Alma Cebiche & Bar

My in-​laws had read about this place in the Houston Chronicle Jan. 2013 and wanted to try this place out for lunch. We went to the address indicated in the article today (March 9,2013) and found an empty restaurant. This place was closed. Forever!

This restaurant needs to get their act in gear or they’re not going to be around very long. They were out of ¹⁄₃ of their menu, the service wasn’t very fast despite being nearly empty, restaurant smelled a little funny, there were two tubs of old seafood in what must have once been a sushi bar, Credit card machine not working today. Physical plant quite reasonable for a restaurant, but they need to study Lemon Tree and imitate if they hope to survive. Or any other well-​functioning restaurant. Cebiche dish had about six shrimp. Waiter did his best (Mike) but was unable to cover for the deficiencies elsewhere. Houston is a brutal restaurant environment and Alma needs to up their game to survive.

My husband and I have watched and supported Alma Cebiche +Bar grow from day one. Chef David is very passionate about his work and takes great pride in presenting quality food to his patrons. If you’re going for huge plates of cheap, fried, greasy foods, noisy atmosphere, service that is, in my opinion, below par, then by all means go to Chili’s or some other large chain restaurant. You won’t get the quality and presentation of food there nor would you get the service that Alma has. They recently added entertainment starting on Thursday nights with a local artist who has some of his work featured in the restaurant. Fridays and Saturdays, you can relax to the music of Grupo Viento which is truly outstanding. My husband and I will sit for hours after dinner enjoying some of their good wine while listening to the music. As for some of the recent reviews around Valentines Day, I’m not sure what you were looking for, but my husband and I went and were very pleased with our food and service. Yes they WERE busy and they had a limited menu, BUT it was a Valentines Day special only for that day and reservations were definitely recommended and a must. Opening a restaurant isn’t easy by any means, and Alma has seen its struggles, but with time and if people will just give them a chance, they will survive and do fabulous! I know I have faith in them!

Really cool, visually appealing, unique and tasty food. They have a 2 course business lunch for $ 12, and a 3 course executive lunch for $ 16. Each come with tea or this bright red Peruvian drink called «Chicha Morada» I downed 2 glasses of this delicious drink. No charge for the refill.
1^st course: Solterito salad. Fancy presentation. A big, deconstructed salad on a long plate. Great flavor with the roasted corn and peppy acidic «cancha» maiz aji amarillo vinaigrette.
2^nd course: Pescado Saltado Nikkei. Just a big beautiful bowl of grilled fish, rice, wonderful unique flavors in the sauce. Just a whole bunch of stuff going on that was all working well, looked great, and was filling.
3^rd course: Flan. Not your typical flan. Darker, with a more complex mole-​esque flavor. A bit of a liquor sauce with raisins and then cubes of something like a sweet yam.
Ambiance was cool. Paintings on the wall, sleek furniture. $ 9-​$ 16 price range during lunch. Burgers, salads, wraps, ceviche, seafood rice bowl concoctions…

Went to Alma for the first time on Valentines Day with my wife and daughters to celebrate VD and my wife’s birthday. We love Peruvian food and ceviche and were excited about this place. WHAT A DISASTER. We did not know that there was a limited menu. And the limited menu had only one ceviche on it. That would have been fine, but for what followed.
Everything was a mess. The waiters were unfamiliar with the menu and could not answer any questions about ingredients or preparation. The kitchen was backed up and miserably slow. Food arrived haphazardly, an appetizer here, then another. One appetizer never made it to the table. Two dishes (an Amazonian fish appetizer and rabbit entrée) were overcooked, rendering them dry and tough. The other items were mediocre and a chicken tamale was mushy and gelatinous. A busboy sloshed a plate of fish juice on my wife. Our waiter apologized repeatedly for all the problems.
Because of the inflated Valentines Day menu, the meal was very expensive. Alma’s is a lovely looking restaurant, the food was plated beautifully and the flan was outstanding. If only they put as much effort into execution as appearance. There are many great restaurants in Houston (and a great Peruvian restaurant (Latin Bites) much closer to where I live), and Alma is not earning my return with this kind of performance. We gave them a shot and they blew it up in spectacular style.

Gosh I feel truly awful saying this, but the food here is terrible! I can’t believe it after all the great reviews I read! Husband and I went with the two kids last night… all looked promising as the décor is very nice and the service is excellent. But the food! We order two appetizers, two entrees, and a kids’ meal and most of the food was actually inedibly bad! I can’t believe I’m saying that but it’s true. The only decent item was the steamed halibut which I actually enjoyed. We also ordered a salad with cheese, cebiche (the only cebiche on the menu which is weird for a restaurant with that in the name), the langoustines (which were truly awful) and grilled chicken breast and fries for the kids. The chicken breast was actually pretty tasty — unfortunately it had way too much black pepper on it so was too spicy for two 5-​year-​olds.
Anyway, like I said the service is fantastic and very friendly and the place looks great. I love how they decorated. As one person reviewed it, it is indeed «super cute». But man the food sucks. Go to Latin Bites at San Felipe near Bering if you want tasty Peruvian.

This is really top notch food, and a great vibe and atmosphere. My favorite restaurant in Houston so far.

I read Miguel F’s review with interest as we were seated right next to them… reading the description of their experience, I knew exactly who they were. We saw it all unfold from our two top. It was exactly as he described.
So, what can I say… the food is five-​star. It was delicious! Could not get over how much I liked the marinated scallop ceviche. Mind-​blowing. BUT, everything else was a complete mess. They need to fix the service, the length of time it takes to get food (1 hour to get the wonderful pork belly), the way food is sent out, checks, etc. It was bad bad bad.

We read the review and recommendations about Alma Cebiche + Bar at the Chron this week and we decided to go west give it a try. Our reservation, for 4, at 8:30. We arrived at 8:31. We had to wait 5 minutes at the hostess desk and nobody showed up, although some waiters did realize we were there awaiting to be seated. No hostess showed up but finally one of the waiters arrived. He asked us if we wanted him to move two 2-​seat tables for us to be seated… What? Man, this is your call, not ours!!. At last, we were seated and the guy gave us 4 dirty, soiled and wrinkled menu sheets. Please note that during that waiting period three (3) other customers left. not without complaining out loud about the bad service. So, after waiting more than 10 minutes at the table and NOBODY approaching us to say hello, to offer at least some water or asking anything, we decided to leave as well. NOBODY approached to stop us or apologize for anything. We just wasted around 20 minutes at this half empty restaurant watching the sad show of upset people leaving, us among them. Hey, with that kind of service, you won’t last much in Houston, I do not care how good your food might be. Instead, we crossed the street and went to Le Mistral and enjoyed a wonderful meal and service. What a difference…

Love Peruvian ceviches so drove all the way from Missouri City to check this place out. The 6 ceviches we tried were mediocre, and worse than anything we’ve had over the years in Houston, Panama, and Costa Rica. The anticucho was good. Our waiter Mike was good. Nice and trendy décor, but the ceviches were a big disappointment. Will not return.

Been there the mandatory three visits now. I only go for dinner, which tends to be quiet, so the service is extremely personal. The beef heart appetizer, the scallops, the duck confit (with ridiculously crisp skin), the river fish, and of course ANY ceviche have all been «lick your plate» good. No, it is not inexpensive, but neither is good sushi or any other food this good in Houston. Go. Go now.

Great experience! Came in to try the cebiche; our waiter Mike recommended the sampler that had 4 different cebiche’s from the menu. Added the Inca Salad and it made a wonderful meal for my date and myself. Will return SOON to try the additional items on the menu.
Had an opportunity to speak to the chef. He has a great desire to bring good Peruvian food to Houston.

Weekly girls dining…2weeks into the grand opening. The chef came out to personally greet us and go over the limited menu. Peruvian food was awesome.

This review is based on my lunch experience.
The restaurant is attractive and comfortable with some interesting modern artwork strewn about. Nothing to complain about as far as the environment, everything was very clean and new.
The lunch menu was short and neat (which I prefer) although they misspelled shrimp on one of the items. I ordered the fish cebiche as an appetizer and the lomo saltado as an entrée. The prices were not cheap (15 and 13 dollars per dish respectively) for lunch and I was expecting the portions to be quite large similar to the other nearby Peruvian place Lemon Tree. It was not the case.
The fish cebiche came with a very yummy sauce called leche de tigre with a strong lime and pepper taste. This was necessary because the fish itself (thickly cut raw tilapia) was not seasoned at all and tasteless. The sauce was so delicious that it made up for it however (just make sure coat the fish with sauce as you eat it.)
The lomo saltado came in a disappointingly small sized bowl portion which was about three-​fourths rice. It came with about 6 small pieces of fairly good tasting meat and FOUR french fries. The fries were delicious which is why it was so disheartening to be served only four tiny pieces for a 13 dollar lunch bowl. There simply isn’t any value in paying so much for lunch when the portions are insultingly small.
Its unfortunate because there seems to be a lot of work put into this place and Peruvian restaurants aren’t too common in Houston but I can’t in good conscience recommend this place for lunch at those prices, especially with a competitor in the Lemon Tree a few minutes away with far better portions for the price.

I had a mixed experience at this place. It is definitely not the typical, homey food that you would expect from a Peruvian restaurant. The portions are small and the presentation is a bit pretentious. The food itself was alright. We tried the Chupe Verde, the Fish Cebiche and the Lomo Salado.
My favorite was the ceviche, the «leche de tiger» sauce was very complex, and quite tasty, but the fish itself was bland… together they were great (although eating ceviche with a spoon was weird). The lomo saltado was very small and served in a bowl; this dish is typically very hearty in other Peruvian restaurants. It is something that comforts the soul. This definitely didn’t. The rice almost tasted like Chinese stir fried rice to me. There was barely any meat or potatoes on the dish and $ 13.00 was definitely too expensive. The soup was decent, but not memorable.
This restaurant is a by the book trendy Latin fusion type of place; the décor is upbeat and aesthetic but the food is a bit lacking and way too overpriced and for what it gives.

Fiiiiiiinally a super cute Peruvian restaurant outside of the beltway! This place is great. Really neat plate presentations and portions are just right during lunch.
The ceviche is creamy and the fish is fresh. The Tallarines are super tasty. I love how they have Chicha Morada and Inca cola. The chicha is just right — ask for lime if you want a little more zest. This place is great for big dinner parties and the dishes are well priced. If you want a taste of Peru, come here — you will love it.

Great food. Very fresh fish. Very friendly staff and chef. Comfortable setting. Portions are a bit small, and definitely over priced for portions.
I really hope they are reading this, and will adjust their pricing/​portions.