Warm ceviche, an Andean-inspired pork chop and a new ten-seat grilling experience are on the menu at Ricardo Valverde’s two Vancouver restaurants.
I’m not ready for the early sunsets, but I can get behind a fall menu. Especially when it includes prawns seared on a hot rock and a pork chop with potatoes, peanuts and chocolate. The new SUYO and UCHU fall menus have given me a few things to add to my dinner wish list.
Chef and owner Ricardo Valverde’s two restaurants approach Peruvian cooking from different directions. SUYO Modern Peruvian brings its contemporary interpretations to Main Street in Mount Pleasant, while UCHU Cevicheria & Raw Bar puts seafood at the centre of its Chinatown menu. This fall, both kitchens are working with ingredients such as mushrooms, sunchokes, celery root and quince.
The news I’m most curious about, though, involves charcoal.
Ten seats for UCHU’s new grilling experience
UCHU launches its Robata Anticuchero Omakase on October 27, bringing Japanese robatayaki and Peruvian anticuchos together in an experience built around charcoal grilling, smoke and bold marinades.
It will run Tuesday through Thursday, with just ten seats available each night. I’d like to know what’s going over those coals. The announcement doesn’t include a sample menu or price yet, so those are details to look for when booking.
There’s plenty happening on the regular menu, too. UCHU’s Ceviche Caliente features wild Argentinian prawns seared on a hot rock and served with creamy sunchoke leche de tigre. Warm ceviche sounds particularly appealing once Vancouver settles into its raincoat season.
A new tiradito wraps sashimi-style steelhead trout around sweet crab, with celery root leche de tigre underneath and crisp fish-skin chicharrón on top. Baked oysters come with whipped ají amarillo butter and salchicha-spiced breadcrumbs. Those would be high on my ordering list.
Beyond the seafood, there’s a charred cauliflower steak with rocoto romesco and chimichurri, plus Forbidden Rice Paella with Parmesan, leek espuma and chalaca, a Peruvian salsa.
Pastry chef Jerrica Aggabao’s new desserts include a poached pear in a brown sugar pavlova with quince preserve and chicha morada gel. I appreciate seeing quince on a dessert menu. It gives me something to consider even when I’m usually the person eyeing the chocolate option.
A pork chop to share at SUYO
At SUYO, the new 12-ounce Iberian Pork Chop is the dish that has my attention. Inspired by carapulcra, an Andean stew, it combines Andean potatoes, peanuts and chocolate, with autumn greens and pork jus.
That’s the sort of dish I’d build an order around, then negotiate over who gets the last bite.
The ceviche bar has a new Bluefin Tuna Tartare featuring button mushrooms, reflecting the restaurant’s Nikkei influences. Locally grown Brussels sprouts also appear in a salad with kohlrabi, black trumpet mushrooms, bacon and ají powder. Between that salad and the pork chop, I already have the beginnings of a dinner plan.
Four new desserts round out SUYO’s fall menu. Hojicha Crema Volteada incorporates Japanese roasted green tea, while the Chocolate & Lucuma Tart pairs chocolate with the Peruvian fruit. Apparently, my loyalty to chocolate will get another test.
For more on the restaurant, read our earlier SUYO tasting-menu review.
Where to try the SUYO and UCHU fall menus
SUYO Modern Peruvian
3475 Main Street, Vancouver
Reservations and menus
UCHU Cevicheria & Raw Bar
158 East Pender Street, Vancouver
Reservations and menus
Both restaurants open for dinner at 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, with reservations through their websites or OpenTable. UCHU’s Robata Anticuchero Omakase begins October 27 and will be offered Tuesday through Thursday, with ten seats nightly.
Featured photo: UCHU’s fall menu. Photography by Hakan Burcuoglu.
