You can’t spell “Ceviche” without the word “chic” … and rearranging a few letters. And that’s exactly what Ceviche restaurant is—chic. This second installment of a new restaurant chain of famed restaurateur Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld opened just two months ago. Though aiming to fill the Latin-cuisine need of the Glover Park/Georgetown area, “chic” doesn’t quite cover for inauthentic food.
I arrived right around dinner hour on Thursday evening and had no trouble securing a table for five without reservation. The restaurant was comfortably roomy, but the immediate impression upon walking through the door was, “Wow, maybe I’m not trendy enough to eat here.” Then I heard the aggressively loud and cheesy techno/house beats and felt alright about staying.
Aside from the music, the atmosphere was cool and casual. Most of the walls, lighting and tables were a deep red that created a great ambiance, and the wait staff was very friendly. While we waited for the rest of our party to arrive, we were neither ignored nor pressured to order; the waitress was even decent enough to forgive the horrible Spanish accents we used when ordering our food.
Unfortunately, the one thing that did leave something to be desired by Ceviche was the actual food. Executive chef Javier Angeles-Beron oversees the kitchen, and it is his charge to maintain the authenticity of the Andean cuisine. While the menu promised Peruvian-Ecuadorian fusion, many of the dishes we ordered (while titled in Spanish), translated into typical dishes one could find on a generic, non-Latin menu. Their signature dish, ceviche ($9), was very tasty: a lime-juiced, fully cooked seafood medley topped with chopped onions and cilantro. Aside from that, many of the other dishes were far less Latin.
For example, my “pollo apandado” ($16) was more or less chicken parm. While it is hard to knock a great piece of chicken breast covered in oozing mozzarella, nothing about the spices or seasoning was particularly Andean to the taste. The “aii de gallina,” ($17)—pulled chicken in an Amarillo cream sauce—while delicious and filling, was again hard to place in the Andean region. The most telling was the calamari dish we ordered, which I suspect made the menu simply because it’s an easy crowd favorite.
Ceviche is not a place I would frequent, but I would definitely consider it an “occasion” place to go with friends.
Ceviche is located at 2404 Wisconsin Ave. For reservations, call 202.333.3877.
