Choripan and Ceviche: Peruvian Food in Buenos Aires
Our Experiences at La Mar and Tigre Morado
If you need a break from meat, milanesa, and malbec in Buenos Aires, consider sampling Buenos Aires’s Peruvian food options.
If you are a carnivore at heart, you may be thinking … “‘meat, milanesa, and malbec’ … that sounds like paradise, why would I need a break?” We thought the same during our first month-long stay in Buenos Aires. We worked our way through parilla after parilla, culminating in a visit to the esteemed Don Julio. However, arriving in Buenos Aires this time for another month stay, we had already eaten a fair amount of meat in Uruguay and were looking to sample Buenos Aires’s international options. Plus, we were craving fish and vegetables.
Buenos Aires has a strong offering of Peruvian restaurants including La Mar, El Tigre Morado, and Barra Chalaca. Here are my thoughts of the Peruvian food in Buenos Aires, as someone who has eaten more than 900 meals in Peru.
La Mar, the Cevichería that Introduced Peruvian Food to Buenos Aires
If you want to try Peruvian food in Buenos Aires, you can’t go wrong with La Mar, an outpost of Chef Gaston Acurio’s quintessential La Mar in Lima. Every La Mar I’ve been to has lived up to its name, though each provides a unique experience. The La Mar in Buenos Aires is innovative in its own right which has earned itself a spot on 50Best’s increasingly competitive list of top 100 restaurants in Latin America.
When it first opened in Buenos Aires in 2015, opening a seafood amid a city of devout meat-eaters seemed like a strange choice. However, Gaston Acurio always could see potential where others miss it, and he saw potential in Argentina’s long coastline and the power of Argentina’s local producers. Under the direction of Gustavo Montestruque, La Mar Buenos Aires recently revamped its post-pandemic menu to be tighter and to feature more Atlantic seafood and products from local purveyors.
La Mar Buenos Aires is set in a stately historic mansion in the vibrant Palermo Hollywood. We made a last-minute reservation for a Friday lunch but it wasn’t needed. The mansion that housed La Mar was massive and featured ample outdoor seating.
Like the La Mar in Lima, the menu offers many possible different experiences that warrant multiple visits. We knew we had to try the ceviche. To round out the meal, we decided to focus on dishes inspired by Argentinean cuisine, with the Seafood Choripan and Seafood Empanada.
Choosing between several options, we chose the ceviche chalaco which was in the “style of street food”. The leche de tigre, the flavorful liquid in the ceviche, was spot-on. I wonder if they imported limes from Peru or found producers that could grow the límon criolla in Argentina.
The ceviche was a mix of pota and lenguado, with more pota than lenguado, which probably explains why it was one of the lower-priced ceviches. The ceviche was “market style” or carretillero but did not feature fried pota. I just wished the descriptions were a bit more clear.
The appetizers were stellar. The Seafood Empanada and Seafood Choripan represented some of the best bites that we had in Buenos Aires.
Honestly, sometimes I get bored of the idea of an empanada, but then I have a truly good empanada and that’s all I want to eat for a while. The seafood filling was creamy while not masking the flavor of the seafood medley.
You could tell that the seafood chorizo in the choripan was made with great care. The Argentinian salsa criolla (different than the salsa criolla in Peru) and chimichurri took it to the top. The choripan was small but full of flavor. You could see something like the choripan be part of a tasting menu.
Tigre Morado, Modern Peruvian Dishes
On the following week, we went to Tigre Morado (“Purple Tiger”), a restaurant serving stylized Peruvian dishes which caught my attention. The menu here is quite broad and takes a while to download (menus with prices are usually digital since the prices in Argentina change so often).
Daníel, our waiter recommended the Ají Ají (made with creamy yellow pepper) and the Apaltado Ceviche (with Avocado). We chose the Ají Ají ceviche, partially because it’s fun to say.
The ceviche was tasty but a little different than the ceviche that I’m accustomed to eating. The leche de tigre was thick and rich, more like the sauce in a tiradito than in a classic ceviche.
The Duo Vapor which featured two bao sandwiches, one with fried fish with white bread and the other with fried mixed seafood with bread made from purple corn. The fried fish and seafood were well-prepared, but the bao was a tad bit gummy.
Then, we noticed the makis that another table ordered and decided to order the Roll Ebi, featuring shrimp, crab, avocado, chili cream sauce, and parmesan, all flambeéd together. Each piece of maki was a delightful burst of flavor. The sauces played off of each other, coming together to pack a punch of umami. The smokiness from the flambeé came through without overwhelming.
Finally, the house cocktails were probably the best cocktails that we had in Buenos Aires. We ordered the La Serena which was similar to a maracuya (passionfruit) chilcano with the addition of ginger beer and a Hucatay Pisco sour (black mint). When it comes to cocktails, we tend not to stray too far from the classics. The cocktails were both perfectly balanced.
I recommend sitting outside if the weather is good. However, if you do, you should also make sure to check out the interior.
Trying Peruvian Food in Buenos Aires
Parrillas tend to be famously late dinner spots while for Peruvians lunch is king which means you don’t actually have to choose between the two. Have Peruvian ceviche for lunch and then hit up a parilla for dinner (which usually starts after 8 pm in Argentina).
La Mar is only a few blocks from Tigre Morado which is just a few blocks from Barra Chalaca. If you were ambitious, you could spend an afternoon sampling the food from all three.
Here are a parting few tips for ordering Peruvian food in Buenos Aires
Surf ‘n Turf may be the way to go. Argentinean beef is famous for a reason. Consider ordering anticuchos or lomo saltado to enjoy Argentinean grass-fed beef as part of your meal. Note that Argentineans don’t tend to eat much beef heart so anticuchos may be made with other cuts of meat instead.
Get to know river fish. Trying river fish such as trout (trucha) provides a more inexpensive and possibly fresher alternative to ocean-caught fish.
Pay attention to the prices. Within the same menu, the prices will vary a lot. The ceviche is a bit more expensive than we’re used to because ocean seafood is harder to come by in Argentina. However, you can trust that Peruvian restaurants here pay a lot of attention to the quality of their seafood so you’ll get good quality. Also, octopus (pulpo) tends to be extremely expensive, but they may give you the whole octopus.
Enjoy a cocktail or two. Cocktails, even with imported Pisco, are surprisingly inexpensive (around 5-6 dollars a cocktail).
Bring cash to tip. Usually, there is not the option to tip with your credit card.
Perfect timing for this post, as I am in BA now for several weeks! There’s a small cluster of Peruvian restaurants near our stay (Dora, Sipan, Asu Mare) that I had noted - although perhaps the longer walk over to La Mar should be first.
Looks good. I've been to BA a couple of times but haven't made it to those restaurants. Just curious about how you liked Don Julio? I couldn't make it over there but my friends did and they said they had to wait quite a while in line and while the food was good, it wasn't as exceptional as expected. In fact, we went to a parrilla near our hotel called Zero Cinco and had probably the best steak I've ever had in my life.
Fun read
Cheers