Anticuchos are skewers of beef heart marinated in aji panca, garlic, cumin and red wine vinegar, grilled over coals and served with corn and boiled potato.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Anticuchos descend from the African enslaved communities of colonial Lima (1530s-1850s), who received the rejected beef-heart cuts and turned them into the city's signature street grill. Doña Grimanesa Vargas opened her Miraflores anticucho cart in 1974; the dish carries Lima's evening grill culture.
Tip from the editors. Beef heart is firmer than steak; aim for medium-rare. Overcooked anticucho turns leathery.
Grimanesa Vargas at Calle Ignacio Merino 466 in Miraflores Lima serves beef-heart anticucho sticks from S/22, on TasteAtlas's best-anticucho list worldwide.
OrderThree sticks anticuchos with choclo y papa and a chicha morada (around S/25).
TipQueue starts at 18:00; cash and card both accepted at the Miraflores fixed shop on Ignacio Merino.
Ayahuasca at Av San Martin 130 in Barranco Lima runs till 02:00 every night, the restored 1875 republican casona for late pisco macerados and small plates.
OrderA pisco macerado flight with a tabla of cured Andean meats.
TipClosed Mondays; the courtyard seating is the seat to ask for in advance.
Isolina at Av San Martin 101 in Barranco is Jose del Castillo's 2015 criolla taberna, a tribute to his mother Isolina Vargas and her Lima home cooking.
OrderThe tacu tacu with steak and a portion of the carretillero ceviche.
TipWeekend brunch service runs 09:00-11:00 before the regular lunch carta.
El Bolivariano on Pasaje Santa Rosa in Pueblo Libre Lima is a criolla institution in a republican casona, far quieter than the Miraflores tourist axis.
Why locals goA republican casona in mid-city Pueblo Libre, off the Miraflores-Barranco tourist axis, with criolla tradition dating to the 1780s.
TipOpen from 07:30 for breakfast tamales; Sunday lunch is the family-table service.
More cities are in research. Want anticuchos covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.
