La Mar is the bay outpost of Gaston Acurio’s cevicheria in Lima, Peru. I fell in love with the open-air restaurant in a quiet area of Miraflores when I was there two years ago. The corvhina traditional ceviche with braised sweet potato and pale, large corn and a simple, perfectly balanced lime and salt leche de tigre was one of the best meals of my trip. Pushing it over the top were the plantain, potato and sweet potato chip appetizers with three homemade salsas (the aji amarillo and rocoto versions were two I remember), and maybe my favourite part was the strawberry juice.
Note: In Peru, jugo translates to juice but actually means blended fruit with ice and sugar, more like a smoothie poured through a sieve to get out the seeds but leave in a lot of fibre.
What’s so special about a strawberry smoothie, you ask?
The fact that there’s nowhere else in Peru where I’d eat a strawberry raw. You can’t drink the tap water and most fruit is unwashed, so when I ordered jugos in jugerias around the city, I always ordered ones made with peeled fruit. Getting stomach sick (again) in Lima was not high on my list of things to do.
But at La Mar, I could trust the fruit, both for its cleanliness and its quality. The sweet berries were like jam, even when I asked for less sugar in the juice (that’s a normal thing to do. Ask for no sugar, though, and people look at you awfully funny).
And even though La Mar is one of the most expensive cevicherias in the city, you pay for quality. The fish is sustainable, the salsas are freshly made (I’d even eat those raw, while I’d avoid salsas at most cafés and restaurants), and the final bill still only came to about $20 Canadian at the time – an astronomical fee for lunch in Lima, but worth every penny to me.
So I went to La Mar in San Francisco with high hopes. I figured they wouldn’t be importing corvinha since they wanted to be a little eco-friendly. But I hoped the snacks and juices would stay. Cali strawberries are phenomenal, after all.
I should state that when I say expat, I mean the restaurant, not the customer. I was an expat in Peru for awhile (do you have to be permanent to be called an expat?), so I like the idea of a restaurant being an expat in another country. Acurio has La Mars all over the world now, but this is the first outside of Lima that I’ve visited.
How was the food?
It was pretty good. There were definitely highlights.
First, in Lima La Mar is lunch-only. But in SF in the ferry wharf area you need dinner and happy hour patrons to pay your rent.
So we ordered ceviche (which is all I’d order at lunch in Lima), but we also threw in causa, fish, seafood and some fancy cocktails.
First, we got a cone of snacks, just like in Lima! Except…
…we only got potatoes. Not sweet potatoes or plantains. The second time I came (we came back the following week), we got plantains too, but still no sweeties, my favourites. And the salsas were heavy. Everything was mayo-based, making it creamy and dairy-free (not vegan), but a very rich way to start the meal. If you order a drink in the bar, you get these for free, though, which explains the fat and salt content (good for soaking up alcohol and making you want to buy another drink).
You usually start with ceviche, and most go for Acurio’s ceviche trio for variety.
There was a traditional one in the middle with a tiny wedge of sweet potato (rations?) and crunchy corn as well as fresh white corn. It was balanced, but the halibut in it isn’t as tender or sweet as corvhina.
The tuna nikkei version with avocado and a gluten-free soy sauce was sweet and completely addictive, and something I could never get in Lima, where gluten free just isn’t a thing. So that was a huge treat, and when I came back the next week, we ordered a full size version of the nikkei ceviche.
The third was a mixto ceviche with seafood in a creamy sauce reminiscent of the aji amarillo salsa. It was fresh. I wouldn’t wax poetic about it like I did the nikkei.
I’d had Acurio’s causa trio and octopus at his other restaurants in Lima, and those matched up well, though they were presented differently:
These came deconstructed. I’ll admit, I like them constructed. They’re traditionally shaped into layered moulds and then inverted. I like cutting into them like you would a double decker chocolate cake and seeing all the levels. But the mix of flavours was good, and more of that mayo added just enough spice and creaminess to an incredibly rich dish of mashed potatoes, tuna, cherry tomatoes and perfect avocado. The microgreens and nori strands were superfluous.
The pulpo was a definite highlight.
The charred octopus that’s a very traditional Peruvian dish (actually, most of the dishes on the menu here are reinvented traditions) was tender and seasoned and just chewy enough for the chunky mashed white potatoes and purple olive sauce. The chimichurri and roasted pepper pieces were fine, but it’s all about the olive.
From the mains, we chose a paiche, a usually pretty bland Jungle trout. Here’s it’s served with quinoa in the style of a tamal, a traditional breakfast dish usually made with tons of lard and cornmeal. This one was with a cilantro purée, which is often how rice is cooked) and topped with radishes and salsa criollo (marinated red onion sauce). It was simple but comforting and the paiche was perfectly grilled. Kind of like Peruvian risotto with a beautiful, giant piece of fish on top.
And we could even eat dessert! Of course there was sorbet (and some fun flavours: chicha morada and passionfruit), but there was also a dairy-free riff on a sospiro di limeña, a Pisco meringue with apple and something creamy on the bottom.
The second time we came, we ordered the big, expensive seafood mixed grill. Don’t. The highlight was the giant shrimp, but everything else was pretty boring, though well-cooked (except the purple cauliflower and other veggies which were on the raw side of al dente). Without sauces and lots of flavours to make it exciting, it felt like a let down. The marinade looked pretty and tasty, but it wasn’t.
We also ordered the simple quinoa fried rice, which I could actually have because the restaurant had gluten free soy sauce. It was very heavy but very fresh, with lots of crunchy vegetables (shout-out to sugar snap peas!), a fried egg, arugula, bean sprouts, carrots and broccoli. It’s a kitchen sink plate, but from a beautiful kitchen.
Would I go back again?
If I had a business lunch in San Fran, yes. If someone else was paying, yes. If a friend was in town who’d never had Peruvian before, yes. If a friend was in town who’d been to the original La Mar in Lima, yes. The decor is gorgeous, big and sunny and spacious, but I prefer the small, intimate outdoor eatery decor in Lima. I miss my sweet potato chips. And there isn’t even a juice menu!
It’s a very different beast, this restaurant. But it’s paying its rent, it’s making people interested in Peruvian cuisine, and it’s showing how fine dining Peruvian isn’t just ceviche or cheap rotisserie chicken. And for those things, I give it a big thumbs up.
La Mar
Pier 1.5 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA
Hours: Daily 11:30am-2:30pm, Sun-Wed 5:30-9:30pm, Thurs-Sat 5:30-10pm
How much: $60 per person including tax, tip and a happy hour cocktail
Phone: +1 415-397-8880
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