Our previous trip to Miami and Key West was completely a gourmet journey lol. From planning the trip, we’d been having a food-centered mindset, planned out all our meals, and made the reservations first before thinking about other schedules. And the first meal we had in Miami, CVI.CHE 105, was an amazing one to start our trip in the best way!
CVI.CHE 105 is a Peruvian restaurant (their website directly notes themselves as “Miami’s Best Peruvian Restaurant”, and claims they’ve been awarded for 12 consecutive years). It has 3 branches in Miami, the one we booked was the one in South Beach. We arrived when they just opened for the day so there weren’t many people, but it became occupied when we finished. If you’re planning to dine there, you can make a reservation online first just in case. The environment there was quite bright with plenty of room and clean restrooms.
After leading us to our table, the waiter served a small bowl of cancha (/ˈkant͡ʃa/) right away. Cancha is a popular snack in South America, like the Peruvian version of popcorn, crispy, smells amazing, and not as hard as I thought. I couldn’t help but keep eating them one after another :-p
The waiter introduced the special dishes of the day way too well. The two dishes we ended up ordering were both not on the regular menu lol.
The first dish was a cold dish, which is their signature dish – ceviche (/səˈviːtʃeɪ/, same as the pronunciation of the restaurant’s name!). Ceviche is a dish that uses sour lemon (or other types of citrus) juice to cure fresh raw seafood. CVI.CHE 105 offers an option to taste 4 different flavors of ceviche on their menu. We were planning to go with that option, but couldn’t resist the “today’s special” the waiter introduced us to so ended up choosing this one. 😋
And… this is amazingly good! Especially in a grilling Miami noon, it’s perfect to have this sour, chilling dish! It is sour enough but in a gentle way, not too strong to overtake the overall taste nor to make your taste buds feel uncomfortable. A strong but balanced taste. And there are multiple different kinds of seafood such as fish, lobster, oyster, mussels, and shrimps included, not only with a huge portion but tastes fresh and sweet. It also has some crunchy baked cancha and chewy boiled cancha that add extra layers to the dish. Delicious! (I’m now hungry again writing this post 😂 )
We waited for a while for our second dish, but it was totally worth it!!! (Yes… We accidentally had two lobsters straight in our first meal in Miami… Have to be honest that I was a bit shocked when I saw it. I’m now saving up after our trip 😂 ) This is a dish of risotto completely covered by seafood – lobster, fish (very tender!), scallops, fried calamari, mussels, big clams, and shrimps – feeling like being hosted by a generous friend again. Seafood is great, but, the risotto underneath it was HEAVENLY!!! (I didn’t realize how good it was when taking this picture… Should’ve given it a close-up shot!) I was so surprised when I scooped some into my mouth. It has a very thick and special sweetness spreading out in a gentle but persisting way. Rice is fully submerged in flavors but not too soft or soggy, making it strongly tasty yet not tiring to the taste buds. I almost teared up after my second bite. So glad to be alive! 😭😋
The portion this restaurant provides per dish is very sufficient. We were a party of two and were very full (both mentally and physically!) with our two-dishes order. If you have a small appetite then two dishes could probably feed three people. The price of these two dishes is on the higher side, but considering the ingredients, proportion, and tastiness, I’ll say it’s definitely worth it! This is a restaurant that I’ll certainly want to revisit if I get the chance. Highly recommend it!
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The Restaurants and Things to Do In Miami & Key West post has more Miami and Key West related traveling information and notes. Check it out if you’re interested!