Lima holds the title of the World's Best Restaurant (Maido, 2025) and packs four entries into the global top 40. Its cooking blends Pacific seafood, Andean and Amazonian produce, and Japanese and Chinese immigrant traditions.
Lima at a glance
What to eat
Ceviche (cevicherias, lunch only); Aji de gallina, causa, seco de cordero; Anticuchos and picarones; Pisco and Mercado de Surquillo produce.
When to go
Best: June–August. Also good: April–May and September–November.
Top tables
This guide lists 8 award-winning restaurants, starting with Maido, Kjolle, Mérito and Cosme.
Where locals eat
Local favorites off the prestige lists include La Perlita, Al Toke Pez, Bodega Carbone and El Chinito.
8 award-winning6 critic-reviewed10 local favorites2 hot right now1 markets6 walking tour stops10 chef's picks5 sandwich shops10 romantic dinners5 breakfast spots10 new openings15 dish spots
Food walking tour: Barranco on a plate: a Lima ceviche and anticucho crawl4.0 hours on foot, 6 stops, in eating order. Add the whole tour to your trip, then give it a day.
Lima's picks run from the restaurant ranked best in the world in 2025 to a pork-skin sandwich counter on Jirón Carabaya. Ceviche, Nikkei and criollo cooking are all covered, with the discoveries split between Barranco, Surquillo, Breña and the old centre.
The well-known five
Maido
Miraflores
World's 50 Best #1 (2025)Nikkei (Peruvian-Japanese)$$$$
Order: The tasting menu, the flamed toro nigiri, and the lomo saltado
Mitsuharu Tsumura's Nikkei restaurant took the World's 50 Best No. 1 spot in 2025. Infatuation also calls its lomo saltado one of the best in Lima, so the à la carte side is worth a look if you skip the tasting menu.
Best for: celebration dinner · Reserve: Book ahead through maido.mesa247.pe or +51 1 3135100
Latin America's 50 Best #2 (2025)Contemporary Peruvian$$$$
Kjolle was ranked No. 2 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 and named the best restaurant in Peru. It is the more produce-led of the two big Lima tasting-menu rooms, set in Barranco.
Best for: celebration dinner · Reserve: book well ahead
Worth confirming: hours and that it is still open; we do not have a verified street address.
Latin America's 50 Best #26 (2025)Cebichería / Peruvian seafood$$$
Order: Marcona ceviche (sea urchin from southern Peru), the classic ceviche, tiradito, the gran chalana seafood feast, and chaufa pekín
Gastón Acurio's cebichería placed No. 26 on Latin America's 50 Best 2025. Per the 50 Best listing it serves lunch only, so plan it as a long midday meal.
Best for: long ceviche lunch · Reserve: lunch only; booking advisable · Hours: Lunch only (per 50 Best listing); exact hours not stated
Order: Pan con chicharrón with sweet potato and salsa criolla, a tamal on the side, and strong drip coffee
A bodega turned sandwich shop that Peruvian press calls the city's most famous sangucheria. The fried-pork pan con chicharrón on Peruvian French bread is the thing to order.
Best for: breakfast or quick lunch · Reserve: walk-in
Order: Ceviche done the Limeño way, the seafood rice, and the deep-fried giant squid; ask about the dish of the day
A small counter with no reservations, first come, first served, and sometimes a line or standing room. The kitchen runs on a short list of seafood plates plus a daily special such as a saltado or sashimi.
Best for: solo counter lunch · Reserve: no reservations; first come, first served
Condé Nast Traveler Hot List 2026Peruvian (cebichería and stews)$$
Order: Razor clams and fresh ceviches, ají de gallina with crab, olluco with grilled river shrimp, stuffed caigua in a chupe, and the chimbo egg dessert
Peruvian stews and cold seafood cooked by Ricardo Martins, good for lunch or a casual dinner. It made Condé Nast Traveler's Hot List 2026.
Best for: lunch of regional stews · Reserve: Reservations via laperlita.mesa247.pe or +51 933 476 285
Order: Thin rectangular wood-fired pizzas, ossobuco ravioli, ossobuco braised in red wine, empanadas filled with lomo saltado or ají de gallina, and yellow potato bread with pork lard
A family-run place that started a decade ago on the terrace of the owner's grandparents' house. Julio Herrera Dos Reis runs it with chef Marcia Cornejo, and the bar pours more than twenty pisco macerados.
Best for: reserved family-style dinner · Reserve: reservation only · Hours: Thursday to Sunday only (per Peru21)
Jirón Napo 216, Breña, Lima
Worth confirming: hours and that it is still open.
Order: Crema volteada de algarrobina, ranfañote with walnuts, honey and cheese, the Amazonian vanilla and blackberry cruffin, and an iced algarrobina latte
A small Barranco workshop baking with Peruvian ingredients such as algarrobina, chirimoya and arazá. Whole cakes can be taken away with advance reservation.
Best for: pastry and coffee stop · Reserve: walk-in; reserve whole cakes in advance
Calle Tejada, Barranco, Lima (street number not given)
Worth confirming: hours and that it is still open.
New places change fast. “Provisional” means a guide or directory lists it as new but we have not confirmed the opening date. Check hours and book ahead before you go.
Memorable breakfasts in Lima
The top pick here; the rest are on their own page.
El Chinito
Centro de Lima
Order: Pan con chicharrón
A classic pork-and-bread breakfast with criollo roots.
Picks come from romantic-dinner lists on booking and review sites. Confirm dinner service, menus and availability before you book.
Food walking tour
Barranco on a plate: a Lima ceviche and anticucho crawl
Coffee, ceviche, skewers and chocolate inside a few blocks of Barranco's old centre.
Start 10:30 at Ciclos Café, Jirón Colina, BarrancoTime 4.0 hoursDistance about 0.8 kmBest days Daily is the plan, but hours for most of these stops are not published in our sources; weekday lunch is the safest bet. Worth confirming each stop before you go.
Barranco's food stops sit unusually close together: Canta Rana, El Tío Mario, Isolina and La Perlita are all within a few hundred metres of one another around the Parque Municipal. This tour spends the hours on eating rather than walking, going from a filter coffee to ceviche, beef-heart skewers, a criollo stew, a long-list seafood bar and Peruvian chocolate.
↓ 3 min · 150 m on foot (approx.): Walk out of Jirón Colina toward the Pasaje Génova side of the park; Canta Rana is at number 101, a minute or two away.
2
Canta Rana
Classic Barranco
Order: The ceviche, in the caper-and-avocado version, and the scallop-filled rice. Add parihuela or a chupe only if you are a group of four or more.
A long-running Barranco cebichería that both The Infatuation and El Comercio point to for ceviche. Order it first while you are hungry and the fish is at its best.
Pacing: Split one dish per stop and stop ordering when you are full: skip La Perlita's second round if the ceviche and skewers were generous. Drink water between stops.
Plan B: If a stop is closed, swap in Pregón de las Once on calle Tejada in Barranco for sweets (exact address not on record, worth confirming), or Honesto for orange wine and chocolate. Mercado de Surquillo No. 1 is a different part of town: a court ordered it to reopen in September 2025 after a closure, so confirm it is open before making a market trip there.
Avoid: Barranco gets crowded on weekend evenings.
Bring: Soles in cash for the small places, and a card for the sit-down ones. Share every plate: ceviche, skewers and a stew add up fast. Wear shoes for uneven pavement.
Skip it if: Skip it if you want a market morning or a long walk; this route is under a kilometre and all about eating. Also skip if you do not eat seafood or offal.
Ends at: El Cacaotal, 128 A Jirón Colina, Barranco (a few steps from where you started).
Walking times and distances are approximate, and opening hours change: confirm before you go.
Hot right now in Lima
What people are lining up for and posting about this month. Entries expire after about four months unless they are reported again.
Always a lineLast confirmed Aug 2025
Isolina Taberna Peruana
Barranco
The thing: Traditional Peruvian tavern food such as ají de gallina and cebiche; seco de res not mentioned in sources read
Ten-year-old Barranco tavern that anchors a well-known eating street.
Crazes move fast. “Just spotted” means one report so far, and most entries rest on a single source: confirm hours and expect a wait.
The Lima food map
Every place in this guide, pinned. Tap a pin to see what to order, then add it to your trip.
Open the full Lima food map: every place on our lists too (pizza, ice cream, romantic, where locals and the famous eat, cooking classes), searchable by dish.
· 17 of 21 dish places are pinned; the rest appear in the lists below. Pins are placed by address or name and can be a little off; always confirm in your maps app.
Plan my days in Lima
Tell us what you like and we will line up the places on this page into a day-by-day plan. Only places from this guide, never anything else.
What to eat in Lima, and where
Each dish comes with the places that do it best. Tap Add to my trip on the ones you want, or find them on the map above.
Ceviche
raw fish cured in lime with ají and red onion
The 5 best places to eat it in Lima
1
Canta Rana
Barranco · $$
Order: Ceviche (try the caper-and-avocado version)
A generous-portioned Barranco cevichería with a loyal local following.
Lonely Planet: peak (visitor spike, higher prices) June-August (winter, Machu Picchu traffic); shoulder April-May and Sept-Nov; summer Dec-March is sunniest, February hottest and very humid; Semana Santa raises prices. LP says 'January to March is the best time for sunny weather' and ceviche is best Jan-March; TableJourney puts ceviche peak at Dec-March. So the food-best window (Dec-March) differs from the LP 'peak' (crowds) window. LP does not mention garua and names no avoid months; TableJourney mentions cold sea fog June-August. Months are our mapping of prose.
In season
Ceviche (peak supply)Jan–Mar, Dec
River shrimp / chupe de camaronesJan–Mar, Dec
Lucuma, tumbo, granadillaJan–Mar, Dec
Pisco grape harvest (vendimia, Ica)Feb–Apr
Ají amarillo and ají limo harvestSep–Nov
Picarones and chicha moradaApr–Oct
Seco de cordero, aji de gallina, rocoto rellenoJun–Aug
Turron de Dona PepaOctOctober only (Lonely Planet)
Food events
Dia del CevicheJun
Dia del Pollo a la BrasaJul
MisturaSep
Closures to plan around
Central and Maido (Mon-Sat only, closed Sunday); Cosme open Sunday lunch only (TableJourney Monday page, hours may have changed)
Ceviche is a lunch dish: La Mar (12:00-17:00/17:30, no reservations, queue from 11:30 on weekends), Punto Azul (kitchen closes 16:00) and El Mercado (12:30-17:00) are lunch only (TableJourney)
Semana Santa (late March/April, moves) is a big domestic holiday; hotel prices rise sharply (Lonely Planet). Independence Day 28-29 July. No restaurant holiday-shutdown source found.
Meal costs and tipping (PEN)
Casual: Aries (Calle Los Pinos) starter, main and drink about S/12 (Mega Starr blog, undated)
Tipping: Casual menu lunch spots: not expected, round up S/1-3. Mid-range: 5-10% if no 'servicio' line. Fine dining: 10% if not included. Many mid- to high-end places add a 10-13% service line; if present you've already tipped (HowToPeru, 2026).
From published guides and tourism boards. Months are our mapping of how guides describe the seasons; 2027 event dates are expected, not confirmed. Prices come from single sources of varying age, so treat them as a rough guide. Compare cities by month
What the critics said (last 24 months)
Recent reviews from Lima. The summaries are ours, in our own words; follow the link for the critic's full take.
Los Primos de San Juan
New
Surquillo
El Comercio (Somos / Provecho), Marissa Chiappe · Jun 2026
Three cousins give Peruvian street food a fine-dining treatment in Surquillo
Locally loved places that are not on the big prestige lists.
bar
La Perlita
Barranco · $$
Order: Rocoto-red ceviche, sea-urchin-tongue and pejerrey tiradito, stuffed caigua
A tavern-style, informal room in a traditional Barranco house with creaking wood floors, evening piano and a lively crowd, serving nostalgic Peruvian plates from chef Ricardo Martins. It made Condé Nast Traveler's 2026 Hot List, so it is newly noticed rather than a long-time secret.
Order: Ceviche made the Limeño way, seafood rice, deep-fried giant squid; ask about the dish of the day
A 12-seat counter where chef Toshi cooks in front of you, first-come and no reservations, so expect a line or a standing spot. Regarded as a modern huarique built around a few perfected dishes.
Order: Jamón del país butifarra sandwich, fried pejerrey sandwich with sarza criolla, strong drip coffee
A century-old Italian-Peruvian bodega, cafe and bar with original tile floors and almost no signage, cash only. Good for a long breakfast or lunch downtown.
Order: Pan con chicharrón with sweet potato and salsa criolla, plus a tamal and strong coffee
A generations-old sanguchería founded in 1960 and now run by the founder's son, the classic Lima pork-sandwich breakfast. Second source is a Frommer's listing surfaced in search, not read in full, so confidence is medium.
Order: Thin wood-fired pizzas, ossobuco ravioli, ossobuco braised in red wine, Peruvian-filled empanadas, yellow potato bread with pork lard.
A reservation-only huarique open Thursday to Sunday that grew from a home cooking workshop on the owner's grandparents' terrace. It blends Italian and Brazilian ideas with Peruvian flavors, and Premios Summum named it Lima's best huarique.
Order: Orange wines made from pisco grapes, a pour from the spirits shelf, and a bar of El Ganso dark chocolate.
A small Peruvian delicatessen on a Barranco alley (Jiron Domeyer) with a short menu and a few outdoor tables, good for a relaxed sip and snack.
Seen in timeout.com · worth confirming hours before you go
street food
Oiga
Surquillo · $
Order: The vegan anticuchos, a plant-based take on the classic beef-heart skewers; the small menu also has papa rellena and tallarines verdes.
A container stall that reinvents a Lima staple without drifting far from its flavor, reportedly converting traditionalists. It shares its container with the vegan burger stall La Recontra.
Seen in timeout.com · worth confirming hours before you go
street food
La Recontra
Surquillo · $
Order: The vegan burgers; the whole menu is plant-based.
Run from the same container as sister spot Oiga, and Time Out's local author calls its burgers the best in Lima.
Awards come from the guides named on each listing (Latin America's 50 Best 2025 / World's 50 Best 2025). Researched October 25, 2026. Restaurants change; confirm hours, reservations and current stars before you go. Some addresses, phone numbers and websites come from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so call ahead to confirm. Local favorites are editorial picks, not rankings.
Chef Amazing’s lists for Lima: where locals eat, new openings, romantic dinners, ice cream, cooking classes and more, each place with what to order. Cooking classes in Lima: who teaches, what you cook, how long and how to book.
