Ceviche Bar Near Me in Fitzrovia: Lima on Rathbone Place

Between 3pm and 5pm, Lima Fitzrovia pours pisco sours, house wine and beer for £5 at 31 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JH, a two-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road station. The restaurant has been here since 2012, and in 2014 it became the first Peruvian restaurant in Europe to earn a Michelin star, which it kept until 2018. For anyone searching ceviche bar near me around Oxford Street, its Classic Ceviche of stone bass, tiger's milk and sweet potato is £19 on the a la carte menu.

Lima opened when Peruvian food in London still meant a handful of family cafés. The founders, the Gonzalez brothers, set it up on a side street off Oxford Street, and the Michelin star two years later turned it into the reference point every later cevicheria in the city was measured against. The restaurant's own line is that word on the street says it still serves the best ceviche in London.

The kitchen today belongs to head chef Diego Recarte, whose menu pairs Peruvian technique with British produce and borrows from Nikkei and Chifa cooking. Fish is caught locally every day, shellfish comes from Cornwall, Carlingford or the Isle of Skye, and vegetables are mostly sourced from nearby farms. Recarte works in the open kitchen, so a seat facing the pass shows the ceviches being dressed to order.

Start with the bread, which costs £3: sourdough with algarrobina butter, made from the syrup of the Peruvian carob tree. The restaurant's own homepage tells guests not to skip the bread, and at £3 it is the easiest advice in London to follow. Carlingford oysters with ginger and double-fermented soy are £5 each, and a single bite of A5 wagyu tiradito with crispy potato and ají panca is £11.

The Classic Ceviche at £19 is the dish to judge Lima by: firm stone bass cured briefly in tiger's milk, with sweet potato to soften the acidity. On the same list, bluefin tuna arrives on a causa of potato with avocado and cucumber for £21, and white crab with fresh corn tamal and British sweet corn is also £21. Hamachi sashimi, cold-smoked with pistachio and brown butter, is the priciest small plate at £24.

Mains are built for appetite: Cornish octopus with chipotle and confit potatoes and fried squid with coco beans are both £28, while the wood-fired beef anticucho with shiitake and ratte potatoes and the Ibérico pork with green fig chimichurri are £34 each. Desserts are a vanilla flan or a chocolate mousse with candied sesame, both £9.

The cheapest way in is the Cantina menu, served from 12pm to 3pm: £19 for a main or £27 for a starter and main. The starter list includes a market fish ceviche in tiger's milk and the beef tataki with huancaína and padrón peppers, while mains include pollo a la brasa with ají amarillo cream and the catch of the day. Rocoto bread is £3 and sides are £6.

Lima built the Cantina menu for workers on a lunch hour and theatregoers heading to the West End, and it includes dishes that never appear on the dinner card. The aperitivo window that follows, 3pm to 5pm, offers bites and small plates alongside £5 drinks, which makes a late-afternoon ceviche and pisco sour the best-value visit in the week.

In the evening, a set tasting menu costs £80 per person for a minimum of two. It opens with a pisco sour, two pieces of rocoto bread and two Carlingford oysters with sorrel and apple, then runs through the stone bass ceviche, ox carpaccio, bluefin tuna causa, Cornish octopus and Ibérico pork before potatoes and dessert. A £40 wine pairing adds three glasses.

The wine list leans on small natural producers and was selected by Virginia Castillo Fernández. The pairing currently pours an Ube 2024 from Ramiro Ibáñez in Spain, a Bourgogne from La Cadette and a Moscato d'Asti from Ca' d'Gal. Pisco sours and sake are also listed for anyone who prefers to stay with Peru.

Tables can be booked online, and walk-ins are possible, but the restaurant recommends reserving at peak times. For six or more, Lima asks groups to contact it directly rather than book online. Weekend dinners are the slots to secure first, while the Cantina menu is designed around quick weekday lunches and pre-show meals.

During Frieze week, from 12 to 24 October 2026, the dining room doubles as a gallery for French painter Joseph Jeantet. Anyone who books and quotes 'Frieze' gets a glass of bubbles and a Carlingford oyster on the house, an easy reason to time an October visit. Gluten-free diners are well served, since corn, potatoes, quinoa and yucca anchor much of the menu.

If Fitzrovia is full on a Saturday night, the sister restaurant Lima Shoreditch at 5-15 Sun Street, near Liverpool Street, also serves lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday. Note that neither opens on Sunday, so a Sunday ceviche craving needs a different plan.

Rathbone Place runs north from Oxford Street into Fitzrovia, the grid of Georgian streets that once housed artists and writers. Walk two blocks west to Charlotte Street, the neighbourhood's restaurant row, then continue north to Fitzroy Square, a stone-paved Georgian square designed by Robert Adam, where blue plaques mark former residents including George Bernard Shaw.

The BT Tower rises above the rooftops a few minutes north and makes a good landmark for the walk back. Crossing Oxford Street south leads straight into Soho Square, where office workers eat lunch on the lawn, and from there Greek Street and Frith Street head into central Soho for a nightcap.

Address: Lima Fitzrovia, 31 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JH. Hours: Monday to Saturday 12pm to 11pm, closed Sunday. Nearest stations: Tottenham Court Road on the Elizabeth, Central and Northern lines, and Goodge Street on the Northern line, each a short walk.

Cantina lunch runs 12pm to 3pm and aperitivo drinks are £5 from 3pm to 5pm. Groups of six or more book by contacting the restaurant. Enquiries go to enquiry@limalondon.com, and the dining room supports the Sol y Luna Foundation, a children's charity linked to the group.