Ceviche Project

"Ceviche Project is where you go for date night mariscos. This intimate Silver Lake spot has a few tables, but we strongly suggest sitting at the bar where you can watch the chef-owner Octavio prepare ceviches and oyster platters in his slick white suit. The menu is filled with inventive flavor combinations like kanpachi with ponzu and sweet bursts of diced melon, a ”Mayan-style” octopus tostada drizzled with tangy burnt habanero salsa. Eating fish after fish at the bar feels a little like eating a romantic sushi dinner, except here you get to listen to a well-curated Latin playlist thrumming in the background." - sylvio martins, garrett snyder, brant cox

"There aren’t many restaurants where you’re better off going solo - but Ceviche Project is one of them. It’s a little spot on one of the most traffick-y stretches of Hyperion in Silver Lake, but inside it feels a lot more like you’re near the beach in Todos Santos. You can sit at the bar, have a glass of pet-nat from Baja, and not worry about how you’re going to split a kampachi tostada two ways. Watching the chef assemble your food like he’s some sort of tweezer magician is a big part of the fun here - so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. And the scallop and uni shooters." - brett keating

"Ceviche Project is all about the details. The inventive menu at this Silver Lake mariscos spot and raw bar is filled with both traditional touches (toasted corn kernels in the tai snapper ceviche) and nontraditional ones (tangy yuzu-habañero sorbet in the yellowfin ceviche). The room is intimate and there are a few small tables, but we strongly suggest sitting at the long marble counter where you can watch the owner-chef, in a slick white suit, use tweezers to delicately place seven individual pomegranate seeds on a scallop and uni shooter." - brant cox, sylvio martins

"It's easy to feel pampered during a meal at Ceviche Project. This stylish mariscos spot in Silver Lake is intimate, with only a few tables and a white marble bar where you watch owner-chef Octavio top oysters with housemade chile oil in a white suit. Everything you eat here has a surprising twist to it, like a "Mayan-style" octopus tostada with a punch of burnt habanero salsa, or kanpachi sashimi with ponzu and sweet bursts of diced melon. Make sure to order the bar's excellent michelada and imagine yourself at a fancy hotel raw bar, because that's exactly what a meal here feels like." - sylvio martins, brant cox, garrett snyder

"Sometimes we want to sit alone at a bar with a drink in hand and be left alone with our thoughts, like Bill Murray in Lost In Translation if Scarjo never showed up. That sounds kind of dark, but not when you do it at Silver Lake's Ceviche Project. Here you're listening to a thrumming Latin playlist, eating sea bass tostadas, and watching chef Octavio (a legend who wears a white suit) make you a michelada. Of course, the showmanship is a nice touch, but so is the tongue-zapping salty mix that flavors your drink. There's a deep meatiness to it from Maggi seasoning, which makes the Clamato's tartness pop and the crisp Tecate shoot a shiver down your spine. Bill Murray's character could use one." - sylvio martins