Empírico, the dark kitchen of fish and seafood tartars that reaches all of Lima

of salmon, tuna, octopus and prawns, accompanied by a crispy baguette bread. Impossible to resist this craving for the sea and Peruvian flavors, fusions and discoveries for the palate brought to us by Empírico, a ‘dark kitchen’ specializing in tartars and pampering its guests.

“They are tartars based on fish and shellfish,” explains Lucho Carbajal, the manager of this initiative called Empírico, which began producing tartars for delivery since the beginning of November last year. “The concept of the restaurant is to have food to share, because just as there are tartares in this first menu, in the second there will be dishes with chicken, meat, but always as a ‘tapas’ because each dish comes with a half portion of baguette bread. You chop it up at home and put your caps on the plate,” continues Carbajal. He tells us that the name of the restaurant was born because he is not a chef by training, but with practice and experimentation he empirically learned the art of cooking, and without a doubt tartars.

“The most recent is a sweet salmon, a sliced ​​salmon marinated in yacon honey. We try not to use traditional kitchen supplies (in this case Nikkei), but rather the same sweet that could be given through tare or eel sauce, can be made with a product such as yacon honey. I did the test with the salmon and the truth is that it turned out very well, it is a sweet dish with sesame seeds”, describes Carbajal.

And that is only one of the 8 tartars that his menu has at the moment. The most popular are the two tuna and salmon acevichados, as well as the limeña-style octopus tartare. “The pulpito a la limeña is a kind of more solid cevichito, pieces of octopus with pepper, olives, avocado and a little bit of rocoto powder, all this is mixed with a little lemon, olive oil. You put it on top of a bun and you can eat it alone, it’s quite fresh and rich”.

Another must-see is the Hawaiian prawns, a sweet dish with mango, oven-roasted peppers, white onion, sesame oil and sesame seeds, decorated with coriander branches. The Nikkei tuna tartare comes with soybeans, oysters, Chinese onion and garlic: “A very powerful dish with a lot of flavor,” says Lucho Carbajal.

And ceviche? “Empírico can spoil them and prepare a tuna ceviche to order. Being an oily fish, it is not a fish that cooks so quickly and takes time to send it for delivery, it arrives perfect to eat”, says the expert. And if you find yourself on any of these beaches: Palabritas, Cocoa, Gaviotas, Sol y Mar, Totoritas, Costa del Sol, Playa Bonita, Cocos, Kapala and La Jolla, you can also eat your Empírico beach tartare.

Did you fancy? What to expect to order them?

• For summer, deliveries in Lima are from Tuesday to Thursday and in Asia, from Friday to Sunday. Request the order one day in advance via WhatsApp 997864022.
• Empírico reaches the following beaches: Palabritas, Cocoa, Gaviotas, Sol y Mar, Totoritas, Costa del Sol, Playa Bonita, Cocos, Kapala and La Jolla. The pick up of the dishes is in Palabritas by the boulevard area.
• Menu and orders: https://empirico.ola.click/