Bucket list experience:
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
If there’s one reason to stop over in Lima it’s the food. The city has some of the finest restaurants in the world – with chefs like Virgilio Martínez, Jaime Pesaque and Gastón Acurio ranked in the World’s ‘Fifty Best’ on the exclusive San Pellegrino list.
What makes Lima chefs so exciting is their virtuoso fusion of unique national ingredients with Asian and European techniques. Star chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino has a plate on his degustation comprising only potatoes arranged to look like beach pebbles – all from different Andean locations with astonishing, divergent flavours.
Peruvian-Japanese Micha Tsumura serves fiery tiger milk tuna tiraditos alongside river-fish sushi, and 50-hour-cooked Amazonian beef.
You could spend a week in the gastro-hub suburbs of San Isidro, Miraflores and Barranco and get a mere taste of the exciting scene. But be sure to dine in Astrid y Gaston – the pioneer of Lima gastronomy and Central, by Michelin-starred Virgilio Martínez.
For a sense of the huge variety of ingredients Lima’s top chefs draw on visit Mercado No1 de Surquillo – packed with exotic fruit, vegetables and medicinal plants. It’s also a good spot to sample simple ceviche, but don’t focus on the street food – Lima’s all about fine dining.
Want more recommendations in this destination?
Destination Guide >Lima’s gastronomic scene is vibrant – with new openings every month. Book tables before you arrive in the long-established favourites like Astrid y Gastón, Central, Tsumura’s Maido and Pedro Miguel Schiaffino’s Amaz. All are in the southern suburbs between San Isidro, Barranco and Miraflores where the scene is hottest. Book a hotel there and ask the concierge for the latest. The excellent Westin hosts Rafael Piqueras’s seafood restaurant Maras.
There are street food tours in Lima – offered in many cheaper hotels and hostels. It’s worth visiting Mercado No1 de Surquillo to see the exotic ingredients, sample a streetside- ceviche or lunch on a Butifarra pulled-pork sandwich. But don’t focus on the street food when you can eat at one of the best restaurants in the world for the price of a mediocre meal back home. Lima is all about world-class, contemporary cooking.
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
Lima’s pioneer gourmet restaurant, founded by cordon bleu-trained, multi-award-winning team Gaston and Astrid Acúrio who invented Novoandina cuisine in the 1990s.
Best for ages: 18+ | £50
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
The flagship restaurant of one of Lima’s most famous chefs, Michelin-starred Virgilio Martínez who has restaurants all over the world.
Best for ages: 18+ | £50
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
Pía León honed her skills at Astrid y Gastón and Central. Her food focuses on the breadth of Peru’s ingredients – with a degustation for vegetarians and another with sea bass and razor clams, Peruvian tubers including yucca, olluco and potato, quinoa-like kañiwa and duck, and duck cured with squid ink.
Best for ages: 18+ | £50
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
Astonishing Peruvian Japanese fusion or Nikkei cooking from Micha Tsumura. Three-times winner of the best restaurant in Latin America.
Best for ages: 18+ | £70
Our selection of the best Viator tours of this attraction or activity
Lima
$26 | Rating 4.63 / 5 [77 ratings]
Tour supplied by:
Lima
$55 | Rating 4.95 / 5 [164 ratings]
Tour supplied by:
Lima
$59 | Rating 4.86 / 5 [173 ratings]
Tour supplied by:
Lima
$79 | Rating 4.69 / 5 [39 ratings]
Tour supplied by:
Our writer’s picks of the best places to stay near this experience, closest first
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
A luxury, clifftop oasis with a rooftop, ocean-view pool, legendary sunsets and one of Peru’s best restaurants.
Official star rating:
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
Clean contemporary rooms in a lavish former millionaire’s mansion in the heart of restaurant-and-bar-packed Barranco.
Official star rating:
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
A grand 1920s town house hotel, in a convenient central location, that combines colonial splendour, excellent service, contemporary comfort and perfect pisco sours.
Official star rating:
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
First class high-rise hotel with stunning views, a sumptuous pool, spa and restaurant (run by a famous Lima chef) in an easy-to-reach location.
Official star rating:
Destination guides including or relevant to this experience
Peru
A land of spectacular deserts, high mountains and rainforests that teem with wildlife, Peru is also home to an array of dramatically situated pre-Colombian ruins, including Machu Picchu.
Our writer’s recommendations of other bucket list experiences our writer says you must do in this destination, closest first
Lima Region, Peru
Wander the former capital of Spanish America to sample stately colonial architecture and museums charting Peru’s pre-Columbian history.
Best for ages: 18+ | Free | 1 day
Other worthwhile experiences near this experience if you have time or interest..
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
Peru’s national art collection, with over 7,000 pieces dating from pre-Columbian times to the present day, showcased in a stately palace.
Best for ages: 13+ | £2
Lima, Lima Region, Peru
The city’s most prestigious and encyclopedic art museum, with a vast permanent collection spanning three millennia of Peruvian art.
Best for ages: 18+ | £7
