It’s no mystery that Peruvian cuisine keeps charming foreign palates around the world, as proof of that we have Central, the best restaurant in the world last year, according to the 50’s best restaurant list, Maido in Peru is the 5th best restaurant in the world this year. Besides Peru has beautiful attractions, locals and foreign visitors explore both popular and unknown spots to learn about its food culture.
Food in Peru is a serious thing as it involves traditions, culture, family, and more. For us Peruvians, eating our food is to dive into an experience. So, in this blog, we’ll show you some of the best restaurants in our country where you can have the very best Peruvian food, we’ll show you as well, some markets to try Peru’s best street food.
Best Restaurants in Peru
In 2024, Peru placed 3 restaurants in the world’s Best 50 restaurants list. This proves one more time the rapid evolution and distinction of Peruvian food. Although the restaurants we’ll show you are kind of different from the list we mentioned, we assure you they will make you fall in love with our cuisine.
Maido Restaurant
Maido restaurant is led by Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, a chef of Japanese ancestry. Thanks to his studies abroad and living in Japan, Tsumura gained the right knowledge to start “Maido”, which is a welcome greeting in “Kansai-ben”, a variation of the Japanese language used in Osaka, Japan’s second most important city. Curiously, this is the first thing you’ll hear when stepping into the establishment.
Maido combines the best of two worlds: Japanese techniques and Peruvian ingredients, making the so-called blend “Nikkei Cuisine”. Nikkei refers to a mix of foreign people with Japanese ancestry, later this term has been used in Peruvian food mixed with Japanese techniques. This year, the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 unveiled its list of the top restaurants.
More than 1,080 international restaurant industry specialists, including representatives from major organizations around the world, took part. Maido Restaurant ended up fifth, as the best restaurant in South America and the best in Latin America. Seafood plays an important role in Maido, as most of its menu contains fish.
The à la carte dishes include Peruvian dishes mixing Japanese techniques, and the menu includes an experience through Maido’s 15 years of Maido’s existence. The drinks, besides being creative, truly capture the essence of Nikkei cuisine in a glass by combining unique ingredients from both Japan and Peru.
We recommend trying the “Murasaki” cocktail which combines teas, fruits like oranges, passion fruit, and lychee. The “Shipibo” is a mix of Peruvian rainforest ingredients. If you want to try the best of two worlds, Maido is the best option for you.
Address: San Martín Street, 399, Miraflores, Lima.
Mil Restaurant
The mastermind behind Mil Restaurant is Virgilio Martinez, the owner of Central in Lima. One might compare Mil to the Andes version of the well-known Central restaurant in Lima, which is one of the few fine cuisine establishments located more than 3,500 meters above sea level set at the former Moray Inca Laboratory in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Most of Mil’s ingredients come from its research facility, as well as local organic and natural resources.
However, it only sources from the area surrounding the restaurant, as compared to utilizing ingredients from all over the nation. Throughout eight courses, the menu includes meat, llama, duck, grasses, roots, tubers, and wild plants, Each course is presented with a little garnish. Dishes and bowls with distinctive textures appeared on the table while unidentified complexities in flavors will put your palate to test. The plates had vibrant colors, looking like Andean fabrics and clothing.
Address: Highroad to Moray, Maras, Cusco.
La Nueva Palomino
Arequipa is great for trying traditional Peruvian food thanks to “picanterias”, ancient Peruvian restaurants. Picanterias serve as guardians for keeping traditions from generations. They are popular for serving large portions and carefully seasoned dishes. These restaurants are located mainly in Arequipa, one of the most common and traditional picanterias in the so-called “White City” is La Nueva Palomino.
La Nueva Palomino Picanteria is the place to go if you want to experience Arequipa’s food truly. Enjoy the best cuisine that Arequipa has to offer in this rural environment with soothing music. The menu at this restaurant includes a lunch menu with a daily budget special, the a la carte meals are just as good as they seem. During your stay, you aren’t allowed to leave the restaurant because it perfectly depicts Arequipa’s splendor.
Address: Leoncio Prado 122, Yanahuara, Arequipa.
La Mar
The acclaimed chef Gastón Acurio is the mind behind the excellent La Mar restaurant. This restaurant, which serves lunch only, is among the best “cevicherías”, or ceviche restaurants in Lima, situated in what many refer to as the “Ceviche Neighborhood” on La Mar Avenue, one of Lima’s busiest Cevicherias hubs. There are some of Lima’s most well-known brands, including El Mercado, Pescados Capitales, La Red, and so on. On the menu, you’ll find numerous classic fresh ceviche meals.
Most days, it’s fairly popular (particularly on Saturdays), if you don’t want to wait for hours, arrive early. The restaurant is among the best in town because of its well-priced, flavorful fish and its modern, rustic, no-fuss atmosphere. Although is not the cheapest cevicherias in the city, it’s totally worth it, if you love seafood this is the place for you.
Address: La Mar Avenue, 770, Miraflores, Lima.
Central
What else can we say about Central? Last year was named the best restaurant in the world, and in 2024 is on the prestigious list of “The Best of the Best Restaurants”. Central promises to be both an exotic and genuine culinary experience you’ll remember for life. Chefs Virgilio Martinez and Pia Leon have vast experience enhancing Peruvian ingredients and flavors in haute cuisine.
This restaurant has a reputation for cleaning the water used to prepare meals, and its filters use a special technique called reverse osmosis, about its organic offerings, it’s the restaurant that boasts the greatest quality control. The beautiful herbs and vegetables that pair well with these dishes are grown there.
Staff members at Central work with farmers, gatherers, and local communities; they work to keep unique goods and advance sustainability. Thus, the restaurant acts to promote diversity while preserving Peruvian food culture.
They have become well-known recently. Since then, Martinez and Leon have been international ambassadors for Peruvian tastes. They owned Mil, located in the mountains that encircle Cusco, and Maz, located in Tokyo, Japan. The duo is always looking for new experiences because every location offers distinctive gastronomic experiences with Peruvian and local specialties.
They intend to use this tactic to produce menus that would enable visitors to Peru to learn about it through its food. Central is a unique experience that will take you to Peru’s different ecosystems and explain its diversity. When in Peru, it’s an experience that you definitely should include on your schedule.
Address: Pedro de Osma Avenue, 301, Barranco, Lima.
Street Food Markets in Peru
An adventure besides traveling to unknown destinations is to try how locals eat, so the markets are a great way to do it. In every city of Peru, there’s a “central market” where you can find groceries, dairy products, clothing, handicrafts, and food. We recommend trying to eat at least once to have a nice generous meal in one of the following markets on this list.
San Pedro Market
Being the hub of the Imperial City’s markets, the San Pedro Market is a well-liked destination for both tourists and locals. This is the best place to start if you want to get a peek into Cusco’s traditional way of life. Additionally, the “Plaza de Armas”, Cusco’s main square is just a few blocks away.
Many sections have hundreds of vendors offering a wide range of goods, including fresh vegetables, warm clothing, souvenirs, cuisine, flowers, and more. San Pedro offers a wide range of goods at reasonable costs, along with high-quality merchandise.
The San Pedro Market opened its doors in 1925, but it took around 25 years for the building to be completed. The oldest building in the neighborhood was created by the same architect who created the iconic Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel. The San Pedro Market offers the most personal way to sample the Cusco region’s cuisine, whether you visit early in the morning or around lunchtime.
The soups and meals section has several stalls selling tasty and fascinating local fare, and it’s close to the main street’s entrance. We suggest trying some “Pan con Nata,” (Bread with milk cream), “arroz con huevos” (rice with eggs), or cow’s leg jelly are some of the market’s specialties, for breakfast.
There are many options for lunch, from traditional Peruvian fare to local cuisine in the Andes. Delicious lomo saltado, seco de carne, tacu tacu, trout ceviche, and other popular Peruvian dishes are available there. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can even try some of the soups and broths made with sheep’s heads.
In this market, you’ll see as well three rows of fresh fruit and vegetable juice vendors, most of whom are charming women who will do anything to attract your attention. This section will be the greatest place to go if you’re searching for something pleasantly refreshing.
In addition, engaging with the community will help you learn more about the Cusqueñan people, and the gregarious and amiable sellers will undoubtedly entice you to return to the market.
The freshest fruits and vegetables are used to make the delicious juices and extracts. You have the option of creating your own combination or selecting from several options on their menu. We think this is the most vibrant and happy area in the market!
Surquillo Market
For their weekly supply of fruits and vegetables, residents of Surquillo and Miraflores typically visit this well-known market in the neighborhood. Everything is genuinely available at the market; there is a section dedicated to poultry and meat, another to seafood, a large area to vegetables and fruits, and a section including nuts, grains, candies, and other items. However, you’ll also find a snack section, where you may find anything you need for lunch.
On weekdays, it’s a tradition that lots of Lima citizens go to this market early in the morning for breakfast before leaving for work. Food stands with typical fare including “ceviche,” “chicharron,” and “criolla food” are present. This fish arrives at the market quite early in the morning, coming from the coastal region of central Peru, close to Lima. For this fish to be used, especially if you want to make a delectable ceviche, it must be sold during the day.
This market includes exotic and native Peruvian fruits such as “granadilla,” “aguaymanto,” and “camu camu”, “lucuma” and “tuna”. These fruits are all incredibly colorful and vivid and taste amazing; all of them are unique and delicious. We won’t tell you details about these fruits, as we encourage you to discover by yourself when you travel to Peru!
San Camilo Market
The San Camilo Market, or “Central Market”, is located in Arequipa’s historic core. This market was designed 130 years ago by Gustave Eiffel, the same architect who built the Eiffel Tower in France, and another market in Peru, the San Pedro Market in Cusco. Like many other markets in Peru, the San Camilo market is full of vibrant colors, unusual smells, distinctive noises, and lots of flavors.
It is a marketplace where residents purchase common items like fresh fruit, potatoes, beans, bread, cheeses, etc. In this market, you’ll find also the best of Arequipa’s cuisine, such as “rocoto relleno”, “adobo” ocopa arequipeña”, “cuy chactado”, and even drinks like “chicha de guiñapo” or desserts like the fresh “Queso Helado,” a characteristic Arequipa delicacy. According to the prestigious magazine “Taste Atlas,” the queso helado is rated the 2nd best dessert in the world.
Are you ready to see for yourself why we consider our food the best in the world? Visit Peru and become a Peruvian food lover just like we are! Viagens Machu Picchu is proud to offer destinations all over Peru and is committed to Peru and its culture for foreign visitors; we’ll be more than glad to assist you during your time in our country.
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