Paiche

Nice location, overpriced food & small cocktails. The food was just subpar I so wanted to live this place when it opened.
We had Umi toast a little odd tasting but different. Ordered a host of other appetizers shrimp tempura, crispy tuna that were pretty good a chicken dish w/​beans and rice.
cocktails were way overpriced and small… especially the famous Peruvian pisco sour cocktail. Anyway, the place is closed, however, Ricardo Zarate, chef has several places about town… Try them out and enjoy!

I’m Peruvian/​Japanese/​Chinese and not a big fan of fusion but this place had done it right.
Even though I’ve only been here once, I thought the food was pretty great.
It’s too bad it’s now closed.
I’ve been to his other restaurant, Mochika, but didn’t enjoy it as much as this one.
Still have to venture to Picca and see what my taste palette tells me there.

Service was great. Pisco Sour was
a-​mazing! The cuisine was more of a Peruvian «fusion» than the traditional cuisine it is known for. It is a tapas theme restaurant which left this Inca Princess unsatisfied. For the typical tourist who wants to taste variety in one sitting, they may think it’s great. For a Peruvian who has a refined palette, it fell short. I enjoyed the ambiance but felt melancholic for a native cuisine and left with empty pockets. I wouldn’t consider giving it a second chance. Ultimately a great disappointment. Portion control is emphasized to the umph degree and the fusion style is «ok» if you don’t know what your talking about.

I’ve been DYING to try Paiche since I did my run at MoChica and Picca. Somehow they are all different despite being Peruvian. I love all 3 but Paiche really hammered it home.
The service was very good. The waiter was very intent on giving us all the information about pretty much every menu item which took a toll fairly quickly, but it was definitely thorough! I did find that the best bet overall is to stick with the seafood as the beef is fairly underwhelming.
As a group of four we pretty much ordered half the menu (tapas in case that statement didn’t clue you in) so here goes.
Rock Shrimp Tempura: Amazing. Surprisingly light and just a hint of spicy and sweet with the soy, chancaca, and rocoto aioli.
Ceviche Criollo: Absolutely perfect. Not too citrusy, and served both with choclo and (fried?) corn that tasted like corn nuts. Mixed together and it hit the textural trifecta.
Crispy Tuna Tacu Tacu: This is the Peruvian version of tuna crispy rice and it is just as good as it sounds — but spicier, so better by default.
Octopus Sashimi Ceviche: Forgettable, especially compared to the others. Slightly chewy, and didn’t taste distinctly of octopus. Pass on this one.
Wagyu Beef: Delicious! The Parmesan and truffle made for some melt in your mouth goodness. Definitely rich.
Kampachi: Easily one of my favorites. It’s served on a block of Himalayan salt, so it the first one tastes different than the last one. Slightly tart between the salt and lemon but it was the bomb.
Yuquitas: I’m not going to lie, I was underwhelmed by this. Maybe it was manchego overkill or something, but I was not a fan. It was also really heavy compared to the lighter things we’d eaten up until that point so I would pass on this as well. The green side sauce was good though!
Lettuce Wrap: OMG. If this is how paiche always tastes, then I’ll eat it every day for the rest of my life. It was grilled to perfection with absolutely no hint of fishiness whatsoever. The miso sauce was complementary and not at all overwhelming, and now that I look back, THIS was my favorite dish. Get it.
Wagyu Steak: Surprisingly underwhelming. This was on the larger side compared to the majority of the dishes, but there were definitely leftovers by the end. I liked it with the uni butter. but still found the steak itself to be on the blander side, especially compared to the explosion of flavors of the other dishes.
Short Ribs:
Chaufa de Langosta: Fried rice with lobster and a medley of seafood. Basically paella meets Chinese fried rice. Doesn’t that sound amazing? It totally was. Enthusiastic fan. Not at all seafood-​y and everything was well cooked without being over or under done. Not an easy feat with a dish like this.
We are all fans of dessert so we ordered one of each thing.
Crêpe: This was the ONLY dessert I really just hated. It was a matcha crêpe filled with lucuma, which is a South American fruit. The waiter said it tastes like caramel (slight stretch), but I found the overall flavors to be too earthy for my liking.
Churros: Filled with… something. The lucuma also perhaps? These were on the doughy side, and the chocolate wasn’t the typical rich, spanish chocolate served with churros. It tasted like regular olé’ melted chocolate. Wouldn’t order this again either.
Tapioca: YUM. Even the tapioca haters at the table couldn’t get enough of the flavors here. Chica morada foam and pisco in tapioca? Guess that’s what did the trick.
Alfajores: Not particularly special, but I’m a cookie fiend so whatever. Dulce de leche filled and dusted with powdered sugar. Simple and good, albeit not necessarily unique to Paiche.
Flan: This was my favorite dessert. HUGE surprise since I’m actually very neutral about flan. The texture of this one was way better and there were some amazing sweet flavors in there that were to die for. I can’t even remember what they were, just that they blew my mind. Get the flan, you won’t be disappointed.
Overall, totally amazing experience. There were a few dishes in there I wouldn’t order again, and the overall menu is pretty expensive /​adds up quickly, but I’d definitely come back for a special occasion.

Soy Peruana y me dijeron q este restaurante era de comida peruana fusión, pero realmente me parece más un restaurante japonés. Las porciones demasiado chiquitas, ya ni Gourmet llega a ser.
El servicio? Pésimo, nunca levantaron los platos q ya estaban vacíos (éramos 6!) y nos trajeron el arroz con pollo una hora después de haberlo pedido!
No volvería!

Silly me thought I could land at crazy LAX at 11:30am, rent a car and make it to lunch in the Brentwood area by 12:30pm. Ha. Fortunately, my fab colleagues have a better sense of time (and LA traffic) and suggested we meet at Paiche instead. Thanks to the short drive from the airport I rolled up right at 12:40pm…not bad!
12:40pm was 2:40pm my time back in Chicago so I was STARVING for lunch. Fortunately, the folks at Paiche did a great job of filling my stomach in record time. We ordered a variety of dishes to share and everything was delightful. I loved it all, but found the ceviche and lobster fried rice to be the most memorable.
There are no shortage of good restaurants to try in LA, but I highly recommend if you happen to be in the area… or looking for a closeish spot to LAX.

Paiche is an interesting place that does their own unique twist on a fusion between Peruvian and Japanese food. While we came here for happy hour and were doing a little happy hour bar crawl so I can’t give a full review, I will say that what we had was great. The ambiance is great, with enough of an outdoor feel that is perfect for Marina del Rey. They also have a nice bar counter, with a TV as well for the sports minded folks like myself.
As for the food, we ordered the Arroz con Pollo and the Crispy Tuna Tacu Tacu. Both dishes were great. The crispy tuna tacu tacu resembles what you would normally get at a Japanese sushi house, but is done with a Peruvian style rice. A little warmer and less crispy take on the Japanese version. The Arroz con Pollo came with three small pieces of chicken and some rice that had nice flavor as well as a little sauce added in. Both dishes were great, but on the small side. Not the worst at happy hour, but definitely would lean towards overpriced at regular times. I would suggest going with a family so that you can try multiple things or when not too hungry.
Overall, the food is great, but it is definitely on the pricey side.

Hola.
Seré concisa: Fusión Peruana y Japonesa.
Servicio: bueno.
Tiradito: bueno. Porción Gourmet, si eres de los que le gusta buena porción, no es tu lugar .
Ceviche: triste fusión (sólo tres tiras de pescado, dos plumitas de cebolla, cremita amarilla y harto repollo), ausecencia de maíz, papa, etc.
Pisco Sour: le falto el ingrediente que sella todo, jarabe de angostura.
Pienso regresar… Mmmm creo que Si.
le di tres estrellas porque todo lo demás me gusta :)

I don’t get to use too many of my BBE offers before they expire, such is the unfortunate case when there are so many places to try with so little available time (unless I wanted to eat alone, and that’s rarely any fun.) Paiche is the second Ricardo Zarate establishment that I have been to and it does have a much different vibe than his more urban Mo-​Chica. To me it somehow feels like a gathering hole in Del Rey, sort of a trendy weekend-​starter date-​night sort of spot close enough to the water for a sunset stroll (may I suggest the Venice Canals a scant mile away…)
Paiche is a fish indigenous to the Amazon so I expected the tapas style menu to be on fish heavy side but that was not to be the case. Indeed, there were «sashimi style» ceviches, but we didn’t come here looking for Peruvian izakaya — the thought was that if we wanted sashimi we would have gone to a Japanese place, though I couldn’t resist trying the Jumbo Scallop Ceviche. I love sashimi anyway so you’d have to decide if coming to Paiche for this is worth it, maybe on a separate visit but we came to get a sample of most of the other items on the menu…
Eating with your eyes first, Paiche gets high marks for presentation as everything looked absolutely scrumptious. We took cues from friend favorites who preceded us to help us decide what to order. A must have in my opinion was the Wagyu Beef, the combination of thin beef with mild aji amarillo sauce had great flavor on it’s own, but the black truffle and the saltiness of the caviar added an extra dimension that melded nicely. Another dish held in high regard was the Uni Shrimp Toast, a creamy, crunchy generously appointed toast point brimming with uni, so good…
The Niman Ranch Pork Belly is one of those dishes that sells because of its name, this one is not the worst that I’ve ever had but its not the best either. It was an interesting mix of pomegranates, butternut squash, and a piece of pork cracklin, each with its own distinct taste and texture that I enjoyed one by one on its own merits. I think this is a case where I liked each of the constituent parts better than the whole. The star of the dish was the pork which in some ways was just like a piece of roast pork that you can get at many a Asian deli which is either a good thing or a disappointment depending on your leanings…
I suppose I should be more impressed with the Kampachi (tiraditos) because it was served on a Himalayan salt block but I wasn’t. To me a couple measly slivers of raw fish served on top of a brick of salt with a green mayo yuzu onion garlic dressing wasn’t enough to hold my interest; perhaps it was all the extra watercress that was present as well, a little is fine for texture, but I’m not generally a fan of the bitterness…
I am glad that we decided to stay here for dessert, otherwise I wouldn’t have been surprised by the Cheesecake, sort of a chocolate bomba that was actually lighter than I expected. My wife went for the tapioca which I never really developed a taste for, however she said that it was excellent and even garnished with a little dried fruit…
I didn’t find Paiche as gritty cool as Mo-​Chica but I did enjoy most of the dishes. The place does have a lively vibe to it I must admit. I heard that Zarate is going to open a more casual chicken rotisserie spot called, wait for it – Suave Rico (snicker, snicker…)

Since the last time I came here, they added a happy hour! Perfect for me and my loud mouth friends who were looking for a place to meet & catch up. We came to Paiche on whim and found new cocktails and fancy Peruvian food. Win!
Paiche is a great tapas stop especially for seafood lovers. HH is served from 2:30 — 6 PM daily. My fav off this menu is the ceviche served sashimi style on a citrus/​yuzu/​olive oil sauce. You can pick from the list of seafood including shrimp, albacore, seabass, crab, salmon… The yuquitas (yucca fritters with manchego cheese) were amazing and at $ 5 it is a good HH deal. I suggest ordering 2 as they come two a dish and the spicy tuna toast was definitely a tiny portion. Note the tapas = small size because you will likely have to order two sets or you may still be hungry. If you come starving, your bill will be high, no doubt about it! Next time, I’ll try the arroz con conchas because other reviewers were praising it. Menu here:
I was surprised by the list of complex handcrafted cocktails. There is a drink for everyone and the bartenders put a lot of care into the presentation and flavors in the drinks. I will note that bar takes a while to get drinks out, but just be patient because the cocktails are worth it; they are unique and classy. Of course, the pisco sour is a must try here, but the Fifth Dynasty with a strange mix of seaweed, cumin, tequila, and lime was a captivating combination.
We ordered a few dishes to share and my favorite was the Saltado de Camarones which is shrimp sauteed with homemade pasta, tomatoes and the lomo saltado sauce. I know it is for sharing, but I could easily finish this on my own. My husband and I eat Peruvian food a lot and Paiche takes classic flavors and adds a fine, yet intentional twist on the food. I love it! This place is pricey, but come during HH if you have never been here to try some popular dishes and get a feel for Paiche’s Peruvian flair.
This restaurant is in the marina area by the movie theater and DSW. It seems that they did a remodel of the area because they have a bunch of new restaurants across the way.

Paiche. Pie chay. Pai Che. The name is just so fun, much like the dishes served here. We were seated by the modern fire piece on Friday night.
Our waiter was perfect. He knew about almost every dish and made some great recommendations. He’s one of the few waiters that I’ve had that knows and describes the menu so well.
My favorite dish of the night was the uni shrimp toast. It’s sweetness combined with the buttery crunch was happiness in my mouth.
A close second was the chaufa de langosta– like fried rice but better. The sauce and pickled slices added a nice acidity and flavor to what would simply be lobster fried rice.
I also enjoyed the wagyu beef. It’s hard to go wrong with truffle and caviar.
I also really enjoyed the eggplant tartare. It was light and acidic. Some dishes were too acidic, but this dish was right on. It was a fun dish– chips and dip.
The paiche lettuce wraps were pretty good. My sister enjoyed it more than I did.
The ceviche (yellowtail and crab) was just okay– too much vinegar/​acidity.
The pollo con arroz was good but I don’t think I’d order it again. I think the chicken was very tender and the cilantro rice was a perfect accompaniment. The same goes for the pork neck bbq.
In terms of service, I understand why they want to clear plates quickly – usually a sign of good service, but they would repeatedly take dishes before we were done.
The service was great, and the décor was sleek and casual. I enjoyed most dishes and would be excited to try new ones.

I had a Blackboard eats deal for this restaurant, which made it so much more affordable. We tried like ¹⁄₃ of the menu.
My favorite was the wagyu beef (the truffle is so good!), the short rib, and the lobster fried rice.
The ceviches were also pretty good — yellowtail was my favorite.
We also ordered the heart, shrimp, blood clams, beef neck, and beef filet.
Out of everything, you just try the lobster fried rice!