Dishes that are flavorful — and fun

Some dishes are so elegant they become works of art and others so generous they seem like small mountains. But only at Rincón Limeño have I devoured a meal so festive and flavorful it felt like an edible amusement park.

Call it Six Flags over Ceviche.

This Peruvian hole-in-the-wall’s signature dish is ceviche, fresh seafood ‘‘cooked’’ in the acid of citrus. At Rincón, you get the classic, superbly zesty, absolutely traditional Peruvian version of this great culinary invention.

What does that mean? Well, order, ceviche mixto ($12) and the foodie fun park arrives. Like a loop-de-loop coaster, curls of red onion sit atop the main attraction: tender, zingy seafood from shrimp and baby squid to grouper filet chunks and fat mussels in a lime-spritzed salsa that jumps with the flavors of cilantro, crunchy apio (Peruvian parsnip), and fruity Peruvian pepper pastes aji amarillo and aji rocoto.

Other amusements on the side include addictive cancha (crunchy, roasted Cuzco corn kernels the size of small grapes), a hill of the same sweet corn cooked fresh, and toothsome hunks of yam. And it all comes shored up with white rice. This one dish has kept food fans and Peruvian ex-pats on a steady pilgrimage to this East Boston eatery.

But Rincón is no one-trick restaurant. Chef Alfonso Giraldo, who bought the place with family members about seven years ago when it was Mi Peru, makes sure everything is prepared from scratch.

The refreshing purple corn punch called chicha morada ($1) is stewed fresh with pineapple rinds, cinnamon, and apple. The classic arroz con pollo ($9) doesn’t skip a step — first they fry the chicken, then they steep it in cilantro-infused water, and only then do they cook it down into a sort of savory paella with peas, lots of garlic, and rice.

‘‘He had a lot of restaurants back in Colombia,’’ said Sandra Giraldo, Rincón’s manager and Giraldo’s daughter, explaining the family hails from both Colombia and Peru. ‘‘Both [my parents] cooked a lot. We were always eating great things.’’

Sandra’s mom, Luz Gomez, makes her mark with the three aji sauces that guests slather on anything they can. We first discovered them with an order of salchipapa ($5). This street food is simply deep-fried hot dogs and fries. What makes it more, though, is the green aji, a creamy, garlicky blend of jalapeño and mayo good enough to bottle.

Appetizer standouts include escabeche de pescado ($8), fried grouper with olives in a vinegar-garlic sauce almost smoky with the flavor of aromatic panca peppers. Choros a la chalaca ($6.50), a monster plate of mussels on the half-shell decked with salsa, was another spunky treat.

Entrees either go coastal with ceviche, fried seafood, and some fantastic fish stews, or they go Andean with hearty meat and potato meals.

From the shore side, I’m still dreaming of the creamy seafood chowder cazuela de mariscos ($14) and the light, brothy sudado de pescado ($14), a fish stew that surprised us with its fresh ginger. However, the parihuela de mariscos ($14) suffered from a bland tomato base.

Meanwhile, if the FDA is looking for a poster plate for its campaign for portion control, the plato montañero ($10) is it. This everything-but-the-kitchen-sink dinner comes with juicy steak, starches galore (rice, yams, golden batons of fried yucca), tasty beans, a crown of crispy, fatty, fried pork, and — what else? — eggs. Even though this plato should require a defibrillator be kept on the premises, my friend polished it off, purring the whole way.

And the list just goes on. Tangy rotisserie chicken made with the family recipe ($5), the steak tips ’n’ fries toss known as lomo saltado ($10), creamy rice pudding ($2.50), frothy tropical fruit shakes ($2), the smiling and skilled service . We liked it all.

My three complaints? The sudado needs less salt. It would be nice to get the appetizers before, not with, the entrees. And they need more tables.

But here’s the party favor for those who read to the end: Rincón recently bought the space next door, and in July they’ll spiff up and expand from 24 to 74 seats. During construction, Rincón’s full menu will be served at the family’s nightclub, El Templo, in Lynn. Then there will be no reason to keep this jewel of a restaurant a secret from any of your friends (or readers).