Whenever we spend a few extra days in Miami before a cruise, we try to explore new and different places to eat. Miami is one of the great food cities in the world with heavy influences from Latin America. On a recent stay in Doral, FL, we learned of a new Peruvian ceviche gastrobar that sounded very interesting: Pisco y Nazca located in downtown Doral.

"Interesting" would be an understatement to describe Pisco y Nazca. The first thing you notice upon arrival is that it is a really cool, hip restaurant and bar. On our visit, the bar was humming and it was early enough that the restaurant was not crowded yet. As soon as we were seated, we were greeted by our smiling waitress, Sandra.

We arrived at the end of Happy Hour, so we ordered two pisco sours, which were delicious. We had Pisco Sours a few years back in Santiago, Chile. It is sort of like a Peruvian Margarita. A pisco sour is a cocktail typical of the cuisines from Peru and Chile. The drink's name comes from pisco, which is its base liquor, and term sourrefers to sour citrus juice and sweet components. The Peruvian pisco sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base liquor and adds Key lime (or lemon) juice, syrup, ice, egg white, and Angostura bitters. Sweet, tart and delicious.

Our waitress recommended that we start with the Ceviche Sampler. The sampler consists of three ceviches, each large enough for two people to share. The first is a sweet Passion FruitCeviche with mahi, shrimp, leche de Tigre (milk of the Tiger?) and a few other ingredients that I cannot pronounce nor describe. The chunks of fish and shrimp were floating in a sweet, but slightly tangy citrus sauce that was delicious.

The second ceviche was Tradicionalewith mahi, sweet potato, leche de Tigre (again) and cancha. This ceviche was very tart with a heavy citrus flavor, but still delicious. Lastly, the Cremosowas similar to Traditionale, but with the addition of habañero pepper. This was the spiciest of the three, but not quite as tart as the Traditionale. I think our favorite was the Passion Fruit, followed by the Cremosoas a close second. This was Rickee's first time trying Ceviche and she is now a fan!

After our Ceviche Sampler, we ordered one of the Anticuchos(Peruvian Skewers). The first to arrive was the Pollo, four skewers with delicious, tender marinated chicken thigh meat in a tasty, rich aji pancasauce. The skewers were accompanied by some roasted potatoes.

Our next Anticucho to arrive was the Camarones (shrimp), four skewers of shrimp (2 per skewer) served atop delicious whipped potatoes and, of all things, hominy. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the sauce was amazing.

These small plates (tapas) really fit the way we like to eat. We love to try a little of several items when visiting a restaurant. We could have easily devoured many more Anticuchoson this visit. But, we knew that there was a serious dessert waiting, so we held off. Soon, it arrived: a dark chocolate dome about eight inches in diameter. But, the secret is in the little jar of warm ganache.

When Sandra began to slowly pour the warm ganache over the dome, the chocolate began to melt away, revealing a mound of sweet potato puree topped with vanilla ice cream and now surrounded by warm ganache and melted chocolate. Actually, it looks a mess, but the taste.... Oh, the taste. There is nothing like it on earth. They even sprinkled in some caramel popcorn for some crunch. It was unquestionably the best dessert we have ever had. We would go back to Pisco y Nazca just for the Chocolate Dome.

See the Pisco y Nazca Dinner Menu here

We were so impressed with our first visit to Pisco y Nazca that we put it at the top of our recommended places to dine when in Miami. Doral is actually a very logical location for a pre-/post-cruise stay (see our review of Trump National Doral) and a visit to Pisco y Nazca is a must when staying in Doral.

For more information, visit their website

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Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar in Miami

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