Redwood City has a new Peruvian and Latin American restaurant. The seventh Bay Area location of Limón debuted in the Peninsula city last month, serving up dishes such as ceviche and lomo saltado amid elegant touches of dark wood and gold and abundant greenery.
Executive chef Martin Castillo and his two brothers, Antonio and Eduardo, opened their first restaurant in San Francisco in 2002, with their mother, Luz, providing lots of help as well as family recipes.
While there were a few mom-and-pop Peruvian restaurants in the region at the time, Martin Castillo says, “We wanted to do something different. We wanted to execute the dishes a little bit better based on our experience in the restaurant industry.”
Soon, their restaurant was a hit within the Bay’s Peruvian community, as well as with restaurant critics.
The family-run restaurants have had their share of challenges over the years. Sourcing Peruvian ingredients was a major challenge at first, followed by limited awareness among customers about Peruvian food. Back in 2002, customers didn’t always understand that Peruvian and Mexican food were two entirely different cuisines, with Peruvian food shaped not only by its native fare but by Japanese, Chinese, European and African influences.
“It took a while to educate people and teach them about our culture,” Castillo says.
The pandemic took a dramatic toll on people’s dining habits. The team made the difficult decision to close locations in Hawaii and at San Francisco International Airport. Still, they were able to save their other locations in Walnut Creek, Burlingame, Oakland and San Francisco. Last year, they expanded to Mountain View.
Castillo’s favorite dishes on Limon’s menu include the restaurant’s ceviches, steaks and stir fry dishes. Castillo says he’s also proud of the innovative techniques and fusion flavors he uses, like cooking with Argentinean chimichurri and using a reduction of chicha morada, a Peruvian purple corn drink.
“Limón has contributed a lot to people recognizing Peruvian food nowadays,” he says.
Details: The new Redwood City restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily at 885 Middlefield Road; limonrestaurants.com.
