Lima in 3 days: ceviche, anticuchos & criollo soul

Peru's capital is South America's greatest food city, and three days is enough to eat it properly: a market morning in Surquillo, the canonical ceviche ritual, Chinatown's chifa, a Nikkei tasting menu, and beef-heart skewers at dusk, threaded through Barranco's murals and 5,000 years of history at Museo Larco.

1. Day 19 am – 10:30 pm · 5 stops
2. 9 am1

   Mercado de Surquillo No. 1Surquillo

   Start where Lima's cooks start: Peru's most famous produce market, stall after stall of lucuma, chirimoya, aji amarillo and fresh Pacific fish. Graze on exotic-fruit juice from a jugueria and watch the cevicheria suppliers do their morning rounds.

   8 min walk · 600 m
3. 12 pm2

   Lunch at Al Toke PezSurquillo

   Five stools, one chemist-turned-ceviche-master, and the most famous combinacion in Lima: half ceviche, half saltado on one plate. Featured on Netflix's Street Food for a reason. Get here before 12:30 or the line decides for you.

   17 min walk · 1.3 km
4. 3:30 pm3

   Churros at ManoloMiraflores

   Frying churros on Av. Larco since 1968. Order the tasting flight (plain, dulce de leche, vanilla, chocolate) and the famously excessive rollo chifa if you skipped breakfast. Cash-friendly counter, locals at every table.

   12 min walk · 900 m
5. 5:30 pm4

   Malecon cliff walk and Parque del AmorMiraflores

   Walk the cliff-top Malecon parks as Lima turns golden: Victor Delfin's El Beso sculpture, mosaics, paragliders launching off the cliffs, and the Pacific doing its moody garua-or-sunset thing below. The city's best free hour.

   9 min walk · 650 m
6. 8 pm5

   Dinner at MaidoMiraflores

   The Nikkei counter that put Peruvian-Japanese cuisine on the world map (World's 50 Best, repeatedly). Mitsuharu Tsumura's 11-course tasting runs Nikkei ceviche with yuzu through lamb yakiniku to camu camu dessert. Book weeks out; this is the splurge the whole trip builds to.

7. Day 29 am – 11 pm · 5 stops
8. 9 am6

   Plaza Mayor and the CathedralLima

   The UNESCO-listed historic center: the Cathedral, the Archbishop's Palace with its carved wooden balconies, and the Government Palace with the changing of the guard at noon. Colonial Lima at its most theatrical, best before the tour buses peak.

   6 min walk · 400 m
9. 11:15 am7

   San Francisco Convent and CatacombsLima

   Down into the catacombs: 25,000 neatly stacked colonial-era bones under a gorgeous baroque convent, plus a library of ancient texts and the famous Last Supper painting with a guinea pig on the table. Guided tour only, about 45 minutes.

   8 min walk · 550 m
10. 1 pm8

    Chifa lunch at San Joy LaoLima

    Chinatown's chifa classic on Calle Capon: the Chinese-Peruvian comfort food Lima runs on. Order the chaufa (fried rice that puts all other fried rice to shame) and anything saucy off the enormous menu. This is the Afrolatino-Chinese-African melting pot on a plate.

    8 min by train or taxi · 2.4 km
11. 7 pm9

    Circuito Magico del AguaLima

    Thirteen illuminated fountains in the Parque de la Reserva, with laser-and-music shows after dark. Cheesy, joyful, and genuinely spectacular, and the Tunnel of Surprises soaks everyone equally. A very Lima way to spend an evening.

    14 min by train or taxi · 8.4 km
12. 9 pm10

    Criollo dinner at IsolinaBarranco

    Barranco's beloved criollo taberna: giant family-style portions of lomo saltado, seco de cordero and tacu tacu in a vintage-tiled room that feels like someone's grandmother's house (in the best way). Lima eats late, so the 9pm slot is right on time.

13. Day 39:30 am – 9 pm · 4 stops
14. 9:30 am11

    Museo LarcoPueblo Libre

    Five thousand years of Peruvian history in a gorgeous 18th-century vice-royal mansion, with the famous (and famously cheeky) erotic ceramics gallery. Have lunch on the garden terrace cafe after, the prettiest museum restaurant in the city.

    9 min by train or taxi · 5.3 km
15. 12:30 pm12

    Ceviche lunch at La MarMiraflores

    Gaston Acurio's legendary cevicheria on the avenue locals call the Ceviche Neighborhood. Ceviche is a lunch ritual in Lima and this is the canonical version: classic, Nikkei-style with tamarind, or mixto with leche de tigre. Last seating is mid-afternoon, so lunch it is.

    8 min by train or taxi · 4.7 km
16. 3 pm13

    Barranco and the Bridge of SighsBarranco

    The wooden Bridge of Sighs over the Bajada de Banos gorge, the heart of bohemian Barranco. Wander the mural-covered streets, duck into the artisan shops on the main square, and catch the street musicians as the neighborhood wakes up for the evening.

    8 min by train or taxi · 4.7 km
17. 7 pm14

    Anticuchos at Grimanesa VargasMiraflores

    The cult anticucho spot (Tia Grimanesa's brick-and-mortar). Beef-heart skewers off a charcoal grill, eaten standing up at dusk the way Lima has done it for decades. Order like a local: anticuchos, choclo con queso, and a chicha morada.