Leche de Tigre Cebicheria Peruana
Emil Oliva cures the striped bass in an ají limo paste first, then dresses it in the leche de tigre itself: lime, raw fish, red onion, garlic, cilantro stems, celery and ginger, blended and strained. He learned it eating in Lima.
Why go
Three brothers launched this in Southtown in 2023: Emil in the kitchen, Alec on the bar, Axel at the front of house.2 They were born in Laredo to a Peruvian father and a Mexican mother and spent eight years of their childhood in Lima, and Emil is self-taught, working his way from busboy to line cook and reading his way through cookbooks.2 The versions our kitchen makes are like the ones my brothers and I had at cevicherías when we were in Lima,
he told Patricia Sharpe.1 The kitchen runs as many as five distinct cebiches a day, and Sharpe's group ate four in one sitting: flounder, scallops, shrimp and fried calamari, with plantain arriving as a puree, as chunks and as chips.1 Axel Oliva has died. He was 31.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: a cebiche, and start with the Clásico. Sharpe:
precise cubes of just-delivered striped bass get a quick preliminary cure in a paste of mild ají limo (a fruity yellow chile), salt, and a small amount of lime juice.
1 - Order: the pulpo anticuchero. Sharpe called it terrific:
superlatively tender, gracefully coiled tentacles of grilled octopus sat atop bright yellow pools of pureed ají amarillo.
1 - Order: a pisco sour,
topped with a froth of hand-shaken egg whites.
Alec Oliva runs the bar.1 - Order: the pie de maracuyá, which Sharpe describes as
a delicious twin of key lime pie, right down to the sweetened condensed milk filling.
1 - Avoid: filling up on the classics. Sharpe found the lomo saltado
more homey than exciting
and called the arroz chaufadefinitely designed for timid diners.
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What locals & experts say
- Texas Monthly, Patricia Sharpe, 2023:
one of the most engaging restaurants to have opened in the Alamo City in quite a while.
1 - MICHELIN Guide USA, San Antonio selection:
Striped bass with ginger leche de tigre thrives with the clever addition of plantains and huacatay oil.
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Good to know
- Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 4pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday to 11pm, Sunday noon to 5pm, closed Monday.4
- Book if you want the mural. The three tigers belly deep in a white pond face the chef's counter, and the host walked Sharpe straight past them to the patio. Emil, Axel and Alec came up with the image together and Claudio Arguellas painted it.1
- The review has a year on it. Sharpe ate here in 2023, four months after opening, and the house says its menu will keep evolving.15
Verdict
should-visit — Emil Oliva builds the cebiche in two stages and Patricia Sharpe printed both: striped bass cured first in ají limo paste, then dressed in a leche de tigre blended from lime, raw fish, red onion, garlic, cilantro stems, celery and ginger. Emil Oliva learned it eating in Lima and taught himself the rest, and Texas Monthly called the room one of the most engaging to open in San Antonio in a while. It sits below the starred rooms because the same review found the lomo saltado and the fried rice homely, and because the MICHELIN Guide carries it without a distinction.