Ceviche, Fish and Seafood
1. Marrecife
For Iván Grain, the sea is in the blood. His father was a fisherman; his mother, Elbita, turned her picantería into a love letter to seafood. Marrecife comes from something real: carefully chosen catch, shellfish cleaned in-house, exact cooking and plates built with generosity. Ceviches, seafood rice, corn sango with shrimp and crab—the sea gets to the table here without much fuss, and without needing any.
At ZFood, choosing a fish is also taking a stand. Size, closed seasons, provenance and fishing methods decide what makes it to the counter—and ultimately the plate. That discipline has made ZFood a reference point for seafood in Quito. Ceviches, rice dishes and the day’s catch all begin with one stubbornly simple idea: without healthy oceans, there is no such thing as great seafood.
At Pez Bela, ceviche is an open format, not a fixed recipe. Isabella Chiriboga keeps stretching its vocabulary with chilies, tropical fruit, broths, aromas and textures, proving that one of Ecuador’s most defining dishes still has plenty of room to move. The trick is knowing how far to push it without losing sight of the sea—or the fishing communities and ecosystems that make the whole thing possible.
Few restaurants make Ecuador’s marine diversity as central to the equation as NUUM. The kitchen works constantly with a broad range of fresh fish and seasonal shellfish, refusing to reduce “fish” to the same familiar handful of names. What emerges is an argument Ecuadorian gastronomy is only beginning to fully explore: a biodiverse ocean isn’t just an ecosystem. It’s a pantry in perpetual motion.
Üeya’s obvious Japanese influence finds a natural partner in Ecuador’s extraordinary marine pantry. The omakase format gives Juan Camilo Samán the freedom to cook according to the product and the moment, applying Nikkei technique to fresh ingredients from all four regions of the country. In a category often built around familiar recipes, Üeya makes a different case: in the hands of a great chef, a personal point of view can be a journey all its own.
