Cuzco 41, a Peruvian eatery, opens in Lynbrook
Ceviche mixto with shrimp, calamari, swai, sweet potatoes, giant corn and more at Cuzco 41 in Lynbrook. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
When was the last time you made a meal out of ceviche? The answer is never — never as in there’s never enough room in that goblet, martini or margarita glass (attractive though it may be) to deliver on the excitement that great ceviche promises, with its bracingly fresh morsels of fish, lime, chiles and cilantro.
Coming to the rescue, just when you’ve given up all hope, is the tiniest Peruvian eatery with the biggest bowl of ceviche you’ve ever seen. That’s right, they serve it in a bowl at Cuzco 41 — a 16-seat postage stamp that opened in Lynbrook in November — and it’s delightful. Why, just look at that picture up there and tell me that cevichedom has ever produced such a mixto specimen. Yes, it costs $25, but swimming in its superb broth is a bountiful collection of well-selected seafood, from shrimp to octopus to calamari, all of which deserve better than the accompanying pieces of swai (the fish of the day when I visited).
But Cuzco’s bowl does not disappoint otherwise, thanks to giant Peruvian corn — its kernels fat and pearly, tranches of sweet potatoes, a scoop of crunchy cancha (more corn but toasted), a ring toss of red onions and probably three or four other things I’m forgetting. Ceviche is at its best when offering a full panoply of flavors and textures, a fact of which Cuzco 41 is acutely aware, and as such it’s serving something truly worth feasting on. Indeed, theirs may be the only bowl of ceviche you don’t finish. But try.
Try their Peruvian chicken too, juicy and textbook ($12 for a leg-quarter with one side), accompanied in my case by tough if tasty planks of fried yuca. Buried within a pile of onion and tomato wedges was a good amount of strips of skirt steak in the lomo saltado, its well-marinated meat ladled over a carb fest of fries and white rice ($24). An avocado dip, bright and limey, paired nicely with the quartet of tostones encircling it ($14), although a few more of the latter would be appreciated.
Still, the ceviche is worth the trip alone, whether you opt for the mixto, vegetarian classico ($22) or leche de tigre, another seafood version but one offered peppery support from aji amarillo. That one is just $20, but then it comes in a martini glass, and what self-respecting ceviche lover will settle for that?
Cuzco 41 is at 379 Sunrise Hwy. in Lynbrook, 516-218-2322. Opening hours are 10:45 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; Friday and Saturday from 10:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Monday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
