I’m not sure why, but I was expecting something a bit more basic and traditional when I visited Pescados Capitales in the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Miraflores. Instead, I discovered a clean and contemporary restaurant with high-quality seafood and very good service. The décor won’t knock your socks off. The dining area is one very large room, filled with tables, with a covered terrace out front, seating about one hundred diners in total.

From the front of the restaurant the décor is very monotone. Rough wood planks and mock-stone tile flooring in tones of beige and gray provide a pleasant albeit somewhat mundane appearance. From the large bar at the back of the room, looking to the front of the restaurant, the view is a bit more appealing, with a large mural on a wall above the dining area providing a splash of color to spice up the otherwise monotone room. The tables and chairs are the same rough wood as the walls with simple leather seats. With all that café-colored wood and leather, the restaurant looks a bit more like a steakhouse than it does a seafood restaurant.

But the menu soon reveals that, in fact, Pescados Capitales is all about food from the ocean and sea. Although the restaurant offers a menu that doesn’t look much different than what you’d find at the city’s top cebicherías, there’s a bit more formality for those wanting to avoid the somewhat chaotic atmospheres at nearby La Mar and El Mercado.

And Pescados Capitales ventures off the Nikkei path with its seven featured dishes that have made the restaurant a favorite with locals wanting a change of pace from the typical Nikkei offerings.

The dishes on The Originales menu not only have clever “moody” names, they also have some clever and unique ingredients.

The proteins themselves aren’t all that unique, but the interesting accompaniments and the manner of preparation set the seven dishes apart from offerings at other seafood restaurants. For example, there are two pasta dishes using rice noodles, a unique dish featuring paiche, a popular Amazonian fish, and smoked (not grilled) Octopus served with a fried rice.

The first course on my recent visit to Pescados Capitales was the traditional Ceviche Mixto, a ceviche featuring a mix of fish, squid, octopus, prawns and scallops in a traditional leche de tigre. The seafood components were sweet and tender and the lime marinade was not overly acidic. It was beautifully plated with lots of bright yellow corn and thin slivers of pickled purple onion accompanying the seafood elements.

My companion and I chose two of the “moods” from The Originales menu. The black pasta dish featured rings of calamari atop jet-black noodles. I liked that the dish wasn’t overthought. It was simple. The squid was perfectly cooked, not the least bit chewy, and the flavorful rice noodles were inundated with the squid ink. Then just a few small touches, a bit of the classic ají amarillo sauce and tiny slices of fried garlic added a bit of interest. The dish was simple, elegant and delicious.

The second main-course dish was a seared tuna encrusted with a bit of quinoa and accompanied by an assortment of vegetables in a delicious, Asian-inspired sauce. This was nothing elaborate. Just high-quality, fresh seafood, simply, but perfectly prepared.

For dessert we ordered the trio of Lima’s most noted dessert, the Suspiro Limeño. Each flavor was unique and delicious. The perfect consistency. Sweet but not overly so.

Our waiter was efficient and informative. Each course was perfectly timed without a single mishap.

If there is one downside to dining at Pescados Capitales, it’s that the menu is a bit pricey for Lima. Excluding the perfectly prepared pisco sour, this meal, with a shared appetizer and dessert, and two main-course dishes was in excess of US$30 per person, which is a bit high for Lima.

But for someone wanting an experience that’s a bit less frantic than the more casual cebicherías in the neighborhood, Pescados Capitales is a great choice. It’s quiet enough for a business meeting or an intimate conversation, but still has a high energy and is often filled to capacity with happy diners. Plus, Pescados Capitales, unlike nearby La Mar and El Mercado, is open for dinner, making it the only viable option in the neighborhood in this genre for an evening meal.

What I liked about each dish we tried at this restaurant was that nothing was overthought nor overdone. There was nothing overly complex. It was just fresh, delicious ingredients, augmented with a few understated elements that enabled the star of the show, the seafood, to shine through.