The Gossiping Gourmet: New Laguna eatery offers tasty coastal Peruvian
Peruvian restaurants are few and far between in South Orange County, so I was delighted to discover a brand new one in Laguna Beach called Central Coastal Peruvian, featuring coastal Peruvian cuisine.
The space, once home to Sundried Tomato, now includes a much bigger outdoor eating area and lots of repurposed wood, cement floors, a black ceiling, thick wood tables and tall chairs at the bar. It is attractive and comfortable. The staff was friendly and helpful as well.
Our first appetizer was beautifully presented. It is called a tomato tower and consists of a stack of very sweet, ripe heirloom tomatoes resting on slices of avocado, burrata cheese, thin slices of cucumbers, a sprinkling of Inca corn (cancha) and topped with fresh greens. The dressing for this pretty salad was a white balsamic that was just the right finishing touch.
The starter menu includes two kinds of empanadas, and my dining companion and I tried them both. We just loved the one with chopped spiced beef. The meat was tender and had a wonderful sweet and savory flavor. The empanada dough was crispy around the edges and thin around the meat. The mozzarella and spinach variety was bland in comparison. Both were served with a small dish of a tomato, cilantro aji pepper sauce that was good and spicy but not too hot.
Pollo sliders could easily make a nice lunch. Quinoa is used to crust juicy chicken, which is stacked on a brioche bun and then topped with avocado and spicy aioli and slathered with a candied rocoto pepper glaze. The quinoa was an innovative and tasty alternative to the usual flour crust.
Ceviche is considered by many to be the national dish of Peru. The folks at Central do their country proud with a first-rate version of the raw seafood dish. First and foremost is that the fish, sea bass, was stunningly fresh. And it was enhanced with thin strips of purple onion, bits of red peppers, toasted pine nuts, chunks of sweet yucca, Peruvian corn and tiger’s milk, which is the name of a traditional citrus marinade made with chilies, lime juice salt and pepper. The dish was just perfect.
Coastal hasa an addictively good soup called aguadito, which is based on a cilantro chicken broth crammed with moist pieces of Jidory chicken, carrots and sugar snap peas.
Tallarines verdes con pollo is a moist breaded chicken breast with a thin crunchy crust. It rests on linguini pasta with spinach and basil puree. The exterior of the breast was almost black. The pasta was just a bit too al dente.
Seafood is represented in the shrimp tacu tacu and the paella Peruana. The white shrimp was well cooked and juicy. It was served on a quinoa rice and pinto bean cake and surrounded by a creamy, spicy, rocoto sauce, fat mussels and calamari served with cilantro rice. The calamari was somewhat rubbery, but the rest of the dish was excellent, particularly the cilantro rice. It contained little round bits of onions, snap peas and baby clams and was finished with shaved onions on top.
Another excellent dish was the braised lamb shank. The meat was falling-off-the-bone tender, and it rested in a wonderful, meaty, cilantro beer gravy. The shank had a sash of mashed Peruvian beans.
Only two desserts are offered, and we selected the chocolate cake — two layers of dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in between. The pretty plate included drizzles of raspberry coulis and whipped cream. The other dessert was a cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and roasted pineapple.
Central is a welcome addition to Laguna Beach.
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TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.
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CENTRAL COASTAL PERUVIAN
Contact: (949) 715-0801; centralcoastalperuvian.com
Location: 361 Forest Avenue, Laguna Beach
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Prices:
Appetizers: $7-$18
Entrees: $18-$34
Desserts: $8
Wine:
Bottles: $34-$99
Glass: $9-$17