Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine

Chef-owner Lizardo Becerra cures Pacific lingcod and Hokkaido scallops in aji-spiked tiger's milk until the fish turns bright and nearly electric, then crosses to the grill to char flank steak over aji panca — two registers held inside one authored Peruvian point of view. This is Raphaël, a Peruvian dining room on Elgin Street that is narrow on purpose, built around Becerra's cooking rather than a broad Latin menu. He works the coast and the Andes in the same sitting, and does it with northern product, running Canadian cold-water fish through Lima technique.

The menu reads as two halves built to share a table. The coastal side runs on tiraditos — lingcod under traditional tiger's milk with Peruvian olive oil and fried capers, or Hokkaido scallops in a sesame, Nikkei-leaning version with togarashi and yuca crackers — alongside Ceviche Raphael, where aji limo tiger's milk meets crispy plantain, choclo chalaquita and a chulpe crisp. Causa de Cangrejo layers Pacific blue crab over an aji amarillo potato terrine; Pejerrey fries Peruvian silverside smelts with plantain chifles and tartar. The grill answers with Anticuchos, flank-steak skewers in aji panca with chimichurri and rocoto, and a Pork Belly set over carapulcra, the sundried-potato-and-peanut stew that gives the plate its Peruvian spine. Baffin Island turbot comes in a sudado with golden-berry salsa criolla and a yuca stew; Arroz con Pato braises duck leg into rice cooked with aji amarillo and mirasol; Lomo Saltado keeps the soy-and-oyster saute and comes with tenderloin or ribeye.

What the menu makes plain is a kitchen that refuses a single house dish. Ask which plate is the one to order and Raphaël answers with a pairing — the acid of a ceviche against the heat of a skewer, raw against grilled, coast against altitude — cooking that rewards a table ordering in rounds. The Andean pantry is everywhere and used with intent: aji amarillo, aji panca and aji limo for layered heat, Botija olives and choclo for depth, chulpe corn and plantain chifles for crunch. The Nikkei tiradito nods to the Japanese-Peruvian thread without turning the meal into a survey, and the Sol Farmers paella pulls bomba rice, Galician mussels and Iberian Bellota chorizo from across the Atlantic without losing the plot. The drinks keep pace, a pisco-leaning cocktail list and a wine program meant for a long sit.

Becerra did not reach fine dining by the usual route. Local reporting traces his path from Lima and a stretch in embassy kitchens to Raphaël Express, the takeout operation that gave the restaurant its name before it became a sit-down dining room on Elgin Street in 2021. The competition record came after: he won the Ottawa qualifier for the Canadian Culinary Championship and went on to represent the city nationally, recognition that is part of why Ottawa keeps the restaurant in its dining conversation. Marie Dumont runs the front of house as general manager, and the operation stays chef-owned — Becerra in the kitchen, Dumont on the floor, no group standing behind them.

Lately the restaurant is a moving target. Through June 2026 it has run a temporary pop-up series — partnership dinners built around the Sol Farmers and Rivière Farms menus — with short closure windows folded into the calendar before a mid-month reopening. The paella shows where that restlessness goes, shifting with whichever collaboration is active, and the reservation and group-dining pages move with it. For a diner, the practical move is to read the current menu before booking, because the kitchen changes shape from one collaboration to the next. Raphaël has always suited a celebration — reservations, group tables, a meal paced for a long evening — and the collaboration calendar gives regulars a reason to return for a menu they have not eaten yet. The constant is Becerra: the coast, the grill and the aji, plated the way the person who named the place wants them.