What to eat in Lima

What food is Lima known for?

Ceviche first, then Criollo cooking like lomo saltado and causa, chifa (Chinese-Peruvian) and Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian).

Lima's food is a mix with a long memory. The Moche cured fish long before the Spanish arrived with limes and onions. Enslaved Africans turned beef heart into anticuchos. Chinese workers, who came from 1849, opened the first chifas around Calle Capón in what is now Barrio Chino. Japanese families, from 1899, gave the city Nikkei cooking and the sashimi-thin tiradito.

The result is a city where a plate of fried rice and a bowl of raw fish in lime are both called local. PromPerú puts it plainly: the true secret is the freedom to create.

What is the national dish of Peru?

Ceviche. Peru declared it Cultural Heritage of the Nation in 2004, and UNESCO added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2023.

Raw white fish is cut into cubes, cured for a few minutes in lime juice with red onion, salt and ají limo or rocoto, and served with sweet potato and corn. The juice left on the plate is leche de tigre, and Limeños drink it. Every 28 June is the Día Nacional del Cebiche.

Two other dishes fight for the title in everyday life. Lomo saltado, beef stir-fried in a wok with onion, tomato, soy sauce and fries, served with rice, is the Criollo plate everyone orders. Pollo a la brasa is what Peru eats most. Our ceviche guide covers the national dish in depth.

Watch ceviche, lomo saltado and a pisco sour made in front of you in Barranco, then eat a full lunch's worth of Peru. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

★ 4.9 · 4 hours · from $105

Explore the Barranco food tour → Tour details

What are the must-try foods in Lima?

Ten dishes cover most of the city: ceviche, tiradito, lomo saltado, causa, ají de gallina, anticuchos, pollo a la brasa, chaufa, pan con chicharrón and picarones.

Not every tour serves every dish, so the table shows where each one turns up on the tours we list. Lunch-style tours lean on restaurant plates. Street food tours lean on grills, carts and the market.

What do Peruvians eat the most?

Rice, potatoes and chicken, and above all pollo a la brasa. Wikipedia puts the average at about three times a month.

Pollo a la brasa was born in 1950 in Chaclacayo, on the edge of Lima, where the Swiss immigrant Roger Schuler roasted chicken on a turning spit, according to Marca Perú. It comes with thick fries, a simple salad and a set of sauces, with a cold Inca Kola on the side. Peru gives it its own day, the third Sunday of July.

Lunch is the big meal of the day. Many Limeños eat a set lunch of soup and a main at a small local spot, and the evening is lighter. Plan your own day the same way and you will eat better.

What is eaten for breakfast in Peru?

In Lima, the classics are pan con chicharrón and tamales, best on weekend mornings, with coffee or a hot emoliente from a street cart.

Pan con chicharrón is fried pork and slices of sweet potato in a crusty roll, topped with salsa criolla (red onion, lime and ají). Marca Perú names the district of Lince for it. Tamales are corn dough filled with pork or chicken, wrapped in leaves and steamed, eaten with the same onion salsa. That makes pork the common breakfast meat.

Emoliente is the street drink of the morning: roasted barley and herbs, served hot from a cart. On weekdays most people keep it simple, with bread, cheese, avocado and coffee.

What do people in Peru usually eat for dinner?

A lighter meal than lunch, often chifa, pollo a la brasa, a sandwich or anticuchos from a grill that only fires up at dusk.

Ceviche is a lunch dish, so do not plan it for dinner. Evenings belong to smoke and woks. Anticucheras set up their grills as the light goes, chifas fill with families sharing fried rice and wonton soup, and the pollerías stay busy late.

If you want the evening side with a guide, Criollo Nights walks 6 to 7 stops in the old town after dark with 14+ tastings, from chaufa amazónico to anticuchos. It is new, with 5 reviews so far, all at 5 stars. Guests on the historic centre tour say some groups also go at night.

What is Peru's most bizarre food?

Cuy, roast guinea pig, is the one visitors talk about. In Lima you are more likely to try anticuchos, which are beef heart.

Cuy is an Andean dish, often served whole, and some Lima restaurants keep it on the menu. Anticuchos are the street version of adventurous eating, and they taste like a very tender steak with smoke. After that, the strange part is mostly the fruit: lúcuma, chirimoya, granadilla and aguaymanto are new to most visitors.

The market tours are where you meet these. The Barranco tuk-tuk tour lists 10+ seasonal fruits on top of its 13 tastings.

Anticuchos, creole churros, a chilcano in an old casona, Lima's largest market and Barrio Chino with a local guide. About 10 items, guests say.

★ 4.9 · 4 hours · from $69

Explore the historic centre street food tour → Tour details

Which desserts and drinks should you try in Lima?

Picarones, suspiro a la limeña, mazamorra morada, arroz con leche and turrón de Doña Pepa. To drink, pisco sour, chilcano, chicha morada and Inca Kola.

• Picarones: rings of squash and sweet-potato dough, fried and soaked in chancaca syrup.
• Suspiro a la limeña: caramel-like manjar blanco under meringue, served in a glass. Marca Perú ties it to the writer José Gálvez Barrenechea and his wife Amparo Ayarez.
• Mazamorra morada and arroz con leche: purple-corn pudding and rice pudding, often served together in one cup as a "clásico".
• Turrón de Doña Pepa: anise bars under cane-sugar honey and sprinkles, eaten in October for the Señor de los Milagros processions.
• Pisco sour and chilcano: pisco with lime, egg white and bitters, or with ginger ale and lime.
• Chicha morada and Inca Kola: the purple-corn drink and the yellow soda, both without alcohol.

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