8 Best Restaurants in The Southern Andes and Lake Titicaca, Peru

This laid-back café-bar is the only thing keeping La Casa del Corregidor alive these days. It offers some of the best international food and bar snacks you can find in Puno, as well as a wide variety of craft beers and great coffee drinks. Teas, cocktails, and smoothies—along with sweet treats like cakes and pies—round out the menu. After 9 pm, there's more of a bar scene, with savory food choices like tapas.

With a covered courtyard that evokes images of a traditional yet upscale outdoor picantería, the offerings at celeb-chef Gastón Acurio's stylish bistro provide delicious gourmet twists on typical regional fare. Unlike many restaurants offering fusion menus, the plate sizes here are ample. Be sure to begin your dining experience with one of the unique pisco cocktails. Reservations are a good idea.

Set along the highway to Cabanaconde near Cruz del Condor and surrounded by ample fields, the Hotel Kuntur Wassi is best known for its excellent organic restaurant. All the food, including meats, is sourced or raised locally. You can go hiking or take a horseback riding tour after your meal.

Chef Mònica Huertas is one of the great promoters of arequipeña cuisine, and, to many, this is the most authentic restaurant in town. She uses many of the same classic recipes—some more than a century old—that her mother and grandmother used, and her preparations of regional standards such as rocoto relleno, adobo, lechón al horno (oven-roasted pork), chupe de camarones, and queso helado have become the definitive recipes. This sprawling picantería with a maze of pleasant patios and dining rooms is a great place to come on the weekend and spend the entire day eating, drinking, and listening to live music.

Located in a beautiful colonial building, there are a couple of intimate tables on the balcony overlooking the Plaza de Armas, while the more lively interior rooms make it seem like a popular place to eat for both Peruvians and travelers. Mojsa, which means "delicious" in the Aymara language, serves reasonably priced Novo Andino cuisine, fused with fresh traditional and criollo flavors in an elegant space with wood floors and a long bar.

Reconstructing rich ancestral dishes in a modern way, Salamanto prepares locally sourced meats and fish, together with native corn, papas andinas, and algae and mushrooms from El Valle Sagrado, with centuries-old methods and modern spices and sauces. Salamanto's location at the Mirador de Carmen Alto is spectacular, offering sweeping vistas of the Chachani and Misti volcanoes and the Rio Chili flowing through the valley below. Try a 7- or 10-course tasting menu, accompanied by carefully selected local wines. This is bucket-list dining, worthy of a special occasion. Reserve ahead.

Sporting a welcoming plant-flanked garden gazebo with wooden tables, Tio Dario is one of Yanahuara's most popular restaurants and an offshoot of the famous Zig Zag Restaurant. On the menu, Arequipa specialties mix with food from other Peruvian regions, using seafood as the main leitmotif. Try the pulpo al olivo clásico in a creamy black olive sauce, or the parihuela en fuente de barro, a rich stew of shellfish made in a traditional pot.

Everything here—from its grand iron spiral staircase (built by Gustave Eiffel) and sillar stone walls to its Novo Andino cuisine, extensive wine list, and decadent desserts—is done with exquisite detail and attention. The menu, using a fusion of gourmet techniques from the Alps and Andes, is a harmonious mix of fresh local foods. Try the quinoa potato gnocchi (served with your own choice of mushroom or meat sauce), the meat fondue, or the notable Trios, a prime cut of three meats: alpaca, ostrich, and beef, slow-cooked and served on a hot stone with three dipping sauces. You'll want to make reservations, especially for dinner, and if you book ahead of time, you can reserve one of the romantic balcony nooks.