It's always great to discover a new restaurant in our city which combines a welcoming ambiance with interesting, delicious food.
This is "AJI" a Peruvian restaurant which opened about a year ago in Long Beach.
My cousin Nancy and I had a wonderful afternoon adventure starting with a fun movie "The 2nd Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".
This was followed by dinner at AJI which is located at 2308 E. 4th Street in Long Beach.
We arrived at 5:30, in time for happy hour and half price tapa plates.
This is a very nice architectural space with wonderful food and a great selection of wine and beers. Our servers, Randy and Amanda were very helpful in explaining the menu choices.
They made us feel at home immediately. Three cheers for Happy hour at AJI!
Food here is so different and interesting and authentically peruvian. The owner/Executive chef Mitto Barriga and his wife Rosita are from Lima. The dishes are fresh and delicately flavored and so good.
We chose Ceviche Moderno shooters to start our meal.
We followed with three specialty happy hour tapas plates.
Lomito Saltado: Suteed tenderloin, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, hand cut fries and rice. Delicious.
Shrimp Chaufa My Way: Wok fried shrimp, rice, ginger, scallions, sweet chili, fried egg
Arrocito Norteno: Wok fried rice with shrimp, octopus, bay scallops, sofrito, salsa criolla.
All of the above were tapas plates and half price during happy hour. This was a wonderful way to try different plates. Honestly we loved everything and we want to go back to work our way through the whole menu. So much fun.
We shared a french press coffee and a lovely flan with orange marmalade sauce. Plenty of coffee and dessert for two people to share.
They even lit a candle on the flan for Nancy's birthday!
Hope all your wishes come true!
The ambiance at AJI is so inviting it makes you want to linger all evening but after a long, and leisure dinner we decided to take a walk along 4th street. This is such an interesting fun evolving street in our town with many great shops and restaurants. Look at this wonderful Pasta shop right next door to Aji. They feature homemade pasta. We're coming back for sure to try this place.
A very cool and inviting coffee house "Portfolio" is next to P3 Artisan Pasta
As we continue our walk there are so many cute shops filled with vintage clothing, retro furniture and antiques, cool cafes and a beautiful art deco inspired theater with wine bars scattered in between. So many fun places to discover on 4th street.
We walked by the coolest barber shop...
Look at this shoe shine stand in the barber shop!
Both Nancy and I agreed we
have to return to 4th street soon. Good food and good fun in a gem of an area in Long Beach. We had a perfect day discovering treasures in our little corner of the world.
Here's to more fun adventures in Long Beach and beyond.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment