8 Best Restaurants in Lima, Peru

One of Lima's few Mexican restaurants, this colorful spot near Parque El Olivar serves some innovative dishes as well as the usual tacos and enchiladas. The house specialties are barbacoa de cordero (lamb grilled in avocado leaves), pescado a la veracruzana (fish in a slightly spicy tomato sauce), and albóndigas al chipotle (spicy meatballs served with yellow rice), but you can also get fajitas and good quesadillas.

This dark-gray mansion with a bright red foyer looks like Dracula's love shack at night, but inside you'll find a chic lounge and two elegant dining rooms. Local epicureans gather here to savor a creative fusion of Peruvian and continental cuisine, from cabrito loche (roast kid with squash ravioli) to atún costra (tuna in a sesame-pepper crust) to gnocchis crocantes (crispy gnocchi smothered in a mushroom-and-artichoke-heart ragout). The back terrace, hemmed by a wall of greenery, becomes a lively bar scene as the night progresses.

The sushi chefs shout out a greeting as you enter the teak-floored dining room of this Miraflores standout, which dates back over 50 years. The kitchen specializes in sushi and sashimi, but if raw is not your thing, there's also plenty of hot food such as tempuras, teriyakis, and kushiyaki, a broiled chicken fillet with ginger sauce. The emphasis here is on traditional Japanese cooking, rather than Peruvian Nikkei.