20 Best Restaurants in Lima, Peru

This rambling, Victorian-style complex perched over the Pacific at the end of a breakwater serves up quality seafood with spectacular views, complete with surfers riding the waves as the sun goes down. Signature dishes include a mixed fish, scallops, and octopus cebiche, and grilled corvina (sea bass) with a leek fondue sauce. There's also a small but decent selection of meat dishes.

On a sunny afternoon, the restaurant is a great place to watch the sunset.

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 three-course meals, 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.

After a quarter-century in business, this remains one of Lima's best 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 Sundays.

Situated on a quiet Miraflores side street, and featuring a wood-burning oven and a cozy lounge where locals linger over cocktails late into the evening, this understated eatery serves up comfort food, Gastón Acurio–style. Nearly everything on the menu is good, but standouts include the anticuchos (kebab-like skewers, usually of beef hearts, but here also with more imaginative options such as swordfish) and cochinilla de 21 días, a whole suckling pig with meat so juicy you won’t need the accompanying zarza criolla (pickled onions) Go late at night, when the mood is mellow and romantic.

This vast, whitewashed restaurant with a laid-back vibe is popular with limeños, who flock here for its inventive recipes and fresh seafood. The name is a play on the Spanish term for the seven deadly sins, and gula (gluttony)—think fettuccine with a mix of scallops, shrimp, and squid in a spicy cream sauce—is one of many sins worth committing here. Another is avaricia, or covetousness: the paiche fillet served with tacacho quinoa and the cecina (smoked pork)-and-chonta (heart of palm) salad will have your palate lusting. Forget morality, and just dig in!

On a sunny afternoon, the view of the malecón and its graceful paragliders from the upper floors of this restaurant is as good as the food—which is excellent. Dishes include classic cebichería fare such as tiradito criollo (thin slices of marinated fish covered in a yellow-pepper sauce), conchitas a la parmesana (scallops on the half-shell smothered in garlic and toasted cheese), or pescado a la chorrillana (fish fillet in a tomato, onion, and chili sauce). Piqueos, platters of appetizers, are fun to share. This place has another, less-crowded (but also less-scenic) location on Avenida Conquistadores in San Isidro.

Arrive before 1 pm to get a window table.