Ceviche Bar Near Me in Islington: El Inca Plebeyo's Ecuadorian Ceviches

El Inca Plebeyo's house ceviche at 162 Essex Road, London N1 8LY, is cured in tiger's milk made with tamarillo, the tart Andean tree tomato, and costs £16.80. The family-run restaurant opened on 23 July 2015 and is London's best-known Ecuadorian dining room, with eight ceviches on a menu that otherwise runs to encebollado, hornado and plantain. For a ceviche bar near me search in Islington that goes beyond Peru, this is the place to taste how Ecuador's coast does it differently.

Chef Jorge Pacheco Herrera grew up on his family's farm in Loja, in southern Ecuador, and by his own account was never allowed in the kitchen while his mother cooked. He only discovered cooking after moving to Europe in 2000, then worked his way through London kitchens including Michelin-starred restaurants before opening his own place.

The name means the humble Inca, a reference to the idea that skilled hands can make remarkable food accessible to everyone. In 2018 Pacheco was shortlisted for a Gastronomes Award, and the restaurant says it was the only Ecuadorian restaurant ever listed in The Good Food Guide, in its 2020 edition. Guest reviews posted on the restaurant's own site single out the authentic Ecuadorian design of the room.

Peruvian ceviche is raw fish flashed in lime and ají. Ecuadorian ceviche, from the coast around Manabí and Guayaquil, is often saucier, sometimes made with cooked prawns and finished with tomato. El Inca Plebeyo's menu shows both traditions side by side, which makes it a useful comparison for anyone who has eaten at a Peruvian cevicheria first.

The Ceviche Ecuatoriano at £16.80 uses sea bass cubes in tamarillo tiger's milk with red onions and tomato, fruity and less sharp than lime alone. The Ceviche Clásico, also £16.80, is the Peruvian-style counterpart with ají limo tiger's milk and sweet potato. The prawn ceviche at £16.50 uses cooked prawns in the same tamarillo base, the way it is served at beach stalls in Ecuador.

The most unusual is the Ceviche Jipijapa at £16.50, which shares its name with a town in Manabí province: cured sea bass and avocado in a peanut tiger's milk, served with crisps. Order it alongside the Ecuatoriano to understand the range, because peanut and tamarillo are the two flavours you will not find on most London ceviche menus.

Four more dishes complete the cold starters. Tuna ceviche at £16 is sliced rather than cubed, in yellow chilli tiger's milk. Scallop ceviche at £14.80 uses hand-dived scallops with tamarillo. The Ceviche Macareño at £16.50 swaps fish for wagyu beef fillet with sliced radishes, citrus and truffle oil, and the vegan mushroom ceviche at £14 is built on grilled king oyster mushroom with chilli.

To nibble first, smoked haddock and cassava croquettes cost £9.80, and guacamole with chifles, crisp green plantain chips, costs £9.50. Purple corn and cheese empanadas are £9.80. These come out quickly and keep the table busy while ceviches are dressed to order.

Encebollado at £24.50 is Ecuador's national comfort soup, yellowfin tuna with cassava and pickled onions, the dish Ecuadorians eat after a long night out. Encocado at £24 is sea bass steamed in coconut cream with mixed peppers, from the northern coast around Esmeraldas, and sopa marinera at £24 is a seafood soup with scallops, mussels, prawns and cuttlefish.

The signature roast is the hornado at £28: slow-cooked pork shoulder with giant white corn, ripe plantain, potato patties and curtido, a sharp onion and tomato relish. Llapingachos, potato patties with corn and grilled octopus, are £16.50 as a hot starter. Skip the £44 wagyu sirloin with arroz moro unless you are very hungry, as the Ecuadorian stews are what the kitchen does best.

For two, a sharing set menu costs £60 per person and includes prawn ceviche, ceviche Jipijapa, patacones, tamal, encocado, hornado and panca mushrooms. The £75 version adds guacamole, ceviche clásico, llapingacho with octopus and dessert, either a quinoa pudding with caramelised sugar or a chocolate fondant. Groups of six or more can request custom menus.

The cocktail list tells Ecuadorian stories, from Le Voyageur at £13, named for the chef's journey to Europe, to a Canelazo at £12.50, the warm cinnamon drink from the Andes, recommended for cold weather. A pisco sour costs £13.50, and Ecuadorian Pilsener and Club Premium beers are £6.50 each. Prices include VAT, and a discretionary 12.5% service charge is added.

Weeknight service starts at 6pm and runs to 10pm on Monday and Tuesday and 11pm on Wednesday and Thursday. Lunch is only served from Friday to Sunday, from 12pm. Book through the website or by phone, especially for Friday and Saturday nights, and mention any allergies to your server before ordering, as an allergen matrix is available.

If El Inca is full, Tierra Peru, a Peruvian restaurant with its own ceviche bar menu, is two doors along at 164 Essex Road. Eating at both on separate nights is the simplest way to compare Ecuadorian and Peruvian ceviche without leaving the street.

From the restaurant, walk east into Canonbury, where Georgian terraces surround Canonbury Square and the New River Walk follows the course of a 17th-century channel built to carry fresh water into London. The path is lined with willows and ponds and makes a quiet route north toward Highbury.

Heading the other way along Essex Road brings you to Islington Green and Upper Street, with the Almeida Theatre and the antique shops of Camden Passage. Essex Road station is the closest rail stop, and buses along Essex Road run toward Angel and the City.

Address: El Inca Plebeyo, 162 Essex Road, London N1 8LY. Phone: 020 7704 9393 or 07403 207739. Hours: Monday and Tuesday 6pm to 10pm, Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 12pm to 11pm, Sunday 12pm to 10pm. General enquiries go to incaplebeyo162@gmail.com.

Ceviches run from £14 for the mushroom version to £16.80 for the Ecuatoriano and Clásico. Set menus for two are £60 or £75 per person. The kitchen uses vegetable oil from genetically modified soya, which it notes on the menu, and dishes with gluten or nuts are marked.