Panchita
Tuesday, January 30
The best Peruvian food you can get is of course when you are invited to a Peruvian family's home and get to enjoy some home cooked meal. Since this is not so easy to manage for most tourists who travel to Peru, I always recommend the Panchita restaurant in Lima's tourist district of Miraflores. This is the perfect place to make yourself familiar with Peruvian food.
When I lived and worked in Lima for one year in 2013 doing my voluntary social year in Lima a few years ago, I got to enjoy freshly home cooked Peruvian food every day at lunchtime at work, so I know how traditional Peruvian cuisine should taste like. For many people who are visiting Peru or South America for the first time, Peruvian cuisine is still a new concept to them. In my opinion, a good place to start is the "Panchita" restaurant, founded by the famous Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio. At "Panchita" they offer a really large selection of Peruvian dishes. The prices are a bit high compared to other restaurants in Lima, but the portions sizes are usually very generous and the food is of a very high standard. The reason why I would recommend this restaurant for "Peru beginners" is that the food is very well prepared and beautifully and plated, which is especially important with the many delicious stews and braised dishes of Peruvian cuisine. The menu also includes many of the typical street food classics such as "anticuchos". As a tourist, you can order the street food dishes here in the restaurant that you might not dare to try on the street yet. And even if you are already familiar with Peruvian cuisine, "Panchita" is a very good place to enjoy some high-quality Peruvian food in the Miraflores district.
