London's Dining Couple Señor Ceviche Review

I’ve been aware of Señor Ceviche for a while now, but the name led me to believe that there wouldn’t be much on offer for Shiima, because she doesn’t like fish so Ceviche would be a step too far. But we came across Senor Ceviche at Taste Of London. Although I didn’t quite enjoy the dish I had – slow cooked pork belly – the abbreviated menu intrigued me so I went ahead to check the full menu online. The full menu was really promising so I booked a table for 2 for last Friday evening.

Señor Ceviche is a fairly sized Peruvian restaurant, specialised in BBQ and ceviche dishes. It is located on the top floor of Kingly Court in Carnaby Street. The restaurant décor does a really admirable job of transporting you to Peru, and it also does a good job straddling authentic and urban. It was early evening when we arrived in the restaurant, so the restaurant wasn’t busy, although they were seemingly fully booked. Our very jovial waitress handed us the menu with a portion really delicious salted crunchy corn kernels.

What we ordered

After ordering refreshing virgin cocktails, Shiima ordered quinoa croquettas, calamares, and Super pollo (chicken), and I ordered the chifa chicharrones (the slow cooked pork belly I forgot I didn’t enjoy it at Taste of London, and our waitress said it was her favourite dish lol), señor ceviche, and Flat iron y Nikkei uchucuta (steak).

Review of the food

The pork belly arrived first. It looked utterly delicious, but also really crispy which is why I disliked the dish previously. But the sweet soy marinated pieces of pork belly were much bigger this time, which allowed the inside of the piece to remain succulent while the exterior was really crunchy. It was a bit hit or miss when it comes to succulence/crunch, but it was still a much more enjoyable dish.

Next was calamares, which most importantly easily passed the Shiima test – not smelling or tasting much of fish lol. It also tasted really nice and went really well with the jalapeño miso salsa.

The Señor Ceviche

I left Shiima to eat this alone, as there are calamares in the señor ceviche dish which arrived next. There were also pieces of seabass, octopus mixed aji amarillo tiger’s milk, sweet potato puree, slices of avocado, coriander and red onion. It all made for a really fresh and delicious dish. Although I realise ceviche isn’t really my thing because I can’t remember ordering a ceviche dish in the past year.

The quinoa croquettas were special, crunchy fried quinoa stuffed with melted cheddar cheese – simple but brilliant dish. Shiima’s “main dish” super pollo was marinated grilled corn fed chicken leg with rocotto salsa. It was deliciously spiced and very well cooked. I usually don’t go for steaks, in fact, I think this is the first steak dish I’ve ordered in almost three years, but I went for it anyway and wasn’t disappointed. The steak was cooked perfectly. I ordered it well done because I can do raw fish and raw thinly sliced steak on sushi, but can’t do raw to medium steaks … it’s odd, I know lol. It was also really well marinated, and I especially enjoyed the shiitake mushroom & uchucuta sauce that dressed the thinly sliced pieces of steak.

Dessert?

We strongly considered dessert, but decided against it because we were going to see a movie a couple hours later and we love our popcorn.

Verdict

Señor Ceviche was fun; it’s relaxed, the food is really good, and the service is friendly. It’s very moderately priced as well. I primarily recommend for dates, foodies, and foodie dates lol.

Cuisine: Peruvian BBQ & ceviche
Dress Code: Casual
Shiima & Amen’s Star Dish: Qunioa croquettas
Price: £25 each (excluding alcoholic drinks)
Rating: 4.3 out of 5