Rocoto Pesca Bar
In Huntington Beach, a new destination for fresh, brightly flavored Peruvian seafood
Given Southern California’s longstanding loves of fresh seafood and healthy recipes, Peruvian cuisine is a pretty perfect match for local tastes, assuming you can find it, and it’s made with quality ingredients. Opened in July 2025, Rocoto Pesca Bar is new to Orange County – possibly related to two nearly 20-year-old El Rocoto restaurants in LA County – and only somewhat surprising to find in Huntington Beach, which has become a haven for burgers, tacos, and sushi. Much like Fullerton’s Peruvian-influenced sushi restaurant Akashiro, Rocoto offers raw fish and seafood fans some new options with stronger than Japanese flavors.
It’s worth noting up front that Rocoto sits in the upper middle of the local restaurant pack in terms of experience and pricing: There’s full (and very good) table service without tablecloths, a small wine, cocktail, and non-alcoholic drink menu with several Peruvian specialties ($5 tropical Chicha Morada punch, shown), and a substantial but not exclusive emphasis on small appetizer-sized plates. Go in expecting to pay around $50 per person before tip and you won’t leave surprised, disappointed, or hungry.
The single-page, double-sided menu focuses heavily on seafood items that are either raw or lightly cooked, then soaked or dressed with sweet, citrus sour, garlicky, and/or nutty ingredients. An order of three shigoku oysters ($15), for instance, comes with caviar on top plus gently tangy leche de tigre (tiger’s milk) and red aioli sauces on the side, while hamachi scallop ($20) drenches yellowtail and small scallops with those same sauces and an avocado puree, alternating fish and shellfish textures with creamy-salt-spicy-sweet flavors.
One of four cebiches, the Playa Mixto (mixed plate, $22), multiplies both the portion size and variety with citrus-cured fish, shrimp, scallops, octopus, pureed sweet potatoes, and toasted corn cancha, the latter tasting equally of corn and nuts. We loved all of these items, but thought the Playa Mixto was the best value of the bunch. Another dish, listed as just “Octopus” ($20) on the robata (Japanese grill) section of the menu, arrived as multiple tasty red tentacles with tomatoes, a purple olive sauce, chimichurri, and sliced celery in leche de tigre – fun to eat, not heavy, and equally bright in flavors and colors.
Though Peruvian restaurants (such as Costa Mesa’s and Fountain Valley’s Vox Kitchen) are often known for their lomo saltados – garlic/soy-marinated tenderloin tossed with sliced onions, tomatoes, and french fries – we skipped Rocoto’s version ($24) in favor of trying the $26 El Rey, a Chinese/Peruvian (“chifa”) fried rice dish that was loaded with pieces of delicious char siu pork, shrimp, small bits of tenderloin, and imitation crab, then topped with a full fried egg. We enjoyed every bite, and (putting aside our ongoing desire to try new things) would unquestionably order it again.
Desserts weren’t quite as exciting. Rocoto was out of the matcha ice cream sundae ($9), so we tried its other three desserts: a fairly plan caramel flan (here called Crema Volteada, $9) with four berries, Picarones ($12) – soggy, eggy-tasting Peruvian “donuts” made from fried squash and sweet potatoes, served with syrup – and Cappuccino ($9), essentially a cup of milked espresso with one powdered alfajor caramel cookie. None was either bad or special, ending our meal less impressively than all of the savory items would have suggested.
As many of Rocoto’s other items are variations on similar themes – shifting from raw to cooked, creamy and/or cheesy to citrus, rice to noodles, and occasionally fish or shellfish to beef – we felt like we’d likely had a pretty representative experience with our first visit, but we’d certainly come back again. Between the high quality of the food and service, Rocoto Pesca Bar strikes us as a standout restaurant by Huntington Beach standards, and we hope that it continues to evolve following its strong summer 2025 kickoff.
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: July 2025
Addresses
16972 Goldenwest St.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
714.890.5249
Instagram: @rocotopescabar