Last year Panamanian chef José Olmedo Carles Rojas partnered with Louie and Netty Ryan (Hatchet Hall, Menotti’s Coffee) on a restaurant in the space that housed LGBTQ+ icon James Beach. As Si! Mon settled into its first year, the cooking has come into focus: This is a rare-for-L.A. feat of reimagined Central American flavors in a finer-dining setting. Carles Rojas and executive chef Christian Truong frame seafood strikingly. Surf clams wade in ceviche sunlit by culantro leche de tigre. Coconut milk and charred scallion oil add creamy-spicy contrasts to beautifully pleated shrimp dumplings. Miso butter and dried shrimp salt amplify the flavors of grilled branzino without overpowering the fish; be generous with the smooth salsa made from mild green cachucha chiles. Cocktails dip into the expected realms of rum and passion fruit. This martini drinker is happy that the version labeled “very MF cold” delivers on its promise. The lush plants and the ceiling pattern based on Panamanian Indigenous prints suggest the country’s tropical climate without devolving into kitsch. — B.A.

60 N. VENICE BLVD., VENICE, (310) 302-0016 l SI-MON.LA