RICARDO ZARATE’S expression of Nikkei cuisine, the style of Peruvian cooking created over the last century by Japanese immigrants, lights up the palate with citrus and bright-tasting herbs. A ceviche mixto of shrimp, scallops and slices of sea bass is bracing in leche de tigre and dotted with fried rings of calamari for clever crunch. Minced chocolate clams, paired with finely diced apple, is presented in a manner similar to choros a la chalaca, a Peruvian classic of steamed mussels served in their shells and covered with a limey onion relish. There is an exceptional vegetarian homage to rockfish tempura, a Nikkei-inspired creation made famous by Nobu Matsuhisa; Zarate uses ricotta gnocchi that he fries and tosses in a creamy sauce built around tobanjan, a Japanese chile paste laced with fermented broad beans. This goes over a lime-green pool of pureed cilantro, spinach and basil. My table usually orders two.

Causita — an airy room with two-story ceilings, exposed brick and light woods, with a beautifully tiled terrace out back — is part of a three-in-one Silver Lake project by David Rosoff, one of L.A.’s great wine savants, who launched a hospitality group last year. Start at Causita but keep in mind his two other side-by-side ventures at Sunset Triangle Plaza: Rápido, a tiny market great for bread and tinned seafood, and Bar Moruno, a restaurant themed loosely around Spanish bar food that’s fantastic for chef Chris Feldmeier’s tortilla española, martinis and whatever obscure red wine from the Canary Islands Rosoff is crushing on.

• 3709 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 546-0505, causita-la.com