(Photo illustration by Los Angeles Times)
Michelin ignores it, but Lima should be on every food lover’s wish list. 9 reasons why
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The giveaway that Lima should be on every food lover’s wish list is not just that it is home to the reigning No. 1 restaurant in the world according to the most recent World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking. Maido in Lima’s famed Miraflores neighborhood, a longtime magnet for fine dining, is where chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura is transforming Peru’s traditional Nikkei cuisine, integrating the flavors of the Amazon in his own blockbuster style.
But it’s what’s happening one neighborhood over, just about three miles away in Lima’s Barranco district that make Peru’s capital more than a stopover for a single splurge meal on your way to Machu Picchu. The epicenter of the food lover’s Barranco is the garden-lush culinary complex, Casa Túpac, home to Virgilio Martinez’s Central, named to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ “Best of the Best” list after its No. 1 ranking in 2023, and to Pía León’s Kjolle, the current 50 Best’s No. 9 restaurant in the world.
Beyond those walls, several other food hubs have emerged. There is the growing constellation of Barranco restaurants that chef Juan Luis Martínez runs with his wife, designer Michelle Sikic. Their Mérito is currently No. 26. on the World’s 50 Best list; Demo is a morning-to-night cafe with beautiful breakfast dishes; and more recently they opened Clon, with accessibly priced a la carte expressions of Martínez’s Venuezulan-Peruvian cuisine.
A few short blocks away are Ricardo Martins’ pair of restaurants, Siete, a romantic spot with beautiful food and cocktails, and La Perlita, devoted to the chef’s nostalgic take on criolla cuisine. Then there is the venerable Canta Rana, run by an Argentine devoted to soccer and ceviche, and, more recently, the Chilean and American partners who created a mecca for coffee and chocolate lovers.
This is just a hint of the culinary activity happening in one of the world’s great food cities.
It’s puzzling, then, why the Michelin guide doesn’t waive its requirement that tourist boards or local governments pay a fee to have its inspectors visit the city. On the other hand, Lima is doing just fine without Michelin stars.
See for yourself with your own visit to Lima. The suggestions that follow are a delicious way to begin your adventure.
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Astrid y Gastón
Peruvian $$$
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There may be no dish that expresses Astrid y Gastón’s exuberant spirit more than La Lúcuma, Astrid Gutsche’s confectioner’s re-creation of the green-skinned, globe-shaped fruit found in Peru’s Andean valleys and prized for the way its starchy orange flesh transforms into luscious ice creams and purees. Inside the dyed chocolate-painted sphere is lúcuma mousse, cubes of anise jelly and ice cream from the syrup of Peruvian carob trees. It all gets revealed with a party-trick crack of a spoon under the colorful streamers hanging from the trees in the hacienda’s courtyard. But it’s Gastón Acurio’s “El Cuy Pekinés,” or “our emblematic guinea pig,” that might best display the couple’s desire to share Peru’s native abundance. Knowing the reluctance some might have to try cuy, Acurio serves it Peking duck-style with the crisp-skinned meat placed on a purple corn tortilla and hoisin sauce amped with Peru’s famous rocoto chile. This is the restaurant that trained Central’s Virgilio Martinez, and a tour through its vast menu is a wonderful snapshot of the necessary evolutionary step before the World’s 50 Best group starting ranking Lima’s restaurants No. 1 in the world. And the food here is pretty delicious too.
Av. Paz Soldán 290, Casa Hacienda Moreyra, San Isidro 15073
Av. Paz Soldán 290, Casa Hacienda Moreyra, San Isidro 15073
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Canta Rana
Peruvian $$
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
A ceviche-centered lunch at Canta Rana is a terrific way to immerse yourself in Lima’s thriving Barranco district. Soccer flags and scarves hang from the ceiling, and the walls are jammed with photos, jerseys and write-ups about the not-so-hidden gem that Argentine-born Vicente Furgiuele Cárdenas opened in the mid-1980s. A cold Cusqueña is perfect with the salty, crunchy canchas or toasted corn nuts that appear on your table as you take in the scene and await the arrival of the restaurant’s signature ceviche apaltado, with half a caper-strewn avocado over marinated pieces of Canta Rana’s catch of the day plus giant kernels of boiled choclo in the leche de tigre. If you like, calamari chicharrón, or fried squid rings, can be added to the plate.
Genova 101, Barranco 15063
Genova 101, Barranco 15063
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Central
Peruvian $$$$
Many arrive at Central fully expecting an immersion into a world of beautifully presented new flavors and an intriguing story of altitude cuisine — chef Virgilio Martinez’s approach to leading diners through all of Peru’s diverse ecosystems, from the sea to the highest Andes — just as they may have seen on his “Chef’s Table” episode. What they may not expect is just how delicious his food is. Sometimes this level of dining — about $480 for menu — can be more interesting than tasty. “Am I going to be eating tree bark?” one naysayer asked me before he was blown away by his Central experience. By the end of the meal you will have eaten familiar ingredients like corn and watermelon and cacao in new ways alongside foods you’ve never tasted, maybe a flying potato, which isn’t a potato but an otherworldly-looking tuber that grows on trees. And you will have sampled wines from parts of South America that rarely make it to the U.S. as well as herb-infused cocktails that seem like they’ve come from a bar out of the future. And that future tastes very good.
Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco 15063
Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco 15063
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Ciclos Café and El Cacaotal
Peruvian Coffee Chocolate shop
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Coffee and chocolate are among the food world’s most beautiful pairings, so it only makes sense that a coffee obsessive and a chocolate fanatic would get together to create the incredible two-in-one shop Ciclos Café and El Cacaotal. Felipe Aliaga is the Chilean expat who runs Ciclos’ on-site roastery, sourcing beans from all corners of Peru to produce medium to ultralight roasts for the cafe. The knowledgeable staff is happy to take you through the rotating varieties to help you choose the best beans for your pour-over — and you can buy a few bags to take home in your luggage. Amanda Jo Wildey, or “A.J.,” is the New Jersey-raised force behind El Cacaotal, the cacao library and shop above Ciclos where you can sign up for her fascinating chocolate tastings. Her passion and deep understanding of cacao can only be matched by Aliaga’s coffee expertise. The two sometimes hold joint chocolate-and-coffee tastings, and they’ve added tea, wine and pisco samplings too.
Jr. Colina 111, Lima 15063
Jr. Colina 111, Lima 15063
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El Mercado
Peruvian $$$
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
If time doesn’t allow you to try Rafael, the art-filled, fine-dining and cultural gathering spot founded by Rafael Osterling, El Mercado is a fun and delicious introduction into the world of the celebrated chef, author and bookstore co-owner. A long lunch over cocktails and seafood at El Mercado’s indoor-outdoor courtyard makes a perfect Miraflores afternoon of people watching and discovery. The daytime-only menu usually has a page of seasonal additions. I lucked out with a “port cocktail” of prawns, fat sea urchin, scallops and cockles in panther milk. On the regular menu, there are ceviches, wonderfully architected potato-and-seafood-layered causas, seafood pastas and modern takes on chaufas, the Chifa-style (Chinese and Peruvian) fried rice. The restaurant’s Reggiana scallops maintain the shellfish’s freshness underneath the light Parmesan butter cream. And don’t miss the showstopper desserts.
Av. Hipólito Unanue 203, Miraflores 15074
Av. Hipólito Unanue 203, Miraflores 15074
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Kjolle
Peruvian $$$
Pía León found her voice as a chef at Central, the restaurant begun by her husband, Virgilio Martinez. But it is at Kjolle, in the same complex as Central, that she has set her own path and continues to grow. Now the current No. 9 restaurant in the world according to the World’s 50 Best group and the No. 2-ranked restaurant in Latin America, Kjolle is where León, with an artist’s eye for color, reveals her very personal expressions of the Peruvian foodways research done by Mater Iniciativa, the initiative started by León, Martinez and his sister Malena Martinez. Although León used to offer more accessibly priced a la carte dishes in addition to her tasting menu, these days her restaurant is centered on two different set menus — including one that is fully plant-based — priced at about $290, with focused explorations of Peru that could very well earn her a World’s 50 Best No. 1 spot in the future.
Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco, Lima
Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco, Lima
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Maido
Japanese Peruvian $$$$
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
In 2009, more than 20 years after Nobu Matsuhisa introduced Los Angeles to his blend of Japanese sushi and Peruvian ceviche techniques and ingredients — and went on to create a global brand out tiradito and other Nikkei-inspired classics — Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura opened Maido in Lima’s prestigious Miraflores neighborhood with a new vision of Nikkei gastronomy. His food, while rooted in Nikkei cuisine’s deep history, which goes back to the arrival of Japanese workers on Peruvian plantations at the end of the 19th century, often uses ingredients from the Amazon — the massive freshwater paiche fish presented as sushi, for instance, or Amazon citrus in ponzu sauce. For Maido’s showcase otoro course, one of Tsumura’s chefs uses a nearly sword-length knife to slice long, thin servings from a huge piece of bluefin tuna belly, procured from a sustainable fishery in Spain. Each slice is dipped in ponzu and flash-seared, sometimes with a blowtorch, but when I was there it was briefly seared on a heated salt rock then draped. For this and many other dishes, some of which might incorporate suckling pig, duck and Peruvian herbs and vegetables along with his core seafood picks, he has gotten many international accolades, culminating with Maido’s current No. 1 ranking on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Calle San Martín 399, Miraflores 15074, Lima
Calle San Martín 399, Miraflores 15074, Lima
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Mérito
Venezuelan-Peruvian $$$
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
The world’s most beautiful chef’s table — or counter, really — may be the four to five seats inside the kitchen of Juan Luis Martínez’s restaurant Mérito with a full view of the cooking action. Those seats have become tougher to get as the accolades for Martínez pile up. But if you secure a spot, you will witness the almost dance-like rhythm of chefs in motion. One of them may place before you a modern artist’s vision of a fish sandwich, the yacon-and-kiwicha cracker tinted terra cotta with a sunny yolk-colored circle in the center. Another may set down the greatest corn on the cob you’ve ever tasted, the large coal-roasted kernels of choclo slightly charred and served with a cheese-topped, huancaina-style dipping sauce. Beyond the counter, there are intimate tables in Mérito’s simple-chic dining room at which you can experience Martínez’s singular vision of cooking where his Venezuela heritage meets Peru’s wildly diversity of ingredients.
Jr, 28 De Julio 206, Barranco 15063, Lima
Jr, 28 De Julio 206, Barranco 15063, Lima
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Siete
Peruvian
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To enter Siete is to walk into a romantic dream of a restaurant, a moody, candlelighted space where chef Ricardo Martins and his chefs serve modern crudos and tapas-style small dishes along with pastas and larger plates that pair well with the bar’s inventive craft cocktails. One stunner of a dish is Asado de Tira “Fàxiǎo,” which is slow-braised short ribs served with Cantonese-style fried rice. It’s a wonderful distillation of the many cultural influences that make Lima such an exciting place to eat.
Jirón Domeyer 260, Barranco 04
Jirón Domeyer 260, Barranco 04
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