Welcome back to Lima! I haven’t been here since mid-2019, pre-pandemic. This is a somewhat spur-of-the-moment visit (I knew I’d come some time between now and early November, as Henry is hanging with his family for two months). Mostly because I really needed to get away and relax for a bit, and particularly from BA at the moment – it’s been a rough few months in personal and family life. And, I decided that it would be nice to be with Henry for my… yikes… 65th birthday!
A lot has changed. Several of my favorite restaurants are now gone, as has happened everywhere. There are lots of new places as well. I have three days here now, then it’s a little over a week up in Trujillo with Henry’s family, then back here for another three days, so likely six places each round. My current plan is no revisits to old favorites, even those that are still around. That may change – it’s hard to resist slipping in to Maido, for example. But there’s enough new stuff here to keep me going, and probably plan a longer visit. Maybe I can get some of my friends from “up north” to come down and do a week’s gastronomic binge?!
I’m going to try to keep this short and sweet. Started off for lunch at Punta Sal, corner of Tripoli and Malecón Cisneros, in Miraflores. Long been on my list with a recommendation of “you have to try their ceviche norteño. Problem is, they don’t have a ceviche norteño, and apparently never did. Their house specialty, however, is their ceviche asesino, a mix of white fish and various shellfish, including the famed local concha negra. It’s an excellent ceviche, and well worth stopping in for. Their version of a local favorite merengado de chirimoya is delicious, but overwhelmingly sweet for my tastebuds – I just don’t go for those really sweet desserts. It is a classic though, with chirimoya fruit, dulce de leche, and shards of merengue. Reasonably priced, great service, though I don’t get why all the waiters are wearing hairnets.
One of my thoughts, which may be changing, was to try to get to the few places on last year’s Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Leading the pack among them, Mayta, Av. Mariscal La Mar 1285, Miraflores, for the first night’s dinner. The focus is much the same as many of the new hotspot restaurants – indigenous ingredients presented in modern ways. And, no question, over an 11 course (though 19 items, since several courses have more than one bite) they do that. It’s all beautifully presented. But it’s presented with an onslaught of detailed information about each ingredient – by the time we were three or four courses in I felt like I’d been in a lecture hall. It was daunting, and annoying. And while every plate was beautifully presented (though I have a bit of an aversion to the trio presented on skeletons or dried carcasses), none of it really wowed me when it came to flavors. I have to admit, I also wasn’t all that keen on 6 of the 19 bites being desserts – just too much sugar for me. It was all fine, nothing bad, but nothing I’d want to run back for. Add in some weird service missteps (like getting half a glass of water poured at the beginning and then never getting a refill, even when asked for, and getting charged for a full bottle) – I honestly don’t get why this place is on the list, other than that it’s something sort of new and different. And ridiculously expensive.
Had to get in a creative sushi fix, and I’d had Tomo Cocina Nikkei, at Francisco de Paula Camino 260, Miraflores, recommended to me as the hot new spot to check out. :unch, day two. Nice space, fantastic service. Really creative, interesting, and tasty sushi, albeit with perhaps a little too much emphasis on things like truffle oil and foie gras thrown into the mix. And while I enjoyed all the sushi (I did an omakase), the two best things I ate were the duck confit gyoza and the two preparations of razor clams – in fact, give me a large plate of both of those and I’d be supremely happy. The razor clams, I’d say, were the second best plate of food I ate on this round!
I was reading through Nicholas Gill’s recommended “Eat List” for Lima that he put out earlier this year, and two places stood out, since he touted them as Peruvian-French and Peruvian-Italian fusion. I started with the Italianate one for dinner on day two, though it turns out he had them backwards. Contraste, Av. la Paz 604, Miraflores, just a few blocks from my hotel, is the French influenced one. It’s a little, tiny place, a gem of a restaurant, and the kind of place that I’d be at all the time if I lived near it. Great service, lovely ambiance, and absolutely exquisite food. The duck heart anticuchos was far and away the best thing I ate this round, and the prawn chupe came in a not so distant third, after those razor clams above.
Third day lunch, I headed to the ostensibly French spot, Awicha, Jirón Domeyer 296, Barranco, which turns out to be closer to the Italian side of things, though perhaps a bit both Italian and French. Cute place, surprisingly, it’s located in a hostel. With just four tables inside and a couple out on the sidewalk, and a kitchen that I think is smaller than my home kitchen, they’re turning out stellar food. The tuna tonnato, a bit of tuna on tuna action, was excellent, and a whopping portion for one person. By the time I got to the duck confit served over huacatay pesto potatoes, I was already full. But I made it through the duck and some of the potatoes – all delicious. Another winner!
Unfortunately, third night dinner was a bit of a disappointment. Some of it may be on me. I was just sort of food-coma-ed out by this point. But I’d wanted to try what’s being touted as the city’s best Italian at this point, Rocco Trattoria, C. Colón 501, Miraflores, which is under the auspices of chef Rafael Osterling of the famed Rafael restaurante. Perhaps I should have considered that I wasn’t overly impressed with that spot. They didn’t have the pasta I was there to try – the much touted sea urchin carbonara, because, no sea urchins in the market (same thing at the sushi bar above, they said they couldn’t get any). So I ordered an interesting sounding clam cacio e pepe. Bucatini that was too al dente, set atop a pool of creamy, not very peppery sauce rather than mixed with it, and a few scattered slices of what seemed more like scallop than clam. Just kind of blah. I also found the service to be a bit unwelcoming and pushy – I mean, let me actually pick up the menu to look at it before I tell you what I want, you literally just shoved it in front of me, you know? I decided, all things considered, to cut bait – didn’t order another pasta or a main course (the pastas are all appetizer sized), paid the check (expensive!), and called it an early night.
Off to Trujillo now!
