223 Best Restaurants in Peru

On a quiet street a block and a half from the busy intersection of Avenidas Larco and Benavides, this small restaurant in a renovated house is known for its southern Italian cuisine. The Peruvian owner worked at one of Miami's best Italian eateries before setting up shop in Miraflores. The menu includes pasta dishes such as linguine in pesto with gamberi (shrimp), a small selection of risottos, and traditional osso buco. The restaurant recently added a handful of Peruvian specialties, but don't be fooled: Italian cuisine is still the star here.

If you're looking for something healthy, with plenty of choices for vegetarians, Kaia is the best bet in Urubamba for lunch or an early dinner (it closes at 6). With fresh salads, soups, sandwiches, wraps, and all sorts of snacks to choose from, you'll easily satisfy your post-hike hunger. There is often live music here on the weekends, and the playground will entertain kids while parents linger.

One of the valley's best restaurants, this lively spot helmed by chef Eduardo takes inspiration from his extensive travels around the world, featuring delicious dishes influenced by Indonesia, Thailand, parts of Africa, and Peru. Consider the shrimp cebiche, Peruvian trout curry, and the Street Fighter (filet mignon stir-fried with spices and sauces from Bangkok).

This trendy spot serving innovative Peruvian Thai cuisine is curated by chef Kent Zuniga and features an attractive industrial-chic decor. Specialties include vegan-friendly Southeast Asian curries with an Andino twist—think green curry cebiche, trout tartare, and barbecue pork in Thai sauce. 

If you're craving Japanese food, you can get the real deal at Kintaro. Amid a quietly elegant atmosphere, you can order miso soup, udon, teriyaki dishes, tempura, a wide variety of fresh and authentic sushi, and hot or cold sake.

There are plenty of chifa (Peruvian-Cantonese cuisine) restaurants to be found along the side streets of town, but the best by far is Kion, with its modern decor and attentive service. Although the menu has many familiar Chinese offerings, like wontons and fried rice, the Peruvian influences and preparations make it a nice change from your neighborhood wok and, indeed, from straight-up Peruvian eateries.

This excellent restaurant on the plaza has a large dining hall with wooden tables and floors and a traditional but well-executed menu of cebiches, pastas, sandwiches, and Peruvian staples. There's also a daily set menu for S/25, and you can sip espressos, juices, and smoothies on the cozy balcony overlooking the square.

For a quick bite, it's hard to go wrong with the flavorful Franco-Peruvian crepes served on the ground floor of this backpacker hostel; with both savory and sweet to choose from, they're the perfect meal or pick-me-up any time of day. The prix-fixe lunch is a delicious deal, and there's a great tea selection for an afternoon break.

The wide selection of pizzas, pastas, soups, and salads here, as well as a few great desserts, ensure that you will leave feeling satisfied. In particular, the unique blue cheese, bacon, and sauco (elderberry) pizza can't be beat. Be sure to accompany it with one of their reasonably priced wines or a selection from the extensive list of craft beers.

With its flagstone path and leafy lucuma tree dappling a quiet patio with shade, this green café is an oasis. The gourmet teas and coffees, artisanal sandwiches, and fruity milk shakes rejuvenate even the most worn-out traveler.

This is a great spot to regroup, caffeinate, and make use of the Wi-Fi after a hard morning's sightseeing. The coffee is quality, there's a huge range of mouthwatering cakes, and you can also grab breakfast, sandwiches, and slices.

Paris's loss is Aguas Calientes's gain with the authentic French pastries served here, as well as coffee, sandwiches on house artisanal bread, quiches, and more. Eat in or take some of the delicious choices to go—the excellent boxed-lunch options are perfect for enjoying in Machu Picchu, and the restaurant opens at 5 am so you can pick them up on the way to the bus.

Over-the-top decorations and labyrinthine rooms give this restaurant charm, but the food has made it a favorite. Wash down wood-fired pizzas and grilled meats with a pitcher of calientitos (hot spiced rum punch). The service can be slow, but sitting in the garden on balmy days or by the fire on cooler ones makes it worth it. The owner can arrange cooking classes, Spanish lessons, music instruction, and long-term local homestays.

This large café has a mix of Peruvian-, American-, and Argentinian-style coffee, all prepared with proper Italian coffee machines, and cakes and tortas. 

This pleasant garden café beside Hostería Suiza has a vegetarian-friendly vibe, with lots of quinoa and salads on offer. Dishes on the eclectic menu are all made from scratch by the British owner, and range from Thai curries and falafel to pastas and crepes. There are even peanut-butter-and-banana milk shakes.

Pizza is the only thing on the menu here, and drinks are limited, but if it's pizza and wine you're craving, this is one of the best places to get them. The atmosphere is relaxed—starting from the moment you enter the courtyard—but the colonial building is cozy, with only a few tables, so get here early.

A range of Peruvian classics is on offer at this well-loved local hangout. The chicharrones are a perennial winner, and there are also pastas, sandwiches, and excellent meats from the grill. The menú lunches are filling and a steal at S/25.

Peru's sandwiches haven't yet attained the iconic status of Mexico's tortas or Louisiana's po' boys, but the revolution is coming. You can see what the fuss is about at this wildly successful Lima chain, which has branches all over the city, and whose Parque Kennedy outpost is inevitably thronged by nighttime partygoers looking to chow down. Here it pays to stick with the classics: chicharrón or lechón a la leña (wood-fired ham) both come heaped with zarza criolla, and the accompanying fries made with huayra potatoes are a revelation. Makes you wonder how the McDonald's up the street stays open.

Rivaling La Nueva Palomino for Arequipa's favorite picantería, La Lucila has been in operation for more than 70 years. Although its beloved namesake owner passed away in 2012, her recipes—iconic regional dishes that have been passed down through generations—live on, as does the simple, rustic atmosphere. Come here for classic rocoto relleno, cuy chactado, or chupe de camarones (spicy shrimp chowder). It's outside of town, and though you'll spend about S/10–S/15 on a taxi, the prices here make up for it. 

Hungry office workers crowd this excellent criollo restaurant every day at lunchtime for heaping plates of fettuccine à la huancaína (pasta in cheese sauce) and pescado a lo macho (fish topped with spicy seafood). The setting, looking out over Lima's old fortified walls, is one of the greenest you'll find downtown. Don't miss the lomo saltado (beef stir-fried with peppers and onions): Gastón Acurio himself has called it one of Lima's best. A second, less-scenic branch can be found on the Plaza San Martín.

The bland interior aside, this restaurant serves delicious grilled meats and specializes in parrilladas, with an extensive menu that includes every imaginable part of the cow. The anticuchos and ubre are well-prepared house specials. If this sounds unappetizing, you can always get grilled steak or head to the chifa (Chinese) restaurant next door, run by the same people.

Located just steps outside Miraflores near the Mercado No. 1 in Surquillo, this rustic tavern harkens back to Peru's picanterías (country restaurants) of old. The drill is simple: sit down on one of the wooden benches, choose your fish (or shellfish), and tell the waiter how you want it prepared. Fried, grilled, as a cebiche, or as a delicious sudado (soup) or estofado (stew): it's all good. The menu has a few landlubber entrées, but make no mistake: it's the seafood that makes this joint a regular on 50 Best lists.

With striking wooden blue balcony overlooking Plaza de Armas and brown adobe walls decorated with murals of flowers, this jolly restaurant-cum-café is inside a traditional casona and embodies Pisac's recent wave of places catering to both hippie digital nomads and more and more tourists. The menu offers a wide selection of mains like alpaca steaks, spaghetti with pesto, pork burgers, and juices, smoothies, and coffee. Wi-Fi is strong and the upstairs lounge is handy for getting some work done while sipping an espresso.

This old-fashioned Swiss eatery first flung open its doors in 1936, and little has changed since. It still serves a selection of quality European and Peruvian cuisine in a refined atmosphere, with ornately painted wooden details on the doors and along the ceiling that evoke the Old Country. Rösti (grated potatoes with bacon and cheese) and three kinds of fondue are among the traditional Swiss options. The kitchen also offers breakfasts and a range of sandwiches, and the glass case is filled with eye-popping pastries. The front terrace, which faces the busy Óvalo de Miraflores, is a great people-watching spot.

Dining at this closed-door, reservations-only private house is like partaking of a sumptuous family meal in an Italian villa. There's no advertising, no sign outside: instead, the owner, Sheyla, comes to your table, asks what you'd like to eat, and then heads to her kitchen to whip up fresh, organic dishes such as melon-and-prosciutto salad, wood-fired pizzas, and fusilli with mushroom ragù. She'll even send her private car to pick you up at your hotel, gratis.

This intimate restaurant serves some of the best Italian food in southern Peru, and if you're not sure you want Italian food in Peru, its special location in the Monasterio de Santa Catalina (the entrance is outside the compound, though windows look in) is enough to merit a visit and a meal. A fusion menu featuring homemade pastas (try the delicious cannelloni with lomo saltado), gnocchi, and risottos—paired with seafood, meats, and creative, savory sauces—is offered, and although there are Novo Andino options, you can find them elsewhere, so stick with the excellent Italian fare here. There's also an extensive wine list. It usually gets pretty packed at lunchtime, so book ahead, or come for dinner instead.

After a quarter-century in business, this remains one of Lima's better Italian restaurants. The proof is on the plate: dishes such as artichoke ravioli and fettuccine magnífico (with a prosciutto, Parmesan, and white-truffle sauce) are perennial favorites. Be sure to save room for dessert: co-owner Sandra Plevisani is one of the country's most famous pastry chefs. This is one of the few Lima restaurants that serve dinner on Sunday.

Locals recommend this restaurant on the outskirts of town as the best around; judging from the lunchtime crowds, they don't seem to be wrong. The three brothers who run the kitchen cook up modern regional Peruvian cuisine such as sole fillets rolled with bacon and served with passion-fruit dipping sauce or fish stuffed with spinach and sautéed in a pisco-and-pecan broth. Portions are enormous, so order a few dishes to share.

With interesting and fresh organic ingredients topping its delicious pizzas and focaccias, this popular courtyard restaurant is a fun and relaxing place to have dinner or just get an espresso and a quick snack. It also offers gluten-free and vegan options, as well as a wide variety of craft beers. Brunch is served 11–3, while the wood-fired pizzas start at 5.