Lima street food

What is the best street food to eat in Lima?

Anticuchos. After that, picarones, churros, choclo with cheese and papa rellena.

• Anticuchos: beef heart marinated in ají panca, grilled on skewers and served with potato and corn.
• Picarones: squash and sweet-potato doughnuts in chancaca syrup, fried as you wait.
• Churros: long, crisp and filled with manjar blanco; Marca Perú says the city's churro tradition runs back more than 50 years.
• Choclo with cheese: giant-kernel Andean corn with a slab of fresh cheese.
• Papa rellena: mashed potato stuffed with seasoned beef, olives and egg, fried and served with salsa criolla.
• Pan con chicharrón and tamales: the weekend breakfast pair.

What are anticuchos and where do you eat them?

Grilled beef-heart skewers, marinated in ají panca and vinegar, sold from street grills in the evening.

The skewer is older than the Spanish, who added garlic and vinegar and swapped llama for beef. Enslaved Africans in colonial Lima made the beef heart famous, since offal was the cut they were given. Today every class of Limeño eats them, and the anticucheras who run the grills are local celebrities. Doña Pochita, which appears in Anthony Bourdain's 2013 Parts Unknown episode on Lima, is still open.

Expect a soft, smoky bite that tastes like good steak. They come with a boiled potato, a piece of corn and a hot ají sauce.

Anticuchos, picarones, siu mai, ceviche and a live pisco sour at the huariques locals use, all in 2 hours. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

★ 4.8 · 2 hours · from $47

Explore the two-hour street food tour → Tour details

What is a popular snack in Peru?

Cancha (toasted corn), choclo with cheese, papa rellena and salchipapa, plus fruit cut to order at every market.

Snacks follow the corn and the potato. Cancha arrives free with ceviche. Salchipapa, fries with sliced hot dog and sauces, is the late-night favourite. Chinatown adds its own: siu mai and min pao steamed buns. The table shows where the tours put them in your hand.

Where is the best street food in Lima?

The historic centre, for carts, the Central Market and Barrio Chino. Barranco and Miraflores for desserts and market stalls.

• The historic centre: Jirón de la Unión, the streets around Plaza Mayor, the Central Market and Calle Capón in Barrio Chino, the birthplace of chifa.
• Barranco: an indoor market, small bakeries and the stalls near the Bridge of Sighs.
• Miraflores: Marca Perú points to the carts at Parque Kennedy for churros, picarones, arroz con leche and mazamorra.
• Lince and Magdalena del Mar: Marca Perú credits Lince with pan con chicharrón and generous anticuchos, and Magdalena with some of the best causas and papas rellenas.

Our guide to the neighbourhoods compares them for a first visit.

What sweets are sold on Lima's streets?

Picarones, churros, mazamorra morada, arroz con leche and, in October, turrón de Doña Pepa.

Picarones are the queen. Marca Perú says they take centre stage during the Señor de los Milagros festivities each October, which is also turrón season. Churros come straight from the fryer with a filling piped in. Mazamorra morada and arroz con leche share a cup when you order a "clásico".

Downtown, Churros San Francisco is a stop on the ceviche and pisco tour, which lists churros, suspiro, arroz con leche and mazamorra morada in one afternoon from $39.

What do Limeños drink with street food?

Chicha morada, Inca Kola and emoliente, with a chilcano or pisco sour when the day allows.

Chicha morada is purple corn boiled with pineapple, cinnamon and clove, served cold. It goes with picarones, Marca Perú says, and with almost everything else. Inca Kola, the yellow soda, is the default with pollo a la brasa. Emoliente is a hot drink of roasted barley and herbs poured from a cart.

For something stronger, the historic centre tour serves a chilcano in one of Lima's oldest casonas, and the two-hour tour ends with a pisco sour made live.

Is street food in Lima safe to eat?

Yes, if you eat where locals queue and the food comes off the heat in front of you. A guide removes the guesswork.

Busy grills turn food over fast, and anticuchos, picarones and churros are cooked to order. Peel your own fruit or let the market vendor cut it for you. Give raw dishes a little more care, and eat ceviche at lunch, as Limeños do.

This is where a tour earns its price. Guides know which stalls they trust, order for you and handle the cash. Bring small notes for tips, wear comfortable shoes and leave big bags at the hotel, as the listings advise. The historic centre tour allows no luggage.

Food carts, classic eateries, Lima's largest market and Barrio Chino, with a chilcano in a colonial casona. 4.9 stars from 384 reviews.

★ 4.9 · 4 hours · from $69

Explore the historic centre street food tour → Tour details

Which Lima street food tour should you book?

The historic centre tour for the classic route, the two-hour tour if you are short on time, the tuk-tuk tour for Barranco.

All of them include the food and a local guide, and all cancel free up to 24 hours before. They differ in area, length, alcohol and who they can feed. None of these four can cater for vegetarians; the Surquillo market tour can.

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