It's the final instalment in my week of Peruvian reviews and I've definitely saved the best till last. Ceviche is a well established restaurant in Soho serving up the finest Peruvian delights, they've just opened a new branch in Old Street so I was quick to book a place during the soft launch. With 50% off everything including booze we made sure we got our monies worth when ordering.
Our first drinks order consisted of a Pisco Sour for myself and an Andes Mule for Steve. I really enjoyed mine because it's quite similar to gin cocktails I normally order, slightly sour with foamy egg white on top. Steve's cocktail is a take on his much loved rum and ginger but with pisco instead, very nice if you like ginger (which I don't).
For our second round of drinks I went for the Peru Boom and Steve had an El Capitan. I loved the passion fruit in mine, it was lovely and sweet. Steve wasn't a fan of his and frankly I don't really know why he ordered it in the first place (actaully I do, he liked the name), it was extremely dry thanks to the vermouth.
Our drinks came with a small plate of cancha which is crunchy Peruvian corn, a nice salty snack whilst sipping your drinks and pondering the rest of the menu.
We also ordered Tequeños de Ají de Gallina from the nibbles portion on the menu, which are chicken wonton fritters with an onion, parmesan and chilli cream dip. These were lovely and crispy with an almost creamy chicken filling.
There are a few different ceviche options to choose from, we went for the Don Ceviche which consists of sea bass, red onion, limo chilli and sweet potato crisps. The fish was extremely fresh and the citrus marinade was strong and tangy, I loved it. I wish we had ordered a few other ceviche plates as they all looked wonderful.
From the ceviche menu we also ordered the salmon maki (makinua) which was delicious and quite unlike maki you would receive in a Japanese restaurant thanks to the addition of the quiona, tangy mayo and beetroot.
The Panza con Saúco i.e. pork belly with elderberry, pomegranate, spring onion and choclo corn cream was the highlight of the meal for me. I adore pork belly and this plate was the perfect mix of juicy, succulent meat and a heavenly rich, creamy sauce. The top of the pork was perfectly crisp and the pomegranate seeds added refreshing and juicy bursts of flavour.
I didn't think I'd had eel before so was intrigued by the Jalea de Anguila plate with eel and seabass belly. This was a nice and quite light as the batter wasn't too heavy. This came with another creamy sauce and with the chilli and onion this was another tasty plate.
The yucas i.e. cassava chips with huancaina cheese and amarillo chilli sauce were lovely. Tougher than your bog standard potato chips these were still crispy but if I'm perfectly honest I preferred the 'proper chips' that came with the beef.
The chocolate brownie was an interesting dessert, very different from your bog standard brownie in terms of texture (more spongy I think) but just a chocolatey and delicious. I couldn't really taste the chilli and I think the beetroot just made it more moist.
I was gutted the kitchen has run out of pumpkin doughnuts so we ordered a selection of ice cream and sorbets instead. As I've mentioned many time previously I am extremely boring when it comes to dessert and whilst I do have a very sweet tooth I am more than happy to have a bowl of vanilla ice cream therefore I was more than pleased with this option.
The food at Ceviche was really wonderful and I'm glad we were able to make use of the 50% soft launch as the price sure does add up. A lot of the dishes are standard to Peruvian restaurants so it's nice to see how each place puts a stamp on theirs. Ceviche and Pachamama are definitely my favourite two spots in London but there's still a few other places I am yet to try so watch this space.
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Ok, so this might be the Peruvian restaurant I finally try based just on location!
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