Several months ago a new sushi spot, Lima, popped onto one of the local delivery services and I gave it a shot. It was specified as “Nikkei Style”, the Japanese-Peruvian fusion, and it was a tad pricier than some of my more usual delivery options for sushi, but, it turned out to be absolutely delicious and worth every peso.
I had tried some of their more offbeat sounding sushi, figuring on giving them a shot at showing off. I off-hand don’t recall what was in the order – the roll is clearly something with prawns in it, but looking at the current menu, it doesn’t look like any of what’s currently on offer. I think the two selections nigiri are the hotate, with slightly seared scallops, yellow chili, and lightly torched parmesan; and the hanzo, a white fish of the day topped with their sauce of the same name, which seems to be a sort of miso and peanut sauce. Yum! My order history on the app doesn’t list individual items for some reason on this order, it does show that they refunded part of my initial payment, so I must have ordered another nigiri that they cancelled (I vaguely recall that phone call, it was months ago). These three items rang in at 2800 pesos ($28 official/$14 blue).
Although I’ve ordered several times, this is the only other order I took a photo of, a selection of four nigiri. This time the order shows the individual items, starting from the left, the same hotate and hanzo as above, but clearly an improved presentation. The other two, a special of the month, a vegetarian nigiri of roasted red pepper and another of fresh tuna. Again, delicious, and a total of 3000 pesos ($30/15), which is akin to the prices that we pay for some of the fancier omakase orders of 20-25 pieces of sushi that I reviewed a couple of months back.
I noted a week or so ago that on their Instagram feed, they announced that their salon was opening up – until then they’d been delivery only. I knew the address sounded familiar, and yes, Lima, Rodriguez Peña 1967 turned out to be in the Hub Porteno Hotel, a location that previously held the spectacular Tarquino, and the awful La Cabaña (not to be confused with Cabaña Las Lilas).
The room is still spectacular, though a completely different style from when it was either of the former spots. Service is friendly and efficient. I still love pretty much everything about the space except, bizarrely, the glass roof. Not because I don’t like a glass roof, but it’s a weird one, being essentially the courtyard or air-shaft of the hotel, the view when you look up kind of sucks, and, as in the previous spots, they haven’t figured out keeping all that glass both free of detritus, both leaves from the big tree growing up through the room, and stuff from the rooms above, as well as simply cleaning the glass, which is streaked and spotted. Just don’t look up and all will be well.
They have a lovely selection of different infused lemonades and I took my waitress’ suggestion of the watermelon and mint one. Really good, and a nice change from ubiquitous ginger and mint here in town (which, they also offer).
A small amuse of grilled prawn in a passionfruit glaze, thankfully not a sweet, syrupy one, was brought while awaiting the food ordered.
I know it’s the Nikkei style to pour your curing liquid onto ceviche at last minute, and often in front of the guests. But to me, that runs counter to the whole idea of ceviche, because essentially you’ve just got sashimi with lime juice poured over it. It takes time to cure-cook the fish, and whenever we encounter this style of ceviche, we tend to take a bite just to try it as is, and then let it sit for 10-15 minutes (which is still a short time) while we sip at cocktails or chat – often to the consternation of waitstaff who think there’s something wrong, or want to get moving on the next course. Too bad, we order ceviche because we want ceviche – cured fish. This particular one, a mix of white fish, scallops, and octopus with a lime juice and wasabi cure, and garnished with puffed, crispy salmon skin, was, once cured, excellent. If I have a critique of it, was that the fish was cut somewhat randomly, with a wide variety of sizes.
Now, I know I over-ordered. Somewhat intentional, in order to try several things, and then also because I knew I didn’t want to cook that evening, so I wanted enough for a light dinner.
On the nigiri side, a repeat once again of the hanzo, I really like that one, though I should definitely get on to trying the rest of the menu. Also the trufado, with salmon brushed with truffle oil and garnished with thin wisps of lemon and lime zest.
Some, but not all, of their rolls are available in half size, a smart thing, allowing for the trying of more types. I’m not clear why some of the rolls aren’t available in half portions – there doesn’t seem to be anything intrinsic about any of those that aren’t that would make them difficult to make smaller. Maybe popularity? But they’ve just opened, that seems like a decision to be made down the line. This is a half of the limeño roll, with fried prawn and avocado on the inside, wrapped in grilled salmon, and topped with an emulsified ceviche cure. A winner here!
And this, a full roll, of the chalaco, one that’s not available in half size. And strangely, the base is basically identical – fried prawn, avocado, and radish sprouts, the last being the only difference to the interior of the roll. And it’s topped with a white fish tartare. So nothing obvious that couldn’t have been made in a half roll just like the previous one. They could literally have been two halves of the same roll, just putting sprouts on one half, and draping the other half with the grilled salmon. Tasty as this one was, I think it was my least favorite thing so far. “Chalaco”, is usually a style of curing similar to ceviche, with, most often, mussels or other shellfish cured in lemon rather than lime juice, and garnished with onions, tomato, and corn. This was a trifle bland.
A coffee to finish. Overall, just really delightful. I love the space, the service, and the food. I’d put it nearly on the level of somewhere like Osaka in Puerto Madero, but there are trade-offs. I think the food at Osaka is maybe just a step up, but the service here is far friendlier and less stiff. Plus, it’s less expensive (all of the above came in at 5900 pesos ($59/30), a similar selection at Osaka would have run almost 9000 ($90/45)) and a ten minute walk from home. Highly recommended.
