Restaurants

You can find everything from cuy (guinea pig) to wood-fired pizza at the many excellent restaurants in Arequipa and Puno, where dining possibilities range from traditional fare to sophisticated Novo Andino cuisine and international dishes. Food in Arequipa is known for strong, fresh flavors, from herbs and spices to vegetables served with native Andean foods like alpaca meat and olluco, a colorful Andean tuber. In the mountains, the cool, thin Andean air calls for hearty, savory soups and heaps and heaps of carbs in the form of the potato. Whether they're fried, boiled, baked, with cheese, in soup, or alone, you will be eating potatoes. In Puno, fresh trout or kingfish from the lake is served in almost every restaurant. Puno also has a special affection for adobe-oven, wood-fired pizza.