Ceviche Bar Near Me at HarbourFront: Chimichanga VivoCity's Swordfish Raw Bar

Chimichanga's VivoCity branch prints a raw bar on its Sunset Menu, and the Pescado Espada and Aguacate Ceviche costs S$24.90 before the 10% service charge and GST. The restaurant is at 1 HarbourFront Walk, VivoCity #01-157/158, Singapore 098585, on the ground floor of the mall that faces Sentosa. If you are hunting for a ceviche bar near me before or after a day on the island, it is the closest sit-down raw bar to the Sentosa Boardwalk.

Seth Lui's guide to Mexican restaurants in Singapore dates Chimichanga's debut to 2016 in Little India, and the group now lists outlets at Raffles City, VivoCity, Holland Village and Paya Lebar on its website. The same guide notes that the VivoCity branch has a Pacific Coast-inspired menu with a heavy lean towards seafood, which is why a raw bar section heads its Sunset Menu.

The Sunset Menu is printed with the VivoCity address and phone number at the top, so you know you are reading the right one. Its raw section lists three items: half a dozen fresh oysters, the swordfish ceviche, and a hanging tender beef and smoked duck tartare. The rest of the card covers Tex-Mex staples, tacos served in pairs, and grilled dishes that the menu groups under the heading Grill and Chill.

The swordfish ceviche uses sashimi-grade swordfish with avocado and comes with blue corn tortilla chips for scooping, which makes it closer to a ceviche tostada than a soupy Peruvian bowl. Half a dozen oysters on the half shell cost S$28.90 and arrive with a house-made habanero mignonette. The beef and smoked duck tartare, also S$24.90, is described as mildly spicy and is the pick for anyone at the table who does not eat raw fish.

Two people can split the ceviche and the oysters as a starter for S$53.80 before charges. Follow it with the Borracho Fish tacos at S$21.90, a pair of beer-battered white fish tacos made with the group's own Hoppy Donkey IPA, mango salsa, pickled shallots and jalapeno mayo. If you want to stay with seafood on the grill, the Pulpo Asado al Carbon, grilled octopus leg with butternut squash puree, is S$32.90.

The Lamb Shank Barbacoa is the most substantial dish at S$38.90: a lamb shank smoked for 12 hours and served over rice with a mildly spicy mole naranja. The Arroz con Callo de Hacha, S$32.90, is a grilled Hokkaido scallop on creamy tomato risotto. Our honest view is that the loaded nachos, from S$19.90, are a filler you can skip if you came for the raw bar; the Double Dip Chips at S$11.90 with guacamole and smoked salsa roja do the same job for less.

Sides decide whether this becomes a full meal. Amarillo Rice, the house yellow rice, is S$7.90, and the Elote Corn Ribs with house aioli and cheese are S$15.90. For a second seafood taco, the Seared Camarones pair, with tiger prawns, mango salsa, avocado and a bloody maria cocktail sauce that contains alcohol, is S$23.90. Finish with Golden Churros, four pieces for S$13.90 with sea salt dark chocolate and dulce de leche dips.

This is a mall restaurant on the main route between HarbourFront MRT and Sentosa, so it works differently from a destination seafood bar. The website lists no dress code, the hours run straight through on weekends, and the raw bar items need no cooking, which makes a ceviche and a round of oysters a realistic one-hour stop before the boardwalk. For a calmer table, a weekday lunch between 11:30am and 2pm is the better slot than a Saturday evening.

The drinks list prints three prices for many cocktails: a member price, a happy hour price and a regular price. The Pisco Sour, made with pisco, Aperol, lemon, egg white and burnt Chartreuse, is S$20 at the regular price. The group's Neon Donkey beers come in 14oz US pints, including the Lil' Juan Baja Sur pale ale, at S$13 during happy hour and S$16 otherwise, which suits the fried fish tacos better than a cocktail.

Happy hour pricing runs daily until 7pm for everyone, excluding the eves of public holidays and public holidays themselves. Members of the restaurant's Klique programme get member prices all day, and signing up is done through the Membership page on the Chimichanga website. If you plan to come back after Sentosa more than once, joining is worth it on the drinks alone.

From Monday to Thursday the VivoCity outlet is open 11:30am to 11pm, with lunch food served 11:30am to 2pm and dinner food 5pm to 9:30pm; last drinks are at 10:30pm. Friday follows the same pattern but takes dinner orders until 10pm. Saturday and public holidays run noon to 11pm with last food at 10pm, and Sunday is noon to 11pm with last food orders at 9:30pm.

Note the gap between 2pm and 5pm on weekdays when the kitchen is not serving food orders, which catches out families coming off Sentosa in mid-afternoon. On weekends there is no gap. Reservations are made through the VivoCity booking page on the Chimichanga website. If the raw bar is too busy, Lucha Loco at 15 Duxton Hill serves an S$18 seabass ceviche, a one-stop ride to Outram Park on the North-East Line and a short walk.

HarbourFront MRT, on the North-East and Circle lines, sits directly under VivoCity. From the restaurant, the Sentosa Boardwalk starts at level 1 of the mall and crosses to Beach Station in about 15 minutes on foot. Above you, the Singapore Cable Car runs from HarbourFront Tower 2 up to Mount Faber Park, where the Henderson Waves bridge begins the Southern Ridges walk.

Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, VivoCity #01-157/158, Singapore 098585. Hours: weekdays 11:30am to 11pm with no food orders between 2pm and 5pm; weekends noon to 11pm. Prices carry a 10% service charge and government tax. Order the swordfish ceviche at S$24.90, oysters at S$28.90 and a pair of Borracho Fish tacos.