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Bucket list experience:

Close up of a ceviche dish

Last updated: 09 November, 2022
Expert travel writer: Alex Robinson

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.

Price from: £35
Minimum age: Any
Age suitable: 18+
When: All year around

Getting there & doing it

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.

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Experience

Astrid y Gaston

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

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Close up of a ceviche dish
Experience

Central

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

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A fish dish from the restaurant
Experience

Kjolle

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

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A dish from the tasting menu at the restaurant
Experience

Maido

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

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Our selection of the best Viator tours of this attraction or activity

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Food & Art: Lima Colors and Flavors Walking Tour

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Street Food & Old Taverns Tour in the Historic Center of Lima

Street Food & Old Taverns Tour in the Historic Center of Lima

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During this walking food tour, discover Lima's main historical sites such as the Plaza de Armas or the Monastery of San Francisco while samp...

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5 iconic restaurants of Lima a 3-hour guided food tour in Barranco

5 iconic restaurants of Lima a 3-hour guided food tour in Barranco

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Our writer’s picks of the best places to stay near this experience, closest first

Miraflores Park Hotel

Lima, Lima Region, Peru

A luxury, clifftop oasis with a rooftop, ocean-view pool, legendary sunsets and one of Peru’s best restaurants.

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Casa Republica

Lima, Lima Region, Peru

Clean contemporary rooms in a lavish former millionaire’s mansion in the heart of restaurant-and-bar-packed Barranco.

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Country Club Lima Hotel

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.

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Westin Lima

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.

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Destination guides including or relevant to this experience

Peru

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.

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Our writer’s recommendations of other bucket list experiences our writer says you must do in this destination, closest first

A day in Lima

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

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Other worthwhile experiences near this experience if you have time or interest..

Lima Art Museum

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

Larco Museum

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