CEVICHE. That’s us and that’s our dish. Everything you need to know about Peruvian food is in it. We’ve travelled the length of Peru to find the best recipes and all over Britain to find the freshest fish – name a beach or a port and we’ve been there. We’re obsessive about how long we marinate it for, the kind of lime we use, the kick from the chilli, when we add the salt and how it’s ground… It all matters to us. A lot. 

From Martin, Ceviche's Founder

In 2010 Peruvian cuisine was almost unknown in the UK. Frustrated at there not being a great Peruvian restaurant in London I said to myself "stop talking and do something about it". So I quit my job and started a twitter account @martinceviche. We began doing supper clubs, then pop-ups and through Twitter the word spread. 

We asked followers if they cared about Peruvian food and the overwhelming response from food bloggers, restaurateurs and chefs quickly proved they did. The world's number 1 chef, Rene Redzepi even wrote to us, saying: “Martin, for me, ceviche is one of the best foods in the world. When are you opening?"

In the face of two recessions, we began searching for investors who would join us. For every 20 people that said ‘no’ we received one ‘yes’ and finally, armed with enough capital and after beating over 30 other competitors to it, we secured a our wonderful site in Soho. In February 2012, we opened our doors to rave reviews, awakening the interest of customers and media alike to our dishes, our creativity and heritage.

We were blown away by the praise we received: The Wall Street Journal described us as “a gastronomic dream,” Time Out made us their Restaurant of the Week upon opening and Giles Coren in The Times said, “This place is brilliant. The cooking is super-confident, rare and interesting, the look of the room is great and the bar must be fantastic in the evening. The music is lovely and the staff are incredibly sweet and kind. And it’s cheap. I never really want to go anywhere else again." We’re still blushing.

Ceviche continues to grow by creating great food and drinks but also by promoting Peruvian ingredients, art, theatre, music, events and Ceviche’s partner charity Amantani.org.uk.

For more information on any of the above please contact [email protected]

We are the first company in the UK to work with Peruvian food. We are fully focused on both sustainable and locally sourced ingredients as well staple ingrediants from Peru. 

We want to help you cook our dishes at home so if you are interested in buying any Peruvian ingredients or would like to buy a copy of Ceviche Peruvian Kitchen please email [email protected]

Visit: martinmorales.co.uk

I was born in Peru and am passionate about our Peruvian food, drinks and culture. After a few years of working in events, media, music and catering, being a founder member of iTunes Europe, launching Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers as Head of Disney Music, working with KT Tunstall and Novalima, and DJing for many years, I decided to stop what I was doing and start Ceviche. 

We started with one tweet, then invited people into our home for a supper club, then put a series of pop-ups together. We then gathered a great team of people who love Peruvian food and have worked in some great places like Soho House, Polpo, Roka, Zuma, Cordon Bleu and more. In February 2012 we opened our doors and haven’t looked back. The fun journey for Ceviche has only just begun.

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Ceviche’s was created with heritage and personality in mind. It is in the exciting neighbourhood of London’s Soho and it’s building was built in 1735. The great composer Mozart lived and worked next door and artist John Constable and sculptor John Bell have also lived on Frith Street. Bar Italia and the legendary, Ronnie Scott's, the world’s greatest Jazz club are just a few doors away. On our frontage you will read words painted displaying some of what Ceviche offers including our dishes, drinks and values: Anticuchos, Pisco Bar, Amistad – friendship - and more.

Our architecture and interior was designed by Schneider Designers and Martin Morales. Peruvian Jack Schneider has lived in London for 20 years and designed Elton John’s award winning art gallery. Every single centimetre has been thought about carefully, and designed with great care, passion and love.

The Ceviche and Pisco Bar resembles a cool fish market bar. Zinc walls and the bartop references fish scales, simple white tiles bring the fish market to life, the red wooden bar resembles the wooden boats used to bring freshly caught fish into Lima’s busy Chorrillos port and carefully chosen Lima industrial retro lighting gives you the feel you are taken back in time. A designed tiled mural brings Lima’s bustling markets to mind. This is also a place to show some of what Ceviche offers including dishes, drinks and values including Vinos, Causas and “Aqui se cocina con cariño” - here we cook with love and care.

Our main restaurant is designed with the neighborhood of Barranco in mind. Barranco is Lima’s Soho. It is a bohemian place where writers, musicians, poets and artists hang out and live. It is where the communist party of Peru was formed, and Peru’s best songs were written as well as a place to eat, drinks and have the best conversations. 

BAR JUANITO

The main room in the restaurant is inspired by Bar Juanito. Bar Juanito, a regular haunt of Peru’s most celebrated poets and musicians as well as the likes of Allen Ginsberg was in Barranco. This place, known also for its great food and drinks ran for 75 years before closing in 2011 after Don Juanito himself sadly died – something which broke our heart as it was our favourite bar. So we contacted Juanito’s family and decided to pay tribute to Juanito in London. In return, Juanito’s son gave us his father’s favourite bottle of wine to “bring a little bit of Bar Juanito to London as my father would have loved that”. That bottle lives on our shelves and is a 35 years old Tacama. The colours of the room, the metal edged mirrors, wooden floors, bistro chairs and tables, artifacts on shelves, posters and hero wall are all inspired by Bar Juanito.

MUSIC

The music we play is 100% Peruvian. From 60s psychodelic rock and roll, to Musica Criolla, to the latest Afro-Peruvian electronic music by Novalima.

HERO WALL

On the left as you walk in the main restaurant we have a Hero Wall.  Here we celebrate key Peruvians in important moments of their lives. Chefs, musicians, artists, writers, sportspeople and poets are celebrated. No politicians nor war heroes. These are photos collected by us and framed in vintage frames which we found over the years.

These include Afro-Peruvian musician, poet and historian Nicomedes Santa Cruz handing over his seminal work Cumanana to Pele in 1969. After centuries of racism and persecution Peru’s black identity was almost lost. Cumanana rescued this culture, and through a book, songs and dances all featured in ‘Cumanana’ our Black Peruvian culture re-emerged with renewed vigour.

Sofia Mulanovic is also featured in our Hero Wall here winning the 3^rd consecutive world surf championship. Some say surfing began in Peru on reed boats – these are featured in a collection of images in our male toilets.

POSTERS

In our main restaurant we have a changing collection of framed posters. These represent moments in time of Peruvian arts and culture. They have all mostly been signed by the performers, artists, painters or musicians who wish us well, who we know and who have Ceviche as their home away from home. We will work with these artists and promote them in the UK by supporting their exhibitions, concerts and more. These include Bareto - Peru’s hottest chicha-cumbia-funk band, Victor Delfin – Peru’s most prominent artist alive today and several original posters featuring exhibitions by the new breed of hip Peruvian graphic and street artists like Cherman, Eliott Tupac, Huanchaco and Samuel Gutierrez. The Afro-Peruvian Power poster had never been printed before now. It was created by Atix Vector, a young graphic artist who we convinced to print and display his digital work for the first time at Ceviche.

COLLECTIONS

On our shelves sit own collection or rare Peruvian vinyl records, cookbooks and artifacts reflecting our history and heritage. At the back of the restaurant you can find our Infused Pisco display. This is our lab actively used to create our infusions which can take between 2 days and 2 months to make. A variety of roots, fruits and spices are infused in our Quebranta grape Pisco. Some of these are here in the UK for the first ever time. These include Camu Camu – Amazonian fruit, Rocoto and Aji Amarillo – native Peruvian Chillies alongside Purple Maize.

DOWNSTAIRS LOOS

The lobby outside our toilets is painted in yellow ochre resembling the Plaza De Armas (main square) in Lima. As well as a Mario Testino exhibition poster in the lobby we have a Tip Top arcade machine which is a homage to Peru’s oldest diner named Tip Top (1953) and part of Peruvian pop culture. This was won by Martin in a bet from a carboot salesman.

Our toilet doors feature photos of Rulito Pinasco and Sonia Oquendo in the 1960s. The Beckham of their day they married, both worked as TV presenters and had a much talked about love life offscreen.

In the lobby and toilets you can hear Peruvian comedy from the 60s, 70s and 80s: Risas y Salsa, Don Pedrito and El Tornillo. Our men’s toilet is designed in a 50s style and features photos from the 60s and 70s of key moments in Peruvian surfing all taken along Peru’s coastline. It also features a memorabilia cabinet with a fun collection of artifacts including a servillette holder from El Capon - the first ever Chifa restaurant in Lima, a hankerchief from Don Porfirio – Lima’s best late night music venue and a small statue of Cubillas – Peru’s most celebrated footballer. 

Our ladies toilet is designed in a fun and kitch way resembling a Lima hairdresser of the 50s with a 50s dresser with hairdryer and hairclips, vintage mirrors bought in antique fairs, a memorabilia cabinet and a rare Peruvian chicha poster.