They've also already eaten at La Mar, which they described as having great ambiance. B and I went there three days ago to celebrate B's birthday. It's an expansive, high-ceilinged restaurant at Pier 1 1/2, not far from the Ferry Building. Every table at the large restaurant was full, but not crowded like the craziness at Nick's.
We love ceviche, and we'd read this article from August about the explosion of Peruvian food in our foggy (though not today!) city. We began with a ceviche sampler to taste with four of the five kinds of ceviche they offer. We thought it was sort of strange that the list, which is normally so very specific about what to order, only suggested generic ceviche. Perhaps they meant the traditional Peruvian ceviche with halibut? That was excellent, but my favorite was the Chinese-inspired one (quite spicy, though) and B liked the nikei (with ahi, and similar in feel to Hawaiian poke).
We moved on to a sampler of four kinds of causas. B has been to Peru, and doesn't remember much about these traditional whipped potatoes, but I'm pretty sure the presentation at La Mar was superior to that in most parts of the homeland. We were served four elegant cylinders on a rectangular dish, two with deeply-colored purple potatoes.
We also shared chicken empanadas (something I've been meaning to try at home, ever since we got back from Costa Rica earlier this year), and a main course of perfectly-cooked snapper. We rounded out our meal with a beignet-like dish of fried pumpkin and sweet potato called picarones. We did not try a separate chocolate beignet also on the menu.
One of my favorite parts of the restaurant was how knowledgeable the entire waitstaff was (several also had South American accents!). They explained each dish as it arrived without us having to ask. They brought extra plates with each dish so that we could share, again without us asking.
Great food, great service, great ambiance! We'll be back.
