Freddy’s bar at Orient Express’ Maroma Resort and Spa on the Riviera Maya seems a little bit out of ordinary compared with the bars of the neighboring resorts. While Corona and fried chicken wings are being served elsewhere, Freddy’s has a Tequila and Ceviche Bar with more than 100 tequilas paired with a daily variety of six exotic Ceviches created by Executive Chef Chef Juan Pablo Loza.

Ceviche, or cebiche as it is better known in Lima, is Peru’s national dish and an iconic symbol of Peru. While preparations vary across regions, Lima has without a doubt the most to offer. Again and again I am asked what my favorite restaurant for cebiche is. I don’t have a straight answer. My lust for raw fish marinated in limejuice is changing all the time, not to mention more cevicherias are opening all the time. Here are my 13 favorites.

In the past year, I’ve seen more and more Peruvian restaurants in Lima adding Ceviche Frito (Fried Ceviche) to their menu. The concept sounds perplexing, but really isn’t. It’s basically battered and fried seafood that is given the same treatment of purple onions and bits of rocoto that are soaked lime juice (basically, leche de tigre) poured over it just like a typical Peruvian ceviche.

Ceviche can take on many forms, not just the Peruvian style. Every Latin country has some variation and a growing number of fusion restaurants are incorporating Asian flavors. This simple Asian influenced salmon ceviche recipe takes only minutes to prepare and taste great.

It’s Sunday, and after a night out in Lima, Peru, you’ve found yourself in a cevichería. It’s more, you discover, than a mere place to order ceviche. It’s a cultural institution where lime juice abounds, and the events and misadventures from the previous night are discussed, reenacted and celebrated. Here’s your primer.

I don’t often write about Peru’s mega celebrity chef Gaston Acurio. It’s not that I don’t like him, I’m a huge fan. Without him, Peru’s new culinary boom would be nothing. Period. Rather I don’t write about him often because he gets enough attention that I try to direct some spotlight on some of the country’s other chefs like Rafael Osterling and Pedro Miguel Schiaffino. I love Gaston though. I love his show in Peru and keep meaning to buy the complete set of DVDs of the series. I love that his restaurants are wonderfully relevant to an international audience and that he always tries to bring attention to the diversity among Peruvian chefs and restaurants by going to and promoting the simplest places

Their patio tables sit in the parking lot right up against the cars, but that doesn’t mean Juez y Parte (Judge & Jury) cannot put out a mean cebiche. Here the specials are called the chef’s sentence. My verdict: Cebiche Causa de Divorcio (Ceviche that is the cause of Divorce)…. Read More →

It took five knocks on random doors to find the right house, even though I had been there before. When I finally found Chez Wong I was told that I couldn’t come in because I didn’t have a reservation. I looked behind the doorman and no one was there. I pleaded but no luck. He handed me a business card with a phone number and asked me to call later. The following week, this time with a reservation, I returned to Chinese-Peruvian chef Javier Wong’s closed-door cebicheria in his house in La Victoria, an unassuming neighborhood of Lima, Peru near busy avenue full of auto body shops.

There are two real restaurant hotspots for cebiche (or ceviche) in Lima: in the coastal suburb of Chorrillos south of Barranco and along Avenida La Mar in Miraflores. Avenida La Mar is the more upscale of the two and the only one where big name chefs operate restaurants.

Whenever there’s any talk of cevicheria’s in Lima, usually someone mentions Pescados Capitales. The name means Capital Fish, which is a play on the phrase Capital Sins (Sins in Spanish is pecados, which sounds almost like pescados). The menu, which is ginormous, is arranged around capital sins such as Greed, Gluttony, Vain, Ire, Envy, and others.