Lima Restaurants and Dining

(Lima, Peru)

For many, Lima's abundance of restaurants and eateries has resulted in this city recently being voted as nothing short of the 'Gastronomic Capital of the Americas'. Dining out in Lima is really what you make it, the choice is yours. Look out for the 'ceviche', a national dish of Peru, consisting of raw seafood, salad, lime juice dressing and strong onion.

Although seafood from the adjoining Pacific Ocean makes an inevitable appearance on many a menu (la carta) at restaurants throughout Lima and beyond, city restaurants also offer a variety of other Peruvian dishes and international dining opportunities. If you like your desserts, then be sure to try the 'mazamorra morada' (corn pudding) or the 'suspiro limeno' (caramel meringue). You may even be brave enough to try the roasted guinea pig (cuy).

Where to Eat

Being such an enormous city, the restaurants of Lima are noticeably clustered within the main districts. For a taste of the Orient, head south-east of the Plaza de Armas and into the Barrio Chino (Chinatown), an enormous Chinese quarter boasting some very authentic Cantonese restaurants, which are spread around its pedestrianised mall.

In the San Isidro neighbourhood of Lima, cheap eateries are few and far between, with the restaurants specialising in haute cuisine and fine dining. This is particularly the case along San Isidro's Avenida 2 de Mayo and the Conquistadores.

Restaurants in the Miraflores area of Lima are also on the pricey side, although are interspersed with a smaller selection of cheaper eateries and pavement cafes.

A particularly trendy place for dining out in Miraflores is at the cliff-side LarcoMar shopping mall, where many cafes are squeezed in, along with a sushi bar. For something a little more affordable in the way of restaurants, head to Lima's Barranco neighbourhood, and in particular, around the passageway beneath the El Puente de los Suspiros bridge. Here you will find 'anticucho' stands selling beef-heart kebabs straight off the actual grill.