Pisco Nikkei opens in Centereach
Seared tuna tataki at Pisco Nikkei in Centereach. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
When Christina and Harry Caldera discovered Peruvian cuisine during many food-driven trips to Queens, it resulted in the opening of Selden’s Picchu in 2022. Three years later, the pair opened their second Peruvian restaurant, Pisco Nikkei, just a stone’s throw away on Middle Country Road in Centereach.
Peruvian food is "so colorful and beautiful," Harry Caldera told Newsday when Picchu opened. This second restaurant is an homage to Nikkei, the Japanese-Peruvian fusion that focuses on sushi, raw fish and other Japanese influences. Pisco is grander, hyper-stylized and loungey. It features an opulent bar anchoring the front of the room and tables farther back, with a sleek, aesthetic palette of blacks and tans, natural woods and fibers. It feels like something you’d find in downtown Manhattan or Miami, rather than Centereach.
The new Pisco Nikkei in Centereach. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
"That’s by design," said Caldera, who in addition to being a restaurant owner also owns a lighting store. "We wanted to bring that kind of a restaurant to middle Long Island," he said. "The more we were getting involved into Peruvian food, we fell for Nikkei — where you mix in the sushi — and we wanted to be the first in Suffolk County."
Peruvian cuisine has been on the rise on Long Island, with menus that center on ceviche (Pisco serves four different versions). Combinations of fish are marinated in citrus and arranged with crunchy Peruvian corn, called cancha, sweet potato and choclo, or maize. The Pisco ceviche, made with sea bass, is served with fried calamari atop ($25), while the tricolor version features tuna, yellowtail and salmon ($35). Like at Picchu, Pisco’s chef hails from Peru, and everything about his leche de tígre, the milky citrus juice that collects at the bottom of the dish, evokes sitting in one of Lima’s ubiquitous cevicherias, slurping.
The heavy emphasis on fish here includes other raw fish and sushi options past ceviche. The Labyrinth, or generous portion of tuna tataki, is served around a microgreen salad dressed with toasted sesame and a citrus soy drizzle ($18). The Papa roll is stuffed with crab, avocado and cucumber, topped with salmon, crunchy potato sticks and creamy papa a la huincaína sauce ($18). The market price sushi sampler changes daily and includes five pieces of nigiri, 10 pieces of sashimi and one roll.
If raw fish isn’t your bag, there are plenty of hot, classic Peruvian entrees, like stir-fried lomo saltado ($29) and chaufa, a Peruvian-style fried rice with meat or seafood. Jalea — fried mixed seafood — is topped with chopped onion, tomato and cilantro. Besides the sauces, which are made in-house, almost the entire menu is dairy-free, with many gluten-free options, as well.
Pisco Nikkei, 1759 Old Country Rd., Centereach, 631-468-8492; Open Sunday to Wednesday from 4 to 10 p.m., Thursday to Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m.
A global freelancer who has checked her suitcase to raise her young daughter on her native Long Island, Marie Elena will always make time for good mezcal, even better tacos and killer conversation. Preferably, in a corner bar seat. She can be found on Instagram at @mariesworldeats.
