Lima is one of the top gastronomic capitals of the world and in 2019 has two restaurants ranked in the top ten of the world’s best restaurants; Central (#6) and Maido (#10). The cuisine offers a variety of traditional dishes as well as Peruvian influence on Indigenous, Chinese, Hispanic, and African dishes.

When we were choosing the next South American country to visit, a big factor was the fact that Peru is said to have the best food in South America. And yes, it does (we can only compare Peru to Colombia and Ecuador-but Peru’s food is the best we have tasted)!

The famous Ceviche uses raw seafood as the main ingredient. Other famous dishes include Anticuchos (cow hearts fried over a charcoal fire), Cau Cau (a stew with tripe and potatoes), Tacu Tacu (refried beans mixed with rice and stuffed meats or seafood), Ají de Gallina (a creamy stew and spices with shredded chicken), Causa (mashed potatoes stuffed with meat, chicken or seafood), and Lomo Saltado (sautéed potatoes, meat, onion, tomatoes and hot peppers seasoned with soy sauce).

Peru also has some unique drinks and the most famous is the Pisco Sour made with pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, egg white, and topped with a couple of dashes of Angostura Bitters. Pisco, a colorless brandy made by distilling fermented grape juice into a high-proof spirit, was developed by 16th-century Spanish settlers.

Another specialty is Chicha Morada, a deep red, non-alcoholic drink made with dried Peruvian purple corn, apples, cloves, cinnamon, and lime.

Restaurants in Lima

We didn’t eat at either of the two top ten restaurants because reservations are needed months ahead of time and a meal can cost several hundred dollars. However, we experienced these wonderful Peruvian flavors in restaurants that weren’t fancy or expensive.

We tried restaurants in the Miraflores area and ate delicious food. In fact, our first night in Lima, we found a narrow street lined with small restaurants and bistros and ate at two little restaurants, Bao! and across the street, La Cucina de Bonilla. At both places the food was fabulous. In fact, at every bistro, pub, and restaurant we tried in Lima the food was flavorful and tasty and we never tried any dish that we didn’t enjoy.

We even enjoyed the sandwiches in Lima and ate at a sandwich shop (La Lucha) several times. The roasted pork sandwiches were so good because fresh toppings and Ají sauce were made for each sandwich. There were three of these shops within walking distance of our apartment and there was always a line extending out to the street.

Siete Sopas (Seven Soups), a restaurant popular with locals, is a 24-hour restaurant specializing in soups. A different soup is featured each day, but many other varieties of soup were available. The Soup Nazi would have been jealous of these soups.

The most decadent dessert we had was called El Esfera (The Sphere). A chocolate balloon was brought to our table and the server poured hot caramel over the balloon revealing stuffed apples, caramel mousse, beer ice cream, and quinoa foam. And yes, we ate it all.

Food Tours of Lima

We wanted to experience as many of the well-known dishes as we could, so we participated in a food tour of Lima and another food tour of Barranco (an artsy neighborhood nearby). Not only did we taste wonderful flavors, but we also learned about the food and the Peruvian influence on the food of Japanese and Chinese immigrants.

Our first gastronomic tour was with an ex-chef who had worked at highly rated restaurants in New York and Lima. We hopped in a van with eight others and were taken to several well-known restaurants to sample many foods we had never heard of.

We savored dishes in three different restaurants and by the end of the night, we were satisfied and feeling good. All the food was delicious, and it was hard to say what we liked best. Even the desserts were perfectly prepared and yummy. It was also nice to meet new people and swap information so we all could keep in touch. We were invited to visit Puerto Rico, San Francisco, and Taiwan and we are going to hold our new friends to their promises.

Our second food tour was a walking foodie tour in the Barranco neighborhood of Lima which has some of the best restaurants in Latin America. Our guide met us in the central square and we walked to several restaurants and to an artisan pub where we sampled 30 types of beer.

Our guide grew up in Barranco and was proud to show us the area. Because he personally knew the owners and staff at these restaurants, we had a relaxed tour and felt like friends walking from restaurant to restaurant. Our guide ordered dishes which we passed around and shared so we had to pace ourselves to make sure we had room to taste all the food he ordered. What made this tour unique was that by the end of the night we felt like locals.

Also, this tour had no pre-arranged schedule requiring us to be at each restaurant at a certain time and with limited time at each restaurant. The tour was from 6 to 9 but it was almost midnight by the time we finished eating. We had a great time.

If it’s not obvious from all these pictures, we really savored the food in Lima and there here is no way we can display all the foods we have eaten.  While we enjoyed eating at fancy restaurants and Lima is full of them, we also enjoyed eating real food in small restaurants and sandwich stands. As our tour guide/chef explained, “Peru has always been a nation obsessed with food and we’ve got an incredible cuisine now, with lots of flavors. The flavors are from the fusion of our indigenous background and 500 years of immigration. Now the rest of the world is finding out about our food.”

We agree that Peru is a gastronomic destination worth traveling to and we are continuing to enjoy the food now that we have moved on to Cusco.  We will soon share our experiences in Cusco and Macchu Picchu.