4 Best Restaurants in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

Experience real Italian food in a quiet backstreet off Copacabana's main tourist drag. With a very limited menu of pizza, gnocchi, polenta, and tagliatelle and only five rustic wooden tables, Sapori d'Italia attracts with its homey and simple taverna-style setup, warmly furnished to resemble the dining hall of an Italian countryside home. The atmosphere is simple but intimate, and the food is the most authentic Italian you can find this side of the Titicaca. It's open daily only from 5:30 to 9 pm.

Set inside the inner courtyard of Hostal Sofía, this Peruvian fusion restaurant, with tables that spill out onto the marbled tiles up front, has somewhat of a comforting Middle Eastern feel. Not luxurious by any means, it's still one of the town's best midrange options—one where you can escape the backpacker hordes for a quiet meal. The crunchy pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven and the tasty trout lasagnas are standouts on a menu ranging from pasta and seafood to alpaca and beef-based mains.

Touted by many as the best in town, this maritime-themed restaurant with a terrace puts a creative spin on trout dishes, including spinach-and-bacon or Tex-Mex versions. Although it makes those ubiquitous pizzas, you can take a break from the usual fare with Andean falafel dishes, curries, or crepes.

It may look like the typical cookie-cutter traveler bistro from the outside, but don't dismiss Pan America, which offers thin-crust pizzas, European-style coffee, and delicious quinoa tiramisu. The homey interiors are decorated with vintage furniture and memorabilia, but it's best to sit at one of the few tables out on the cobbled main square, so you can dine while looking up at the cathedral.