10 Peruvian Dishes You Need To Try Immediately

I grew up in primarily farm country and later moved to the mountains. The time spent in each was pretty equally divided between my life. When I moved to Perú, they had everything, mountains, farm country, and some places that were completely different from where I spent most of my life growing up, like the jungle and the ocean.

I’ve always held this belief from growing up in the mountains, that unless you’re eating river or lake fish…fish isn’t really a great dish to be eating out there. I’m not afraid of fish. I enjoy it. But I’m very picky about where I consume it from. Especially sushi. My personal opinion is that we should not eat sushi from the mountains.

The great thing about moving to Perú–I finally got to try and experience not only a bunch of amazing Peruvian dishes, but I got to try quality fish dishes and experience that to a completely different level than I ever had before.

I brought all of this up…because I realized that a good half (maybe more than) of my must-try Peruvian dishes list, is some type of fish dish. These are not only great, classic Peruvian dishes, but they’re also my current favorites.

Speaking of favorites, if you’re looking for other recommendations, check out go-tos for all things travel, DIY and remote work here.

Now let’s get into the food!

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One: Sudado de Pescado – Chorrillanos, Arequipa

My favorite Peruvian soup is Sudado de Pescado, but only from this one restaurant in Chorrillanos, Arequipa, called Restaurant Doña Barbara. We go to this restaurant every time we pass through and we order this dish. I simply cannot wait to go back.

This soup has a whole fish, lapas (basically a sea snail), tomatoes and a handful of other delicious ingredients served with a side of rice. You will be so full after eating this soup, but it’s worth every bite.

It is a little pricey compared to what we normally order, but if you can afford it and find yourself passing through, you have to stop in and check out this Peruvian dish.

A bonus fun thing about this restaurant is you can recognize it by the painted rocks out front. The hills surrounding the restaurant are full of hand-painted rocks that represent a fun collection of animals, including penguins, unicorns, and crocodiles.

Two: Sopa de Camarones – Jaquí

Is it cheating to mention my mother-in-law’s soup? I mean…I’ve never actually had this soup in a restaurant before, and I’m not sure if it’s even served in restaurants. But…the soup is so good!

I put this in the list in case you ever go to a restaurant and find them serving sopa de langostinos or sopa de camaron. It’s a soup made of shrimp or prawns. The particular one that my mother-in-law makes has prawns, potatoes, broth, milk, and a handful of other things. Honestly, it’s amazing!

If you ever visit Paracas, Lima or any of the towns on the coast of Perú, you are sure to find many sopa options. Keep an eye out for shrimp options, Perú has some really special shrimp dish options when you can find them.

Three: Al Pesto con Milanesa de Pescado – Paracas

The story tells that a Peruvian and an Italian fell in love, got married, and opened a Peruvian/Italian restaurant in Paracas. It’s unexpected to find such amazing Italian AND simultaneously Peruvian all at one restaurant, so I highly recommend you check this place out! The place is called Restaurant Nautilus

They had a lot of good to choose from, but my particular favorite is this pasta pesto dish that is served with a big slice of freshly caught lenguado fish. I was skeptical about the fish and pesto at first, but seriously, listen to this restaurant’s creation combinations–they know what they’re doing.

I’m going to make a bold statement right now and say that this is the most amazing pesto I have ever had! And…I don’t have a picture specifically of it! It took me a long time to even find this one. I seriously ate this whole thing in like six bites, it was so good.

Four: Hamburgesa de Alpaca – Tacna

There’s a tiny restaurant near downtown Tacna called A Lo Peruano. They serve several different types of burgers, including beef, chicken, alpaca, and lamb.

The burgers have just about your usual fixings on them, depending on the setup you choose. We went ahead and added the bacon and egg to this meal as we were celebrating. But the different meat options are what makes this dish truly special.

The burgers are not very big, so if you’re feeling hungry, maybe order one for yourself and split a second one with someone else. We tried the alpaca, lamb, and beef burgers, our favorites were the alpaca and the beef. The lamb had a stronger flavor that I wasn’t a big fan of.

These are served with a side of roasted Peruvian potatoes, topped with garlic and some other spices.

An added bonus at this restaurant is that they have real ketchup! I know, I squealed too. If you don’t understand the significance of this statement, I invite you to come to Perú and try ketchup literally anywhere but this restaurant, and then come back and let’s chat in the comments about it.

One warning, do be careful with their spicy sauce when you put it on your burger, it tastes really good – but it’s almost too spicy. Essentially, it hurts so good. So go slow!

Five: Lomo Saltado/Saltado de Pollo – Tacna, Lima, wherever

Depending on whether you order the classic (Lomo Saltado) or the “Remix” (Saltado de Pollo) this dish contains either beef or chicken. Both are really good! Both come with fried potatoes, onion, tomato, and a side of rice.

If you asked me during my first three months in Perú, this is the dish I would have said was my favorite. I really hadn’t been able to try much of a variety back then. It’s still such a great dish, but I don’t order it nearly as often as I used to.

You can find this dish all across Perú, and it honestly tastes great at just about any place. My personal favorite is from this tiny restaurant in Tacna, but unfortunately, they no longer exist so I can’t provide a restaurant suggestion.

Six: Causa – Lima

Causa is a cute little dish almost like tuna and mashed potatoes, but it actually tastes good. I realize that maybe that doesn’t sound good. But if you end up at a good restaurant, this one is a great appetizer to split!

The dish has a little spice, some egg, potatoes, and among other things, tuna.

I first tried this in Lima with my family at a restaurant called, Punto Azul in Miraflores. They serve their dishes with an amazing spicy sauce made out of a rocoto pepper, I highly recommend you try this dish with their spicy sauce.

Seven: Ceviche – Lima, Tacna, wherever

This dish is raw fish soaked in lime juice, topped with onion, canchita and/or corn, and usually a few slivers of spicy pepper, all served on top of a slice of sweet potato.

You can find some really nice street vendors selling these classic Peruvian dishes. Which honestly is how we buy ceviche most times.

When we buy from street vendors we usually buy a trio. They’ll sell you a small portion of three amazing seafood dishes, ceviche, chicharrón de pescado or de calamar, and arroz con mariscos. My husband and I often enjoy this as a great weekend lunch!

I would also recommend the restaurant Punto Azul in Miraflores, Lima. The restaurant was a little pricier, but they had a lot of Peruvian dishes prepared quite well and my family and I really liked this restaurant.

Eight: Chicharrón de Pollo (Pescado, calamar, etc.) – Lima, Tacna, wherever

Chicharrón de pollo is essentially…Peruvian chicken nuggets. Only here, you can get “chicken nuggets”, “fish nuggets,” “calamari nuggets,” “shrimp nuggets” the list goes on!

When I was new to Perú I used to get chicharrón de pollo quite often down in Tacna, Perú. It was a great dish that really helped me to ease into eating more Peruvian dishes. Living closer to the beach now I’ve since transitioned to getting the fishy chicharrón options more often. I still enjoy the chicken option, and even had it just last week! But when given the choice between the two I tend to choose a seafood option over chicken.

I love to get chicharrón de calamar or de pescado alongside my ceviche. They make a wonderful meal combination, and I almost feel disappointed at this point if I get ceviche without my side of chicharrón de pescado.

I’ve only had one bite of chicharron de langostinos ever, but it was really good! If I ever end up back in Paracas at the Rest El Che restaurant, I will be sure to order a plate for myself this time. Last time I was only sampling off of my brother’s plate, and if you have a brother, I’m sure you know how forthcoming they are when it comes to sharing.

Nine: Butadon – Lima

Butadon comes from a restaurant called Naruto.

Perhaps you don’t understand the significance of that one sentence and my love for this restaurant, but, oh. My. Goodness. If you have any love for good food in your life – run, do not walk – to Naruto and check out this must-try Peruvian dish.

Naruto is a Japanese restaurant located in San Borja, Lima. The restaurant as a whole is amazing, but I specifically mention the Butadon here because this is the one dish that we HAVE to order every single time we go.

Butadon is a rice and pork dish. It is absolutely our favorite thing to get from this restaurant. We love it so much that we order this as our appetizer so we can all have a bite of it AND actually try something new from the menu. If we didn’t order it to split we would never try anything else because it would be so sad to go and not eat this amazing dish.

If you can’t tell…10/10 highly recommend this restaurant.

And hey, if you decide to check this place out, be sure to go up a block and a half and get dessert at Zacateca, a restaurant mentioned in this blog post about Peruvian Desserts. It’s our tradition that if we’re ever in the area for one, we promptly follow it up by walking across to the other.

Ten: Mac and cheese – Lima

I know what you’re thinking, Elisha, really?! Of all the must-try Peruvian dishes you could have included on this list, you just had to add mac and cheese?! Are you serious?!

Hear me out though, I was never allowed to order mac and cheese at restaurants growing up. But after being in another country for going on two years, I really wanted to eat something that was stereotypical “American food.”

Some of our friends took us to this restaurant called Papacho’s, there are many in Lima, for cheeseburgers and when we visited it again I tried the mac and cheese.

If you are tired of my wide selection of fish dishes offered in this post, give this Peruvian mac and cheese a go. Because wow, this is the best mac and cheese I have ever had.

Go ahead, embrace your inner child for a minute, and have some (grown-up) mac and cheese. It is super rich and gooey, and so much more filling than the bowl looks like it will be. This makes a great dish to split with someone. Plus, if you’re into spice, be sure to ask them to add the extra touch of ají, it’s a good Peruvian addition to a classic American dish.

If you’re ever in Perú I hope you get the chance to check out some of these Peruvian dishes!

This post made me hungry. Let’s chat in the comments about what dish you’re most interested in trying!

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