Restaurants in Lima
Peruvian cuisine is best enjoyed in Miraflores, home to numerous restaurants. Famous Astrid y Gastón and beautifully located La Rosa Naú serve fish or meat with a variety of Peruvian-grown crops, such as tuber plants, quinoa, corn and sweet potatoes. No one should miss the classic lemon-marinated seafood dish ceviche, and for the more adventurous there's roasted guinea pig. Most restaurants are closed in the afternoon, between lunch and dinner.
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27 Results
- Amazonian
Ámaz
Opening a serious Amazonian restaurant is not a simple task. It takes years to build up a network of producers, and even then getting fresh products to the coast is another challenge. Somehow chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, whose more formal restaurant Malabar is one of the city’s…$$$Miraflores - Seafood/International
Amor Amar
For those who can find it—even taxi drivers have a difficult time locating the obscure side street it is situated on—Amor Amar has one of the most special restaurant atmospheres in Lima. Within a walled Barranco compound is a republican-era mansion that holds an art gallery, an…$$Barranco - Peruvian/Avant-Garde
Astrid y Gastón Casa Moreyra
If any single restaurant could be credited with revolutionizing Peruvian cuisine, it would be this one. In the late 1990s, chef Gastón Acurio and his German wife and partner Astrid Gutsche made the transition from contemporary French cuisine to Peruvian. At the time, native…$$$Lima Centro - Eclectic
Barra Lima
This young and fresh take on a cevichería from chef John Ravenna traded the seemingly standard Miami Beach cevichería decor for graffiti-covered walls and polished concrete floors. Ravenna works directly with artisanal fishermen along the coast of Peru and forages for herbs and…$$Lima Centro - Peruvian
Cala
Aside from the very touristy Rosa Nautica, few restaurants have taken advantage of Lima’s beachfront. Trendy Cala helped change the game when it opened in 2006 on Playa Barranquita, so close to the Pacific Ocean that waves roll right up to the bar and open-air dining terrace. Though…$$Barranco - Seafood
Canta Rana
This neighborhood cevichería is one of Barranco’s most beloved lunch spots. Extremely informal, the bare-bones interior reflects the Argentina-born owner’s love of fútbol, with every spare inch of wall space emblazoned with logos and flags and old match photos. The “Singing Frog” is…$$Barranco - Peruvian/Avant-Garde
Central
Peru’s most important culinary stars are without a doubt the wife and husband duo of Pía León and Virgilio Martínez. Central, which opened in 2008, has gained a steady following for its high-end approach to rare and unusual Peruvian ingredients. Additionally, the team runs Mater…$$$Barranco - Eclectic
Cosme
On a residential street, amid condo towers, this funky eatery is a superb destination for those who are looking to just kick back with a good cocktail and food in a lively atmosphere. The setting feels like a piece of pop art: There are multicolored recycled plastic bottles lining…$$Lima Centro - Sandwiches
El Chinito
This Chinese-Peruvian sandwich shop has been around since the 1960s, though only recently has it gained something of a cult following, expanding to new neighborhoods around town, including Barranco, Miraflores, and San Isidro. The simple shop slings out several traditional Peruvian…$Lima Centro - Seafood/Fusion
El Mercado
Chef Rafael Osterling (the man behind the more formal Rafael) is one of Peru’s biggest celebrity chefs, and this high-energy, lunchtime-only restaurant has been one of the city’s most popular eateries since opening a few years ago. The indoor-outdoor space with a long…$$Miraflores - Cafe/Bakery
El Pan de la Chola
This brick-walled shop decorated with blackboard specials began as a summer pop-up on the Asia beach boulevard and has since blossomed into one of Lima’s finest cafes and bakeries. Model and actor Jonathan Day, who studied artisan baking while traveling around the U.S. and Europe, is…$Miraflores - Peruvian
El Rincon Que No Conoces
Legendary chef Teresa Izquierdo Gonzáles, the godmother of Peruvian cuisine, is no longer with us, but her legacy lives on at her famous huarique (a no-frills traditional restaurant) to the south of Lima's center. The old-school criolla haunt with red bricks and yellow walls is the…$$Lima Centro - Northern Peruvian
Fiesta Chiclayo Gourmet
This restaurant has single-handedly taken northern coastal cuisine to new levels. It started in the city of Chiclayo, where it still has a location, though chef Hector Solís, the driving force, is based in Lima. The hearty, heavy food of the region stands out for its different…$$$Miraflores - Criolla
Isolina
Criolla-style food is what most Limeños eat at their house or what they think of when remembering what their grandmothers made. Yet, it’s rare that criolla cooking appears at a restaurant, and when it does, it’s usually at a place that’s very rustic. Enter Isolina, which opened in…$$Barranco - Peruvian
Kañete
Chef-owner Israel Laura studied in Barcelona before opening up several restaurants in Lima with fresh takes on criolla food. After a long absence, he’s back on the scene with this funky restaurant on an up-and-coming restaurant street in still-gritty Surquillo. The menu lists simple,…$$Surquillo - French
L’Eau Vive
Though the food is rather simple, there are plenty of other reasons to make a stop at L’Eau Vive. An order of French Carmelite nuns runs the restaurant and donates the proceeds to charity. The location, inside an 18th-century palace across the street from one of Lima’s most important…$$Lima Centro - Sanwiches
La Lucha Sangucheria
Most visitors to Peru get so caught up with ceviche that they don’t realize just how big of a sandwich culture Lima has. While most of the sandwich shops are rather basic or just a stand in front of a bar, La Lucha brings a gourmet touch to classics like the butifarra (country ham…$Miraflores - Seafood
La Mar
Though Gastón Acurio put Peruvian cuisine on the map with Astrid y Gastón, it was only when he launched this upscale cevichería in 2005 that the trend went worldwide. The original La Mar, on Avenida La Mar near a dozen other top cevicherías, thrust Peru’s national dish into the…$$Miraflores - Northern Peruvian
La Picantería
After the success of his restaurants Fiesta Gourmet, Chiclayo, and Trujillo, chef and owner Hector Solís went back to his roots with this rustic, lunch-only eatery, based on the famed picanterías of Peru’s northern coast. Like its inspirations, the restaurant serves oversized,…$$Surquillo - Seafood
La Rosa Nautica
Even though busload after busload of tourists regularly fill this decades-old city landmark, it’s still one of the best dining experiences in Lima. A rambling Victorian building with a maze of rooms does the hosting, set on a pier in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Diners can look…$$$Miraflores - Chinese
Madam Tusan
While there’s an inexpensive chifa (local slang for a Chinese restaurant) on almost every street in Lima, many of them use low-quality ingredients and prepare basic, uninspired Cantonese dishes. This upscale take, from restaurateur Gastón Acurio, does a superb job of infusing…$$Miraflores - Nikkei/Sushi
Maido
Nikkei food, the natural fusion of Japanese and Peruvian, is having its moment in Lima and around the world. Maido and its talented chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, aka “Micha,” are at the epicenter of the movement. The minimalist, three-level space here isn’t overly formal, with lots of…$$$Miraflores - Seafood
Pescados Capitales
One of Lima’s first upscale cevicherías, Pescados Capitales is still one of the best. The name is a play on the phrase for “original sin” (in Spanish, pescado, or “fish,” is one letter removed from pecado, or “sin”), and the menu expands the notion by giving plates like ceviche and…$$Miraflores - Peruvian
Restaurant Huaca Pucllana
This is nothing less than one of the most incredible restaurant settings anywhere in the world, nestled within the compound of a 1,500-year-old adobe pyramid. The rustic atmosphere inside, with red walls and rough-hewn wood beams, is pleasant enough, but try to snag a seat on the…$$$Miraflores - Cafe/Peruvian
T’anta
This casual Peruvian bistro from Gastón Acurio has locations around town, though this Centro location is particularly convenient as it is just off the Plaza Mayor, fronting a pedestrian-only passage, and open early. Stylish yet totally laid back despite being always busy, the…$$Lima Centro - Cafe
Tostaduría Bisetti
This intimate roaster and coffeehouse is maybe the center of Peru’s coffee movement. Aside from having access to the best coffee beans being produced from top fincas in Peru’s high jungle regions, the servers can handle geeky brewing tools like siphons or a chemex. Occasionally the…$Barranco - Chinese
Wa Lok
Along with dim sum parlor Salon Capon around the corner, Wa Lok is one of the oldest and most famous chifas (Chinese-Peruvian restaurants) near Calle Capón, the center of Lima's Barrio China, or Chinatown. Tile floors and clunky wood tables make up the decor. The colossal menu—more…$Lima Centro
