Lima has something no other city in South America can claim: two restaurants that have simultaneously ranked in the top 10 of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Central and Maido are not only the best in Peru but global benchmarks of what contemporary cuisine can achieve when it starts from extraordinary biodiversity and serious work with local ingredients. Alongside them is Astrid y Gastón, the restaurant that did the most to bring Peruvian cuisine to the world in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a constellation of younger concepts that have turned Lima into the city with the most dynamic fine dining scene on the continent.
Contents
Central: the best in the world in 2023
Central is located in the Barranco district on Avenida Pedro de Osma. It is the project of chef Virgilio Martínez and his wife and co-owner Pía León, also a chef and founder of Kjolle. In 2023, Central was named the best restaurant in the world by The World’s 50 Best ranking, the most important recognition in international fine dining.
Central’s concept is clear: each dish in the tasting menu represents an ecosystem or a specific altitude in Peru. The journey begins in the depths of the Pacific and rises through coastal valleys, the mid and high Andes, the puna, cloud forests, and the Amazon. The ingredients for each dish come from the ecosystem it represents, and in many cases they are products not found in conventional markets but sourced directly through Mater Iniciativa, the research organization created by Martínez and León as the scientific foundation of the restaurant’s cuisine.
Dining at Central is not just about tasting extraordinary dishes. It is a journey through Peru’s geography and biodiversity that invites you to think about the territory in a completely different way. Many diners describe it as the most complete restaurant experience they have had anywhere in the world, not only for its technique or presentation, which are exceptional, but for the conceptual coherence and meaning behind each dish.
The tasting menu has around 16 courses. The price per person is among the highest in Lima but comparable to top restaurants in Europe or Asia. Reservations must be made weeks or even months in advance depending on the season. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.
Maido: the peak of nikkei cuisine
Maido is located in Miraflores. It is the restaurant of chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, known as Micha, and represents the most complete and internationally recognized expression of nikkei cuisine, the fusion of Japanese and Peruvian culinary traditions that has been developing in Lima for more than 130 years.
Tsumura is the son of Japanese immigrants and grew up in Lima surrounded by both culinary cultures. For him, this is not an artificial fusion but a natural expression of his identity: a Lima-born chef of Japanese heritage working with Peruvian Pacific ingredients using techniques rooted in both traditions.
The tasting menu at Maido, known as the Maido Experience, includes around 12 courses and lasts approximately three hours. It combines Japanese precision, with fish cuts and presentations inspired by kaiseki, with flavors and textures that are unmistakably Peruvian. Leche de tigre with hints of soy sauce, Pacific fish sashimi with chili, and creamy seafood rice prepared with nikkei techniques are some of the dishes that define the restaurant’s style.
The price per person with pairing is in line with the best restaurants in the world. The version without pairing is significantly more accessible, although still a high-end dining experience. Reservations require advance planning, especially on weekends.
Astrid y Gastón: the restaurant that changed the story
Astrid y Gastón was the first Peruvian restaurant to enter The World’s 50 Best ranking and the one that contributed the most to positioning Peruvian cuisine internationally during the 1990s and early 2000s. Gastón Acurio, the chef and entrepreneur who founded it in 1994 with his German wife Astrid Gutsche, is the figure who has done the most to communicate to the world that Peruvian cuisine deserves a place among the great culinary traditions.
The restaurant opened in 1994 in a historic house in Miraflores on Cantuarias Street with a concept that applied French techniques, where Acurio had trained, to Peruvian ingredients. Over time, the concept evolved into a more authentically Peruvian expression as Acurio and his team researched ingredients and culinary traditions from the country’s three regions.
Today, Astrid y Gastón operates in Casa Hacienda Moreyra, a 17th-century mansion in San Isidro, one of the most beautiful places in Lima to dine. The house features gardens, high-ceilinged rooms, and colonial architecture that elevate the experience beyond the food. The current concept is a contemporary vision of Peruvian cuisine that explores the country through its ingredients with fine dining technique and the historical perspective that comes from decades of work.
The restaurant offers both a tasting menu and an à la carte menu, making it more flexible for those who prefer choosing individual dishes. Prices are high but generally more accessible than Central or Maido. Reservations are recommended, especially for weekend dinners.
Kjolle: the voice of Pía León
Kjolle is located in the same building as Central in Barranco. It is the personal project of Pía León, who in 2021 was named Latin America’s Best Female Chef. The name comes from an Andean tree that grows at extreme altitudes, which reflects the restaurant’s focus: ingredients defined by Peru’s biodiversity, especially from valleys, high-altitude lakes, mountains, and Amazonian forests.
If Central is a systematic journey through Peru’s ecosystems, Kjolle is a more personal and intuitive proposal where León’s identity as a chef is more directly expressed. The colors, textures, and unexpected ingredient combinations have a distinctive visual and flavor signature. The tasting menu is shorter than Central’s, and the atmosphere is more intimate.
La Mar: Gastón Acurio’s cevichería
La Mar is the cevichería Gastón Acurio created to show that Lima’s popular cuisine can reach the same level of excellence as fine dining. It is not a tasting menu restaurant or focused on avant-garde techniques, but rather the best possible expression of ceviche and seafood cuisine executed with top-quality ingredients and the rigor that popular dishes deserve.
The menu includes classic ceviches and variations, tiraditos, causas, leche de tigre, seafood rice dishes, and stews. It is one of the busiest cevicherías in Lima, and reservations for lunch are almost essential, especially on weekends. Prices are high for a cevichería but reasonable for the quality.
Isolina: elevated creole cuisine
Isolina in Barranco is the project of chef José del Castillo, named after his mother. It opened in 2015 with a simple but ambitious goal: to prepare traditional Lima home-style creole cuisine with the best possible ingredients and without unnecessary modernization. Ají de gallina, sancochado, pork cracklings, carapulcra, and rice pudding are the same classic dishes executed with a level of quality and consistency rarely found in traditional eateries.
Isolina offers one of the most honest value-for-quality experiences in Lima’s dining scene and is often the restaurant that top chefs recommend when asked where to eat authentic Peruvian food.
What to know before booking
Lima’s fine dining scene has a few key characteristics to keep in mind. Reservations for Central and Maido must be made weeks in advance for tasting menus. Astrid y Gastón is more flexible, but Casa Hacienda Moreyra fills up quickly, especially on weekends and during peak travel seasons.
Tasting menus in Lima’s top restaurants last between two and four hours. These are not quick dinners but long experiences that require time and attention. Service in all these restaurants is at an international level, with staff trained in the origin of ingredients and the techniques behind each dish.
The price of a dinner at Central or Maido with pairing is comparable to top restaurants worldwide. Without pairing, the cost is typically between half and two-thirds of that. Kjolle, Astrid y Gastón, and Isolina offer more accessible options that still allow you to experience Lima’s high-end cuisine with a more moderate budget.