Group Dining at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana

Back in 2013 I went through a phase of wanting to find good Peruvian food in SF.  I hit all the standard places: Limón (decent, not amazing), Destino (hated it) and of course, La Mar (mostly meh).  I love yucca fries, taro chips, plantain chips, tasty sauces, etc, and I was determined to find somewhere I really liked, but, eventually gave up, and haven't had all that much Peruvian food since.

A few years ago, I had a work happy hour again at La Mar, with appetizers and drinks.  I remember leaving early because I was hungry and didn't want anything there.  So when I recently had a large group dinner for a work event again and found out it was at La Mar, I wasn't exactly excited.  Several of my co-workers mentioned how much they love La Mar, and I know it generally gets good reviews, so, I hoped it would be better.  I went in with an open mind, and figured if nothing else, I'd sure enjoy the chips & dips to start.  

My opinion hasn't particularly changed.  It is ... fine, but certainly not somewhere I'd pick to return, and its quite pricey for what it is.  That said, they handled a large group (23 people) well at the service level.

Setting & Service

La Mar is located right on the Embarcadero, just a few minutes walk from the Ferry Building, clearly a prime location.  Open for lunch and dinner daily, and always does a pretty happening Happy Hour. 

Embarcadero Location.

I always laugh when I see the address for La Mar: Pier 1 1/2.  There is not much signage out on the sidewalk level, but the restaurant opens up with lots of glass and bright light on the other side, facing the water.  The backside has a large patio area as well.

Semi-Private Seating.

Our visit was for dinner, and we were seated in a semi-private area.  Our group of 23 had two long tables side by side.

We had one main server who double checked all allergies as we arrived (we had provided in advance), and who took our first drink orders.  She was assisted throughout the meal by several other servers who delivered platters of food and reset cutlery/plates as needed, and a sommelier who poured wines between courses.  They were an efficient team, and seemed to execute like a well oiled machine.  La Mar clearly does many large group events, and knew how to serve a group of our size.  They kept the meal moving at a reasonable pace, provided fresh plates between courses, never messed up drink orders, etc. 

Food & Drink

Since we were a large group, we had a pre-set group dining menu that our host provided.  La Mar has 4 different group dining menus available, all served family style.  The cheapest option is $95 per person, featuring a trio of starters, a trio of mains, and two desserts.  Our hosts opted for the next menu up, which includes the same three mains and two desserts, but adds on four more starters/first courses, for $125 per person.  From there you can move on to a bigger menu still, with a different lineup of starters, and higher end mains, for $145.  And if you still want to go even bigger, for $199 per person, you can get the "Signature a Mar Menu", which is a totally different format, and includes all the premium items, like steamed whole lobster, many kinds of sashimi, octopus, duck breast, grilled whole fish, and even a Tomahawk steak.  They also have vegan versions of the menus available, with the same pricing, but only one dish per course.  

The quantity of food was a bit ridiculous though, and much went to waste, before we realized we could ask for takeout boxes.  It really was worth the rather high $125 per person given the vast quantity of food, but it also was just far too much, and I can't even imagine what the other menus would be like.  I'd highly recommend sticking with the smallest menu, or, making sure your guests realize how many more dishes are still coming, so they can pace themselves, and take home leftovers rather than having so much get tossed.

Group Dining Menu. $125/head.

I found it notable that the La mar event package boasts "our full-service kitchen accommodates all allergies & dietary restrictions individually", as I felt this was an area they didn't do very well.  We had one vegetarian in the group, and they gave him his own dishes, all vegan.  He was never provided with a menu of what he'd get, unlike the rest of us.  And even though he wasn't vegan, he got only vegan dishes, which meant just sorbet for dessert, no real dessert.  Our menu was well marked with basic allergens (gluten, dairy, shellfish, eggs, soy, tree nuts, etc) though.

But really it was my own allergies that I wasn't thrilled with the treatment of.  I'm allergic to avocado, and we had shared our allergens in advance, which was acknowledged by our server when we arrived.  They clearly knew I couldn't have avocado.  But my allergy was not really accommodated "individually", unless that means, that yes, the staff did just tell me when dishes arrived and were set on the table which ones I couldn't have.  Particularly given how easy it would have been to substitute another similar item with no avocado, or leave it off, I didn't think this was great service, and, if my allergy was more severe (like my allergy to melon) it really would have been concerning, as my fellow diners used the same serving utensils as me to take items with avocado on them.

I didn't love the food, but there were a couple nice dishes, and the venue worked well for our group.

Old Fashioned.

I opted to start with a simple cocktail, an old fashioned.  It came with a large ice cube and orange peel.  It was fine.  Most of the group opted for signature cocktails like the Pisco Sour and seemed to enjoy them.

I was planning to focus on getting decent wine to go with my meal, but it turned out, we had wines pre-selected for us.  A cava to go along with the starters that I didn't try, and then their house white (with the first course) and red (with the mains), both of which I had small pours of, and were fine but not particularly interesting.  I thought the white served with the first course (beef skewers and empanadas) was a bit of a miss, I wanted red with those dishes.

Starters

To get the meal started, our menu listed out a single starter: Bandeja de Cebicheria, which was deceiving, as it was actually one each of their four most popular starters, basically, one from each category: a cebiche (ours had the clásico), a causa (ours the limeña), a nigiri (criollo), and tiradito (verde).  These were all cold dishes.  The regular menu includes three other cebiches, two other nigiris, two other tiraditos, and one other causa.  

This round of starters gave us a great sample of the menu, but, it also was quite a bit of food, just for the starter course. These items, like our entire menu, were served family style.  For items that came in pieces, each platter had 5 pieces, and was meant to be shared by ~3 people, which meant that each person was allocated more than one piece basically.  These starters alone could have been a reasonable dinner, and most people didn't quite realize how much more food we had coming.  Our vegetarian diner received just one dish, the vegetarian cebiche (the causa would come later in his meal).

Taro Chips & Dip.

Every meal at La Mar starts with complimentary chips and dip, the one thing I really did remember loving from a previous visit (although they were slightly different before, including plantain chips, and multiple dipping sauces).

I did again like these.  Just taro chips, but, thick sliced, not too greasy, decent taro flavor.  And whatever the sauce is, it was flavorful.  I most liked the chips though when used with the causa.  I highly recommend saving a few to go alongside it if you order one.

My third favorite dish of the night. ***+.

Starter: Nigiri criollo.

"Ahi tuna with smoked aji Amarillo cream."

First up, Peruvian style sushi.  This is available in 3 varieties on the regular menu: Wagyu skirt steak, ahi tuna, or king salmon, all served as nigiri over rice.  Our menu included the ahi.

I opted to skip this since I knew how many other dishes we had coming, and I don't tend to really like raw ahi these days.  I was nearly tempted to try it though, just for the aji amarillo cream.  This is $24 on the regular menu.

Starter: Tiradito verde.

"Salmon belly, jalapeño, avocado leche de tigre, quinoa pop and seasonal greens."

Next up, more raw seafood, this time in tiradito form.  Like the nigiri, the regular menu has three varieties: ahi tuna, salmon belly, or halibut.  Our menu included the salmon belly, which, unfortunately for me as I'm allergic, contained avocado liche de tigre.  I was a bit annoyed, as we provided allergy information in advance, and the staff did make sure to point out to me all the dishes that had avocado, but it was about half the dishes.  Normally I'd expect them to offer either one of the other tiraditos or at least have a piece without the avocado sauce?  And I really do like raw salmon belly.

My fellow diners lucked out though, as they all liked this dish, and this mean 5 pieces for just the two others sharing a platter with me.  $22 on the regular menu.

Stater: Causa Limeña.

"Whipped potato over seasonal ingredients. Purple potatoes causa topped with Dungeness crab salad, avocado, and tomato."

Next up, more seafood, cooked this time, and, yup, more avocado.  Sigh.  And even though I didn't love this dish when I had it on a prior visit, I still wanted to try it again, as I do love crab so much, and really my complaint last time was that I didn't taste the crab enough.

My fellow diners suggested that I take the piece on the end that had no avocado on one side, and just cut off the corner with the avocado.  As my allergy is mild enough, I went for it.

I did sorta like this.  The whipped purple potato was creamy and starchy.  The crab, yes, loaded with too much mayo to really taste the crab itself was still tasty, just, in a creamy mayo sort of way, not a fresh crab sort of way.  The drizzle of sauce was good too.  It did eat quite mushy though, which is why I loved actually just using it as a spread on a taro chip.  Had this not have had the avocado on it, and had we thought of asking for togo boxes at this point, I certainly would have taken some home to throw on top of a salad the next day for lunch, or even to wrap in nori like a hand roll, but alas, this one went unfinished and tossed, as one of the others in my trio doesn't eat shellfish, so that left the whole dish basically to one person, besides the one I took.  $28 on the regular menu, also available in a vegan form (which, our vegetarian diner received later in the meal).  

My second favorite dish, particular when used as a spread on a taro chip. ***+.

Starter: Cebiche Classico. $24.50.

"Catch of the day in classic leche de tigre, with red onion, habanero, corn, sweet potatoes."

And finally, cebiche.

Cebiche is a big draw at La Mar, a namesake item, available in several forms.  Our menu included the "Clasico", basically whatever the white fish of the day was.  I didn't care for this when I had it at La Mar previously, but, people do really laud the ceviche at La Mar, so I was willing to give it another try.

The fish was ... meh.  It was kinda chewy, had no real flavor.  Extremely unremarkable.  The marinade wasn't particularly flavorful either.  The corn, in two forms, was fine, but didn't really pop.  The most interesting component was the thinly sliced sharp red onion.

Really, quite average ceviche, and I wished I'd skipped it entirely and just saved more room for other dishes.  My least favorite of the dishes I tried.

**.

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Starter: Cebiche Veggie (Vegan). $19.

"Artichoke heart, beet, avocado, artichoke chips, cancha, in Jerusalem artichoke leche de tigre."

The vegetarian diner had his own full size portion of the vegan cebiche, which looked pretty, but also a bit boring.  He didn't finish much of it.

First Course

So all of that, the cebiche plus 5+ pieces of other seafood per person, were just the starter.  Next we moved on to the first course(s).  Again family style, again served with 5 each for each group of ~3.  

Here we moved into warm small plates, including one of the anticuchos (grilled skewers) and one empanada.  The regular menu has two other skewers, and three other empanadas.  Our vegetarian diner did not get a hot dish at this time, instead, he was served the vegan causa.  I thought this was interesting as actually two of the empanada options are vegetarian.  Wouldn't it be nice for him to have a warm dish too?

First Course: Chicken Empanadas.

"Chicken, aji amarillo, and polleria sauce."

The regular menu has many kinds of empanadas available (chicken, beef, mushroom, choclo), and I would have loved to try any of the others, but alas, our menu came with chicken ones, and I don't like chicken.  I hoped the vegetarian diner would be provided with either the mushroom or choclo ones, but alas, he was only given a single other dish (below).

I didn't try this, but one other diner really clearly loved it, and the other was more than happy to help finish the extras.  These were not mini empanadas, but clearly folks were quite into them.  These seemed to be a hit, and were filled with what looked like shredded white meat chicken.  I think many people would have taken extras of these home had we thought of asking for boxes.

Available on the regular menu for $14.50.

First Course: Anticuchos de Carne.

"Sirloin, sweet potato, corn, and polleria sauce."

Our other first course was beef skewers, our only beef course.  I was sad that the real signature dish of the restaurant, the lomo saltado, was not on our menu, so even though I'm not really a big beef eater, I wanted to try this, hoping it would live up to some of the accolades of the lomo saltado, although obviously a completely different dish.

The beef, which should be the star, was ... cooked well done.  No pink.  Sadness.  It was a bit chewy.  It was moist, it was tender, but, I certainly would prefer it far less cooked.  Fine I guess, but nothing special.  Each skewer had 2-3 sizable pieces.

The other elements, sweet potato and corn, were the same as from the cebiche, and felt a bit like filler at this point.  Our menu was huge, and there really was no reason to fill stomach space with more sweet potato and corn at this point, and they didn't compliment the dish in the same way they did in the ceviche.  Interestingly, beef skewers aren't on the regular menu, but both chicken and octopus are (I wished we got that!).

My second to last pick, only slightly better than the ceviche, and I wouldn't get it again.  A lot of this went unfinished. **+.

First Coure: La Causa Vegana (Vegan). $18.

"Purple potatoes topped with grilled green asparagus, onion escabeche, avocado, with fried garlic, chimichurri, aji amarillo cream."

Our vegetarian diner was served a full size version of the vegan causa as this first course, rather than alongside the other causa we had as a starter.  Since it too had avocado I couldn't really try it, and I'd had the crab version anyway, but I did pluck a piece of asparagus from it to try it.  It was unremarkable, just cold average asparagus.

The plating of this was lovely, a since it was a normal menu item rather than family style one, it really showed off what the dishes from the kitchen normally look like.  The colors, the way the elements were stood up, really was nicely done.  This is $18 on the regular menu, compared to the crab version for $28.

Main Dishes: Mar Y Tierra

After all that food, it was finally time for the main dishes, all drawn from the Mar Y Tierra section of the regular menu.  If you are counting, by now each person had been allocated a portion of ceviche, about 5 pieces of raw seafood (some with rice, potatoes, etc), 2 full size empanadas, and 2 skewers of beef with multiple pieces each.  Easily more than enough for a meal, but now it was time for the mains, composed large format dishes featuring cooked proteins.

Our family style menu included 3 main proteins: chicken, salmon, pork, and our vegetarian diner had his own entree.  The regular dinner menu includes three more seafood options (shrimp, scallops, catch of the day), along with the signature lomo saltado, which I was surprised not to see featured on our menu, particularly as the vegetarian main dish was the veggie version of the saltado, and it is the one listed in their online event package menu - I wonder if our host requested otherwise?

Anyway, these dishes were barely touched by my group.  After so many previous courses, these protein and carb heavy, large format items were just too much.  Luckily, the restaurant provided some boxes at this point for folks to take leftovers home, which I gladly did (and wished I'd thought of asking for during earlier courses!).   My favorite dish came from this round.

Main: Arroz con Pollo a la Brasa.

"Roasted organic chicken marinated with Peruvian spices served over rice in cilantro & white wine."

First up, chicken.  This was the only dish on our menu not also available on the regular menu.

As I don't like chicken, nor rice, I skipped this entirely.  No one else seemed to eat much of it, I think compared to the rest of the menu, this was just boring.

Main: Salmon La Mar.

"Grilled salmon, seasonal vegetables in aji panca & coconut milk sauce."

The seafood main was grilled salmon, served with veggies, and a little aji panca & coconut milk sauce.

The salmon was ok.  It was fully cooked salmon, so not my style, but, it was well cooked, not dry, not over cooked nor hammered, the albumin not seeping out.  For fully cooked salmon, they nailed the prep, and it had a bit of a sear on it too.

The veggies were fairly boring to me, mostly broccolini (which, I just don't really like), cabbage that was rather mushy, as if it had been overcooked, some equally mushy red onions, a few token pieces of asparagus (ah, there's the "seasonal"), and a few little mushrooms, that I did like.  There was also what looked like slices of a red winter squash, which I was thrilled to see, as I like squashes (but, uh, totally not seasonal, it was summer!), but surprised me when I bit in and they were crunchy.  At first I thought it was just very undercooked squash, but then I tasted ... melon.  Melon, that I'm allergic to.  No staff mentioned any melon in this dish, although they were aware of my allergy, but I'm fairly certain this was melon. My throat felt a bit funny after just one bite.  Sigh.  It was nice to have some vegetables though, as the rest of our meal really didn't have any.  

The sauce was fine, fairly creamy, it reminded me a bit of a non-spicy Thai red curry due to the coconut milk.  It didn't particularly have much flavor however.

Overall a fine, but a bit boring, dish.  Execution was a mixed bag, salmon cooked well but not my style, some veggies too mushy.  ***.   My forth favorite dish of the meal.

This is available on the regular menu for $39, which also includes a few shrimp.

Main: El Adobo Atamalado.

"Bone-In Berkshire pork hind shank slowly cooked with aji panca, red wine, sweet chili sauce, quinoa-corn tamal, and mint."

I was beyond stuffed when the mains were hitting the table, in particular, the meaty mains.  I certainly didn't really want more food.  But, I couldn't resist trying this, I mean, look at it!

I ripped off a piece, and was impressed.  The pork was tender, it fell off the bone easily.  It had a nicely caramelized exterior, plenty of flavor from the glaze, fat well rendered.  I appreciated the presentation served on the bone, plus, it meant I could suck out a bit of marrow (which, I did with glee).

The "quinoa-corn tamal" was also quite tasty, it really tasted to me kinda like grits, although clearly had a bit more texture from the quinoa in the mix.  It tasted strongly of corn, which I liked.  It was creamy and soaked up the sauce well, and was a nice compliment to the fatty pork.

Overall, a nice dish, well composed, and I liked both elements quite a bit.  It made me wish I wanted more, as I was really just too full to appreciate it.  I was happy to take home extra, as we several servings of this that weren't even touched (!).

****.  My favorite dish of the meal, the quinoa-corn tamal was perhaps my favorite element, but together they were definitely the winning bite.

This dish is also on the regular menu, for $41, I think exactly as we were served.

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Main: Saltado Veganato. $29.

"Wok stir-fried portobello mushroom with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, oyster mushroom sauce and Peruvian yellow potatoes."

Our vegetarian diner was served a vegetarian version of lomo saltado as his main, with mushrooms in place of beef, at this time.  I didn't get a photo of it, but did try it.

I wasn't particularly impressed by it.  It tasted very greasy and heavy, which surprised me for a vegetarian dish.   The large wedge cut potatoes soaked up the sauce, which normally I'd be excited for, but that really just left them too feeling greasy.  They were average potato wedges.  The big chunks of portobello were fairly slimy.  The vegetarian diner only had a small portion of this, and no one else touched it.  My fifth choice, behind the boring salmon.

This dish is normally $29 on the regular menu.

Desserts

And finally, after all that, dessert!  I was stuffed, as was everyone, but I was looking forward to this.  I also hoped to bank on the fact that everyone was full, and likely take home a lot of extra dessert ...

Dessert Duo.

However, alas, desserts were the only items not served family style.  Instead, we were each served mini versions of two desserts (our vegetarian diner was clearly assumed to be vegan, as they gave him a little bowl of gelato instead).  Both are based on versions from the regular menu, which also includes a chocolate cake that we didn't receive. 

Dessert: Tres Leches.

"Brown Butter vanilla cake soaked in a mixture of three kinds of milk."

First up, the most popular dessert at La Mar, the tres leches cake.  Served in a tiny shot glass, not full to the top.

It was fine.  The cake was indeed very very moist, soaking in a lot of milk liquids.  I didn't taste the brown butter.  It had a bit of cinnamon, and otherwise was mostly just mild sweetness.  It also had a touch of whipped cream on top, so much milk / cream elements here.

The regular dessert menu also features tres leches, in a slightly different form (for $13): "triple cream vanilla sponge cake topped with strawberries and whipped cream".  I wonder if they really do use a different cake base for both?  I really would have liked the strawberries in the mini version, a fresh fruit component did feel missing.

Overall, average, but nice to end the meal with a sweet note. ***.

Dessert: Choco Maracuya.

"Passion fruit mousse and chocolate mousse layered with berries compote, and almond crumble."

The second dessert was chocolate based, so I had to save it for the next day, as I don't eat chocolate (caffeine) at night.  Others seemed to like it though, and no matter how full they were, I had multiple inquiries if I didn't want mine, they'd take it off my hands.  Clearly, large format desserts would have worked better for our group!

I love mousse (and, all pudding for that matter), but I wasn't particularly excited about this.  I like passion fruit, real, fresh passionfruit, but not usually passionfruit flavor.  I also am not generally into chocolate and fruity pairings.

This dessert was interesting though.  It was covered in a thin chocolate shell, smooth milk chocolate with a nice snap to it.  Inside was two layers of mousse, reasonably creamy.  The top layer, passion fruit, as I expected, wasn't quite my thing.  A bit tart, a bit sweet, but very fruity.  I'm not sure why, I just don't go for this.  I liked the chocolate layer, particularly with the chocolate shell, and the whipped cream on top, and tiny bit of crumble.  I wanted more of another fruity component though, there was just a tiny dot of the raspberry compote.  At the base was a thin cookie layer, perhaps also almond based?

So, decent chocolate mousse, interesting dish, but not really my thing. ***.

The larger version of this specifies that it is raspberry compote, and calls it almond praline rather than crumble, but I suspect they are the same.  The full size version is $13.