Señor Ceviche - Soho, London

Rewind to the heady days of 2012, where everybody and their mother was talking about the new-fangled trend of Peruvian food. One of the foremost pop-ups on the scene was Señor Ceviche, spearheaded by enterprising Englishman Harry Edmeades, who was serving up five selections of the citrus-cooked seafood alongside just one cocktail, the pisco sour.

Now, back in the present day, we're pleased to see that he's joined the ranks of some of London's most successful Peruvian heavy-hitters, including Lima, Coya and Ceviche, not to mention rising upstarts like Pachamama. What did he do in the interim period that helped him manage the transition from transitory to brick and mortar permanence? He travelled to the source in Peru - working his ass off in Lima's party district, Barranco.

Harry brings a blast of South American spirit, not to mention spirits, to his restaurant in the recently revamped Kingly Court. Brash Motown music plays at high volumes over the speakers while the servers march at a brisk pace around the venue, giving it a definite party vibe. The room is a kaleidoscopic gyre of bright colours, with a blue and white South American tiled bar, walls cobbled together from reclaimed wood, eyepopping chicha posters and artwork, industrial piping, mismatched chairs and stools and particoloured tables. This unapologetically vivid room parrots the intense colours you'll find on your plates.         

On our visit we were extremely impressed by the high quality of the fare. A pair of powerful cocktails were brought over to commence the festivities - we have to say that our favourite is still the trademark pisco sour. Chifa chicharrones, crisp and juicy cubes of pork belly, arrived at the table first and were a great bellwether for the flavourful food that would follow. It wasn't very long before the ceviches began to come. We ordered three, the Limeño Classico, the Mr Miyagi and the eponymous Señor Ceviche. Of the three our favourite was the latter, the sea bream beautifully cured with piquant aji Amarillo tiger's milk and peppered with crispy tempura baby squid.

Anticuchos, Peruvian for grilled meat on a stick, were beautifully executed. Flat iron beef was prepared on skewers with aji rocotto anticucho sauce and were as tender as they were tasty. This was accompanied by one of our most recently acquired guilty pleasures, patatas fritas with huancaina and tomato fondue, which is essentially a Peruvian poutine. We had reached a critical mass of consumption at this point, but managed to fit down a chocolate brownie with coconut ice cream, which was complemented beautifully by a cocktail of El Jimador tequila, Aperol, sweet vermouth and Averna.

Mr Edmeade's hard work has come to fruition with Señor Ceviche, and it has paid dividends. For something boisterous, unfussy and unbelievably delicious, Señor Ceviche does a fine job.

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