Washingtonian - 100 Very Best Restaurants

Reviewed by Cynthia Hacinli, Todd Kliman, Ann Limpert   

Lounge King Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld creates a restaurant for grownups.

No. 82: Ceviche
Ceviche is something of a departure for impresario Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, who’s best known for the parties he stages nightly at his Euro-style lounges, Gazuza in Dupont Circle and Chi-Cha Lounge on U Street. Here, in a moodily lit Silver Spring space, he’s flipped the script. Rather than being a nightspot that serves food, Ceviche is a restaurant that happens to be a nightspot.

Cocktails are still king, and there are plenty of strong and colorful concoctions beyond mojitos, from a tart blood-orange margarita to the offbeat Amor Prohibido, a shake of tequila and passion fruit amped up with spicy serrano chilies. Go early in the evening, when the orange-bathed dining room skews to older couples and families and the low-key vibe gives you time to savor the surprisingly accomplished pan-Latin cooking: Gruyère-stuffed corn fritters, chorizo with potatoes and garlic, creamy corn soup with bits of bacon and green onion, slow-roasted pork with lime-braised onions. Many dishes are rooted in Fraga-Rosenfeld’s Peruvian upbringing, including the stomach-settling locro, a stew of potatoes and soft-boiled eggs, and the fabulous cumin-and-beer-cured roast chicken.

On Thursdays there’s live Latin music, on Friday and Saturdays a DJ. Fraga-Rosenfeld hasn’t given up his clubby vision, but he has mellowed. At Ceviche, the food is as much of a reason to stop by as the scene.

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