Not every trip needs a reason beyond curiosity, and ALLMYNE believes a good destination can speak for itself. Our Destination series spotlights a place worth knowing, wherever in the world it happens to be. Today, we’re taking you to … 

Lima, Peru.

Although travelers often discuss Tokyo, Paris, or Mexico City, Lima is preparing to host the biggest night in global dining. That’s about to change. In June 2025, Lima’s Maido was named The World’s Best Restaurant, only the second Peruvian restaurant to take the top spot in three years, after Central won it in 2023. And this November, Lima will host The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony itself for the first time in the event’s 24-year history, bringing the world’s top chefs to Peru’s capital on November 4. If there was ever a moment to put Lima on your list, this is it.

The Fine Dining the World Just Noticed

In fact, global food critics widely credit Chef Gastón Acurio with putting Peruvian ingredients—especially ceviche—on the culinary map in the 1990s. Following his lead, the next generation of chefs successfully transformed Lima into a standalone destination rather than a quick stopover before Machu Picchu.

Central, from chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pía León, structures its tasting menu around Peru’s altitude; dishes move from sea level up to 4,100 meters in the Andes, each course built around ingredients unique to that elevation. Maido, from chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, is the standard-bearer for Nikkei cuisine — the Japanese-Peruvian fusion born from Japanese immigration to Peru — built around a tasting menu that runs ten-plus courses deep. Both restaurants, along with Kjolle, Mayta, and Mérito, have made the World’s 50 Best list in recent years, and reservations at the best-known spots often need to be made months out.

The Food That Doesn’t Need a Reservation

The tasting menus get the headlines, but the everyday food is arguably the better story. Traditionally, chefs prepare ceviche—Peru’s national dish—using raw fish cured in fresh citrus, ají chili, and crisp onions. To experience the best versions in the city, look for local cevicherías that open exclusively for lunch. This is because vendors source their fish at its peak freshness early in the morning

Beyond ceviche, the city’s street food culture runs deep: 

• anticuchos (grilled beef heart skewers marinated in ají panca and vinegar) are a nighttime staple; 
• causa limeña layers seasoned yellow potato with chicken, tuna, or seafood into a cold, stackable dish; and 
• picarones, fried rings of squash and sweet potato drizzled in chancaca syrup, are the city’s answer to dessert. 

Pairing anticuchos with picarones at sunset is a genuine local tradition, not just something written for tourists.

Where Lima’s Chefs Actually Shop

Mercado de Surquillo, established in 1940 and just a short walk from Miraflores, is where many of Lima’s top chefs — including teams from Central and Maido — source ingredients. It’s smaller and more manageable than the sprawling, historic Mercado Central downtown, and it’s the easier entry point for a first-time visitor: fresh seafood, dozens of native potato varieties, and small counter cevicherías tucked between produce stalls.

A few blocks from Chinatown’s Calle Capón, over 150 years of Chinese immigration shows up on the plate as chifa — Chinese-Peruvian fusion cooking that blends Cantonese technique with local ingredients, producing dishes, like arroz chaufa, that exist nowhere else in quite the same form.

The Neighborhoods to Know

Miraflores is the natural home base for most visitors — walkable, close to the coast, and near Surquillo Market. Barranco, a few minutes south, is Lima’s bohemian, art-filled district and home to a growing share of the city’s best restaurants, including Central and Mérito. San Isidro rounds things out as Lima’s more polished, business-district option, home to spots like Osso.

Where ALLMYNE Fits In

Because food-focused trips require precise timing, planning a culinary vacation differs from a standard sightseeing trip. First, travelers must book top spots like Maido and Central months in advance. In addition, local lunch-only cevicherías follow their own unique schedules. Finally, visiting popular markets works best early in the morning before crowds arrive. Families and food-focused travelers using ALLMYNE are building Lima itineraries around exactly that rhythm: pinning market hours, saving reservation windows, and mapping out Miraflores, Barranco, and San Isidro stops so the food, not the logistics, ends up being the hard part of the trip. Or they’re skipping the planning altogether and handing the whole itinerary to one of ALLMYNE’s Peruvian tour guides.

Lima has quietly built one of the best food scenes on the planet, and this November, the rest of the world will be watching. Will you be there to experience it for yourself?