living up to the name

A friend recommended that I try his favorite Peruvian place, Fresca in West Portal. Well, I never say no to food!

The place is cute but not claustrophobic and a little dark... we got to sit at the bar, right next to the brightly-lit kitchen, so perhaps the rest of the dining room seemed dim only by comparison. I did enjoy watching the food preparation, sort of like a free show with dinner.

According to my companion, Fresca has recently updated their free bread offering. Instead of slices of sourdough, they now offer pepper-spiked cornbread, seemingly baked in-house. The buns were warm and appropriately weighty but tasted just fine. Same for the chicha morada: good but nothing special compared to the other chichas I've had. And I could've done without the apple bits.

complimentary bread and cinnamon-laced chicha...
not a bad start

Started off with a ceviche trio: ceviche mojito (mint, rum, white fish, and toasted corn,) ceviche chino (raw tuna topped with a mixture that looks like wasabi but isn't spicy, tastes vaguely of soy sauce,) and the standard ceviche mixto (the classic white fish and octopus mix in a spicy lime mix.) The ceviche mixto was very good, tasted just like the ceviche in Peru. I savored the "Nuveau Peruvian" mojito ceviche and found it to be sweet and sour and really good... I could eat ceviche mojito for weeks and not get tired of it. The ceviche chino wasn't bad, it just wasn't really memorable. But I will say that the ceviches are all fresh, just like the name.

L to R: sweet potato and choclo, ceviches mixto, chino, mojito

Dinner was very savory. I ordered the trucha encebollada (literally onion-ized trout) and I loved it: the fish was split open and cooked to perfection, then smothered in red onions, tomatoes, and a few shrimp. By volume, there was probably as much onion as there was fish... but I liked it. Some of the onion slivers could have used a little more time on the grill but otherwise, the trucha was a solid and savory plate.

trucha encebollada... oh yes, the plate is hot!

My friend's lomo - that beef-onion-tomato-french fry dish covered in a soy-based sauce - was well-seasoned, just a tad tough. Also, the fries looked like tofu... but were real potato, I assure you.

lomo saltado

Overall Fresca is worth a return visit... their forte seems to lie in their raw menu.