A culinary guide to Lima, from ceviches to saltados

Lima defies easy culinary categorisation. Peru’s capital, set above the towering cliffs of the Costa Verde, overlooks a sweep of Pacific coast from the gritty port city of Callao to the fishing village of Chorrillos. A city, a port and a gateway to Latin America, Lima doesn’t have a distinct geographical cuisine, it has dozens of them. Regional ingredients and cultural heritage, both ancient and modern, all mingle together, creating new combinations of flavours. 

Ceviche, Peru’s national dish, is a good starting point when trying to understand the enormous complexity of Limeño food. The recipe has undergone multiple transformations since early Peruvians marinated fish in what’s thought to have been the juice of the tumbo — a relative of passion fruit — to preserve it. During the period when the city was the capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1821), colonialists gradually introduced limes and onions into the recipe. In the 1970s, Japanese chefs in the city adapted the dish and shortened the marinating time from hours to seconds. Today, it comes in hundreds of different forms. It might be made with sea bass or sole, but it could also include black clams or sea urchin. Try it at a lunch-only cevicheria such as La Mar or at a fine-dining restaurant like Mayta (both in Lima’s upscale Miraflores neighbourhood), or from a street cart at the vast, indoor Surquillo market.

Besides ceviche, some consider the city’s most emblematic cuisine to be comida criolla, or creole food. This arose during the colonial era and was a blend of the culinary traditions of native communities, Spanish settlers and the enslaved Africans who did most of their cooking. Most of these recipes — including ají de gallina (spiced chicken stew), and the fried rice and bean dish, tacu tacu — are what many Limeños eat at home, yet only a few restaurants specialise in them. Those that do include the classic El Rincón Que No Conoces in the central Lince district, and more modern Isolina near the city’s south coast. Others might think of pollo a la brasa, sold at the ubiquitous rotisserie chicken shacks, as the city’s favourite meal, but whittling down Lima’s best-loved cuisine is a tough call, thanks to a rich roster of favourites. Other contenders include the Cantonese-Peruvian food sold at the thousands of mostly no-frills Chifa restaurants you’ll find in the city, as well as Nikkei, the natural fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cooking that’s done more to shape modern Peruvian restaurants in Lima than any other. 

Combine all of this with migrants from the Andes and Amazon who, for decades, have continued to set up restaurants specialising in dishes from their home regions, a bar scene benefitting from a new wave of artisan spirits that utilise native botanicals, and an influx of Venezuelan diaspora that’s arrived with new recipes, and you can begin to appreciate Lima’s culinary depth. The current number one on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list may be found here, in Virgilio Martínez and Pía León’s Central, but ask anyone in Lima and they’ll tell you that it’s just the tip of the pyramid. 

How to spend a day in Barranco

In 2018, when the restaurant Central moved from the commercial district of Miraflores to the bohemian neighbourhood of Barranco to the south, it signalled a shift in Lima’s gastronomic energy. 

Start your day exploring this seaside neighbourhood at Demo, a cafe and bakery from the team behind lauded Peruvian-Venezuelan spot Mérito, with innovative breakfast items including cruffins filled with flan (baked custard). Afterwards, take a stroll to see Barranco’s street art and the various artisan shops that have sprung up here in recent years, such as cool design homeware store Puna and Artesanos Don Bosco, which sells handcrafted wood furnishings.

Get lunch at Isolina, a criolla tavern serving new takes on classic Limeño comfort foods like cau cau con sangrecita (tripe stew with fried chicken blood), and seco de asado de tira (short-rib stew). A few steps away, cross the Puente de los Suspiros, a landmark wooden bridge that spans the Bajada de los Baños, a stone pathway that fishermen once walked down to reach the sea. Get a quick pick-me-up at speciality coffee shop and roaster Ciclos Café, then head up to El Cacaotal on the second floor to taste bars of chocolate made with native Peruvian cacao varieties curated by anthropologist Amanda Jo E Wildey.

For dinner, make a reservation at Ricardo Martins’ Mediterranean- and Asian-influenced restaurant and bar Siete, before having a nightcap at Cordial, a bar with a large selection of vinyl records and natural wine. If you want to keep the party going afterwards, Juanito de Barranco is an old-school tavern where you can soak up the beer with its legendary jamón del país (country ham) sandwich.

How to spend a day on the Costa Verde

Lima’s circuit of interconnected beaches, named after the green vines on the coastal cliffs, is packed with restaurants and activities that make a nice diversion from the city’s concrete jungle.

Start your day at the Terminal Pesquero de Chorrillos, a traditional fish market and pier on the south end of the coast, to watch fishermen bring in their catch on wooden boats, as well as spot the pelicans and cormorants that hang around them. For your breakfast, select one of the stalls selling warm bowls of parihuela, a bouillabaisse-like seafood soup, with chunks of squid, octopus and whatever other fish or shellfish is on hand.

Lima is renowned for its waves. Surfers and standup paddleboarders can be found year-round at Playa Waikiki, a good spot for beginners, or Playa Barranquito, for more advanced riders. You can rent boards or take a lesson with Team Surf Peru on Playa Waikiki, and after working up an appetite in the water, head over to La Rosa Náutica, a restaurant set in a rambling Victorian building at the end of a long pier. Renowned fine-dining chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino took over the menu in mid-2023 and has shifted the focus towards more sustainable seafoods.

In the afternoon, hike or take a taxi up to Parque Raimondi, the launching point for short paragliding tours with Aeroxtreme, which offer unparalleled views of the city. Cool off afterwards at Curich, which is situated a block away and sells cremolada, a slushy drink made of blended ice and native fruits such as camu camu and aguaje. For dinner, head to Cala at Playa Barranquito for modern Peruvian food right on the beach, followed by a cocktail or two in the first-floor lounge.

Where to experience nikkei

Nikkei cuisine, the fusion of Peruvian ingredients and Japanese techniques, has developed gradually over the past century in Peru. When it gets translated abroad it’s often simply as a menu offering both sushi and ceviche. 

In Lima, the lines are more blurred, and nowhere is that more evident than at Maido in Miraflores, a regular in the top 10 of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Head chef and owner Mitsuharu Tsumura’s seasonal tasting menus continue to break new ground for Nikkei cuisine, often focusing entirely on ingredients from different regions of Peru, such as tuna belly from the north coast that’s thinly sliced tableside, and aji negro, a fermented and reduced cassava juice, that gets drizzled over sweetbreads. 

Near the Miraflores malecón coastal boardwalk, at Costanera 700, chef-owner Yaquir Sato has installed tanks to keep fish in, raising the bar when it comes to serving fresh sashimi and its spicy, citrus-sauce-dressed local variant, tiradito. Yaquir’s father Humberto, a godfather of Nikkei cuisine, opened the restaurant decades ago with recipes like the unchanged chita a la sal, a salt-baked Peruvian grunt fish. More playful are Shizen in San Isidro and Tomo in Miraflores, both headed by young, creative chefs serving raw fish and shellfish alongside noodles and gyoza.  

Three street food spots to try

Anticuchería Doña Pochita
In the late afternoon and evening, on sidewalks and vacant lots across Lima, vendors set up charcoal grills to make anticuchos — seasoned, skewered pieces of tender beef heart. One of the most renowned is Doña Pochita in Lince, which has been mastering the craft since 1978. 

El Chinito
There are branches of this old-school sandwich shop all over town, but the 1960s original, on Jirón Chancay in Centro, is the most atmospheric. Order the classic chicharrón (fried pork) sandwich, layered with slices of fried sweet potato and salsa criolla, or the Peking-style chicken with pickled turnip. 

Al Toke Pez
Seen in Netflix series Street Food, this five-seat counter spot on a busy Surquillo street is run by Tomás Matsufuji, who holds a PhD in chemistry and is the son of a renowned Nikkei chef. Expect immaculate ceviches and saltados (stir-fries) and don’t miss the cachete frito (fried robalo cheeks) if on offer.

Three fine-dining restaurants not to miss

Central & Kjolle
Taking the number-one spot in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023 is Central, with its ecosystem-based tasting menu charted by altitude. Sister restaurant Kjolle, on the same Barranco block, wasn’t placed far behind, and uses many of the same native ingredients in a more freewheeling menu. Try the ‘muchos tubérculos’, a tart made from raw and cooked Andean tubers.

Astrid y Gaston
Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio’s flagship restaruant is set in a historic San Isidro hacienda and has been revolutionising Latin American fine dining since it opened in 1994. It continues to break new ground with seasonal tasting menus that are based on the finest native ingredients.

Mayta
Restauranteur Jaime Pesaque’s flagship establishment serves some of Lima’s most beautifully presented dishes, using an ever-changing roster of colourful ingredients like Amazonian armored catfish and loche squash. Much of the produce comes from his family farm and vineyard in the coastal desert a few hours south of Lima. 

Three bars to visit

Ribeyro, Casa Sutil
An intimate bar situated in a renovated 20th-century villa in Miraflores, this stylish spot’s name was inspired by literary great Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Bartender Luis Flores Benites makes inventive artisan spirits from the likes of Andean agave and quinoa vodka. 

Lady Bee
Is it a cocktail bar or a fine-dining destination? It’s both. The menu of seasonal Peruvian ingredients, some foraged in the Amazon, are repurposed in variations of classic cocktails. Try the Lady Bee, which is made with gin, wild honey and mandarin orange.

Museo del Pisco
The Cuzco authority on pisco, a type of brandy that’s Peru’s best-known spirit, the Museo del Pisco opened its Lima branch in one of the city’s oldest colonial buildings on Plaza Mayor. Bartenders guide tastings of single varietal piscos, or visitors can opt for classic pisco-based cocktails.