Ceviche Bar Near Me in Minami-Azabu: Akowa's Certified Peruvian Kitchen

Akowa's ceviche de pescado costs ¥3,000 and uses the catch of the day with key lime, ají limo, Peruvian corn and sweet potato. The restaurant opened in 2024 in unit 102 of the Corpo Minamoto building at 2-13-13 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047, six minutes on foot from Shirokane-Takanawa Station on the Namboku Line. For a ceviche bar near me search around Azabu-Juban or Shirokane, this is the newest serious Peruvian kitchen in the area, and it closes on Mondays.

The owner-chef, Walter Labajos, is Peruvian. According to Akowa's own site, he studied at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola and at the Institut Paul Bocuse campus in Lima, then spent six years from 2016 as private chef at the residence of Peru's ambassador to Japan. He also took a short course at the Tokyo Sushi Academy in 2017, a useful detail for a chef whose signature dish is raw fish. The name Akowa comes from an Aymara word for mutual help.

In May 2025 the Peruvian newspaper Diario Correo reported that Akowa had become the first restaurant in Japan to earn the Auténtica Cocina Peruana certification. The certificate is issued by Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola with the approval of PromPerú and the Marca Perú brand. The restaurant's site and Instagram bio also note a listing in the 2026 edition of the Pia guide to Tokyo's best restaurants, released in December.

The à la carte menu on the official site puts the ¥3,000 ceviche de pescado at the top. Causa limeña, chilled mashed potato layered with filling, costs ¥1,600, and pulpo al olivo costs ¥1,950. These are higher than at the casual Peruvian bars around Shinjuku and Shibuya, and the plating is closer to a fine-dining room. The ceviche is still the plate that best shows the chef's training, so order it even if you are planning a course for the rest of the table.

For the hot side of the menu, anticucho de corazón, grilled beef-heart skewers, costs ¥1,880, and pulpo anticuchero, octopus with the same anticucho marinade, costs ¥2,880. Lomo saltado, the Chinese-Peruvian beef stir-fry, is ¥3,200. An honest judgement: with two octopus dishes on the card, pick one. The pulpo anticuchero is the more distinctive of the two, and pairing it with the pulpo al olivo puts a lot of octopus on one table.

The Traditional Course costs ¥7,000 including tax and opens with a classic ceviche of madai, Japanese sea bream. TableCheck also lists a Chef's Recommendation set at ¥5,280, built around ceviche, pulpo al olivo, causa and lomo saltado, which is a tidy way for two people to cover the menu's best-known dishes. Dinner carries a ¥500 per person charge on top of food and drink, which applies to à la carte and courses alike.

Doing the maths helps decide. Two people ordering à la carte, with one ceviche de pescado, a causa limeña, the pulpo anticuchero and a lomo saltado, spend ¥10,680 on food plus the ¥1,000 dinner charge before drinks. Two Traditional Courses cost ¥14,000 plus the same charge. The course makes sense when both of you want the madai ceviche and a full progression; the à la carte route is better for a shared, lighter dinner with more pisco.

Lunch runs from 12:00 to 15:00 with last orders at 14:30. The basic lunch on TableCheck costs ¥1,600 for salad, soup and a main, plus ¥400 for dessert and coffee, and that booking comes with a 60-minute table limit. The Mini Traditional Lunch Course, which includes a ceviche, costs ¥3,500. If ceviche is the reason you are here, the mini course is the better lunch, since the ¥1,600 set does not include raw fish. Lunch seat-only bookings carry a ¥3,000 per person late-cancellation fee, so a work lunch that may move should be booked as late as possible.

The drinks list includes a Pisco Sour, a Chicha Sour made with purple corn, a Maracuyá Sour with passion fruit and a Chilcano with ginger ale. The site does not print prices for these, so expect to see them on the paper menu at the table. The house asks every guest to order at least one drink, and the Chicha Sour is the most unusual choice for anyone who has already tried a classic pisco sour elsewhere in Tokyo.

Reserve through TableCheck, which was taking bookings this month, or by email at reservation@akowa.jp. Groups of seven or more have to phone 03-6722-0613. Tables may be released 30 minutes after the booked time. TableCheck lists cancellation fees: courses are charged in full within 24 hours and at 50% within 48 hours, and seat-only bookings cost ¥3,000 per person at lunch or ¥5,000 at dinner if cancelled within 24 hours.

The room is non-smoking, and cards, QR payments and IC transit cards are accepted. There is no parking, so take the subway or a taxi. Dinner runs from 17:30 to 22:00 with last orders at 21:30, and Google Maps lists Sunday hours as well, from 12:00 to 15:00 and 17:30 to 21:30, which makes Akowa one of the few options here for a Sunday dinner. The restaurant's Instagram account was still posting new dishes in mid-October 2026.

Azabu-Juban Station is about 870 metres away, so you can arrive through the Azabu-Juban shopping street. Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park, a hilly garden with a pond, is also in Minami-Azabu and makes a quiet walk before a lunch booking. If Akowa is full or it is a Monday, Miraflores near Shibuya Station opens daily, and Bépocah in Jingumae serves Nikkei ceviches six nights a week.

Address: Corpo Minamoto 102, 2-13-13 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047. Phone: 03-6722-0613. Hours: lunch 12:00 to 15:00, dinner 17:30 to 22:00, closed Monday. Prices: ceviche de pescado ¥3,000, Traditional Course ¥7,000, lunch from ¥1,600, plus a ¥500 dinner charge per person. Booking: TableCheck or email. Payment: cards, QR and IC cards.