CASITA ANDINA, SOHO

Casita Andina is the newest offering from Martin Morales, who already has two Ceviche restaurants in London as well as the original Andina on Redchurch Street. Casita Andina is on Great Windmill Street in Soho and serves up Peruvian inspired sharing plates. I headed there with Lou to check it out and we loved most of what we tried. There's ceviche plates, salads, nibbles and hot food. Being one of the hottest days of the year we bagged a table on the upstairs terrace and got stuck in, starting with excellent pisco sours.

Food wise we ordered a couple of nibbles to munch on while we perused the menu - avocado fritters with panca chilli and anchovy salt were nuggets of deep fried avocado in the lightest of batters, doused in chilli and salt. Absolutely delicious. As were the cruditos - lightly pickled vegetables including baby carrots, asparagus and courgettes, on top of a wonderful broad bean puree. Such a tasty and healthy dish, I would order this just to have with drinks even if I wasn't eating there. 

After our nibbles it was ceviche time. As I said, it was boiling hot when we went so we craved all the zingy, fresh dishes. The first ceviche to come out was probably my favourite - Ceviche Casita is sustainable seabass with amarillo tiger's milk, avocado puree, red onion and cancha corn. The leche de tigre was sublime - tangy, sharp, moreish - we ordered bread to mop up what was left on the plate once we'd eaten all the toppings!

To mix up our fish choices we had the Tomato Ceviche, which was chilli infused heritage tomatoes, cucumber tiger's milk, pickled red onions and cancha-olive dust. The dish was light and tomato-ey but didn't really do it for me. There wasn't any real taste of the chilli infusion in the tomatoes, and though it wasn't bad, I think a little over priced at £8 compared to our fish ceviche dishes which ranged from £7-9.

Our least favourite plate of the night was the one that came recommended - Cobia Tiradito - black king fish with pineapple tiger's milk. I liked the taste and texture of the fish itself but found the tiger's milk far too sweet for my palate, especially when tried in the middle of two great fish ceviches. 

Our final raw dish was another winner though - Trout Tiradito - British trout, trout caviar, amarillo chilli tiger's milk, violet potatoes and amaranth. Again, I couldn't taste much chilli, but what I did taste was truly delicious - sharp, rich tiger's milk, melt in the mouth trout and little bursting pearls of caviar. A stunning plate of food. 

I think if I go back to Casita Andina then I'll stop there next time as I much preferred the raw and salad dishes to the hot ones we finished up with. Chupe Seco - king prawns with chupe cream, potato, amarillo chilli and quail egg - had about four too many things on the plate for me. Give me those prawns and that sauce and I would've been very happy indeed, but I found the potato, corn, cream and egg added nothing at all for me. The prawns and sauce though were spot on. 

When we read Aji de Gallina - chicken, amariollo chilli, Peruvian olive and quail egg - on the menu I didn't envisage what we actually got served. The chicken had been shredded and was swimming in a rich, creamy sauce. In fact, mixed with a little of the olive puree to cut through the richness it wasn't too bad, but just nothing like how I thought it would be!

Casita Andina has a great vibe, is well located and serves some stunning food. It's not overly expensive - our bill for the two of us, all that food, a cocktail each and a bottle of wine was £120. It's just knowing about what to order when you go there!