. Afro-Latina here! Haha.

We ordered the "Original Lomo Saltado plate", "Papa a la huancaina", Yucca fries comes with Huancaina sauce. I had the passion fruit drink, Maracuya sweet not too sweet. It reminded me a lot of P.O.G. (Passion fruit, orange juice and guava juice mixed drink) I grew up drinking. And he ordered the "Chicha Morada", made from purple corn. It tasted fruity, tangy hint of cinnamon, cloves, apples, lime...etc other fruits. I had a few sips and noted the sweet corn drink was a thick milky drink, tasted some notes of sweet bitter plum and reminded me of cinnamon horchata.

I felt very welcome here. There was a diverse group of people walking in and after we walked in it just seemed to become packed. It was about 6pm during the week.

The Lomo Saltaldo dish was delicious! I can't wait to have that again. The meat was so juicy, well marinated in a soy sauce marinate cooked with cilantro and tender from the slow cooking process.

Our choice of sauce was the red Ají Panka/Panca salsa that we dressed over the Lomo Saltaldo. The Ají chili is a spicy berry/pepper native to Peru. Red in color, the Ají chili sauce packed a smokey heat. It had several notes: fragrant like a berry or parfum, creamy, sweet, Berry-like fruitiness, smokey. When the sauce first hit my tongue it reminded me of of white queso with jalapeno and tomatoes.

When compared to the Ají Panka/Panca sauce, the Ají Verde, green sauce was lighter in thickness. It was a blend of vinegar, green pepper and cilantro. It tasted like Salsa Verde then it's smooth like sour cream.

I'm familiar with Yucca fries as I grew up on Puerto Rican food, seeing this food here made me very happy. I realize quite quickly that I wasn't a fan of the Huancaina sauce, and that's okay. I still wanted to respect my date and cultural food so after having a bit of yucca with the Huancaina and sampling some of the Papa la Huancaina. I offered the plate and sauce to him, he was pleasantly surprised with how much Red Panka's cooking reminded him of his family recipes. The food started to jog his memory and I can tell this restaurant has a special place in his heart.

I would love to dine in again and bring a group so they can try your...

I was recommended this place when I first started university and it’s been a few years since I last visited. Since I was in the area today, I decided to revisit and I’m so glad I did. My dad and I arrived around 2pm and it was pretty dead inside. The lady working at the register was very kind and patient and allowed me to stare for a long period of time because I was feeling indecisive with what I wanted to eat. After a while, I finally settled on the Camaron Saltado peruvian style bowl while my dad went with the Tallarin Saltdo with beef. I also ordered their fried plantain because it’s one of my favorite childhood foods and I rarely see any places that sells it.

While waiting, I was admiring the wall art and the unique framed art. There’s plenty of seating and everything was relatively clean. It was also very fun to watch the chefs work on our meals, the fire blazing through the kitchen. The wait wasn’t too long and when our food was ready, we went up front to grab them.

I genuinely was impressed by their food, not only was my shrimp flavorful and well seasoned, it was prepared perfectly and I loved the sauce they drizzled over my bowl. My dad’s dish was also delicious, very soy sauce forward and the beef was perfectly tender and tasty. The portion sizes were generous and I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to finish everything. And finally, that fried plantain was delicious! It honestly tasted like my childhood and now I want to learn how to make it myself. Overall, I enjoyed this spontaneous stop to this restaurant and will...

So I've been coming to this place for about 2 years now always phenomenal food. But this last experience really upset me, not only are the portions of the Lomo Saltado getting smaller than before but I went with my girlfriend this time, we ordered the same thing Lomo Saltado and as she got hers literally 10 minutes later I had to go up to the front counter and ask where my plate was. As I was waiting to be seen though the girl at the front making what appear to be salads was eating something while she's prepping people's food right in front of everybody. I did video tape it and have it upon request, not sure if I can post it on here since it's a video though. When I did finally approached the front the person at the cash register, I was given the excuse that they ran out of meat and had to pull another bag out, measure it and cook it but if that's the case you should not split up a order like that. Especially when it's going to take about 10 minutes to bring out the 2nd plate. My girlfriend would not touch hers until I got mine so by the time I did get mine her plate was cold. They did not seem sorry or feel bad at all or felt to compensate us in anyway. Service now seems to be mainly kids which obviously they don't take as much pride as the adults who had worked there before when I 1st started coming did. I will still could you come here but I'm hoping that someone who works there see's this review and hopefully gets them straight in their ways I hope they bring back the portions...