Pan Pacific’s Uma offers a seafood masterclass with Michelin-star creativity

Having a valet park your car for nix is a pretty good start to any evening.

The Pan Pacific’s thought up a clever lure to get reservations on its new restaurant’s books, and it works for me.

Not only does the valet take my keys, he walks me to the restaurant, giving me a guided tour as we stroll. Happy days.

Uma opened in January with executive chef Alejandro Saravia, who promises to flit regularly between his Melbourne home and the wild west. His speciality? Peruvian fare, twisted with Michelin-star creativity, both products of his life experience.

Before we’re wowed by that, though, we’re swept off our feet by Camilla, a slick waitress who knows the drinks and food menus inside out and back to front — maybe even upside down. She’s the bomb.

Camilla describes the alpaca — typical Peruvian food — as “cute but tasty”, so naturally we start there. Deep-fried “croquetas” ($12) form bricks of rich, dense, shredded shoulder meat that taste like dark gravy, lightened with non-spicy fermented chilli sauce. It’s an approachable introduction to said cute, furry animal.

If you love ceviche, get this — the list is six dishes strong, ranging from traditional to fusion and new wave. Raw Abrolhos prawns arecooked by the acids in a sweet, spicy, tangy marinadedotted with desert limes and blue caviar ($19).

It’s smashing. As we spoon it in, our pre-dinner cocktails finally arrive. A better system is needed because later wine orders, poured out of view at a separate bar, also take an eternity.

But back to the food.

Our second ceviche — termed a tiradito, meaning the fish is sashimi-grade, sliced and served raw — harks to the influence of Japanese immigrants on Peruvian cooking. Elegant deep-red slices of Fremantle tuna topped with fried curry leaves bear a soft, delicate feel, licked by a palate-warming green Peruvian pepper and dashi dressing ($18). Bam.

Chef visits our table for a long chinwag, then visits all the others.

He’s a virtuoso frontman whose passion for Peruvian produce meets his love of supporting small, local farmers.

As a potato dish arrives ($10), he waxes lyrical about the WA spud industry and the varieties he uses — two from WA in this bowl, and a Peruvian ball potato he imports frozen. Coated in a sauce of whey and burnt butter, it tastes nostalgically of 1980s party dip, French onion soup powder mixed with sour cream.

Charred pickled cabbage is the ideal foil for dry-aged, slow-cooked beef rib ($39), but the next stand-out is a mermaid-like chunk of fish tail ($35). It lies in a sour, citrusy jus that smacks of Sichuan pepper flavours, while fresh herbs overlay the flesh that comes off bone like silk sheets on a bed. It’s a phenomenal dish.

To finish, savoury pumpkin donuts with roasted quinoa ice- cream ($12) are no match for the bread pudding ($10) that is part vanilla flan, part creme caramel and all slippery deliciousness. What a night.

Uma

Address: Pan Pacific Hotel, 207 Adelaide Terrace, Perth

Phone: 6211 7221

WEB: umaperth.com.au

Open: Tue-Sat, 6pm-10.30pm

Licenced: Yes

Bookings: Yes

Score: 16/20