The hotel resides across a bridge from downtown Long Beach and has an oasis feel to it.

Patio diners also have clear views of the legendary Queen Mary.

L.A. based firm Arya designed both the hotel and Fuego, which features massive sliding glass doors, tiles imported from Mexico, a reclaimed wood wall and a spacious patio that’s open to the elements, except in the rare instances when elements actually arrive.

Our Amuse Bouche consisted of a single tortilla chip topped with preserved lemon guacamole, blue crab and a tiny bit of heat from sliced jalapeño.

Chef Perez seems to be a believer in the rule of three, delivering multiple trios throughout the meal. He paired each ceviche with with a different chip, highlighted by supple octopus braised in red wine vinegar, black peppercorns and bay leaves. The chip: blue corn.

Chilean sea bass ceviche was nearly as successful, featuring tender sheets that were treated with jalapeños, red onions and standard lemon and lime juices, plus orange juice for added sweetness. The chip: classic corn.

The only ceviche that didn’t sing involved lobster that had been soaked in coconut milk with lime juice and jalapeño. Strands of red and white onion provided texture, but I prefer flavors that don’t overshadow lobster meat. For the same reason, so few lobster salad rolls deliver. The chip: plantain.

The top taste from our Soup Trio was clearly wild mushroom, an earthy soup featuring duck confit, porcini cream and six varieties of mushrooms: chanterelle, porcini, bluefoot, lobster, maitake and baby shiitake. Smoked tomato was like gazpacho, but too smoky. The skewer of sweet rock shrimp and tequila cream were nice touches though. Finally, roasted poblano was another winner, simply dabbed with grey-black huitlacoche cream.

The showstopper was undoubtedly vanilla butter poached lobster, which Perez had been working to perfect for the past five years. I don’t use the word “perfect” to describe food, but this dish was achingly close, featuring sweet Maine claw and tail meat, all supple and easily pluckable from the shell. The bowl also held a cilantro-spiked soft taco that looked like a Japanese hand roll and contained lobster knuckle meat. There was a pile of mashed boniato root – white sweet potato – topped with chorizo shavings. The broth: a ambrosia-like mix of saffron, coconut milk, vanilla bean and lobster stock.

The least successful trio involved lamb, though there was one highlight: a “barbacoa” tamale stained yellow with achiote, loaded with braised lamb and drizzled with spicy salsa borracha (drunken salsa). Barbacoa is traditionally old lamb that’s steamed in maguey leaves in a pit, so the name was a stretch, but the flavor was still strong. The other two components were less successful. The spice-rubbed chop was still off-puttingly bloody, barely cooked. The loin was wrapped with Serrano ham and paired with olive chimichurri, and though it tasted pretty good, the lamb flavor didn’t shine through.

We finished our gluttonous feast with a pyramid of rich, tangy goat cheese mousse, drizzled with orange-cajeta syrup that was topped with lemon-mango salsa and jammed with a single sweet potato chip. This was an excellent dessert. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough remaining stomach space to clean my plate.