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On a bluff overlooking the Pacific, Barranco, Lima, is perhaps the best place to eat in what’s arguably the best city for eating in the world. Just ask Juan Luis Martínez, the chef-owner of the award-winning Mérito. “A century ago this was a place to spend time during summer, walking down to the beach and up to the cliff, among the casonas — colonial houses with high ceilings and big porches,” Martínez told me. “Over the decades, it’s become the neighborhood of the poets, musicians, painters.”
And chefs. I first encountered Martínez, and his culinary prowess, at his cafe, Demo, where shatteringly crisp guava-cheese pastry and a cold brew that was color-blocked with fresh-squeezed orange juice covered my table. When I saw him with his wife and business partner, designer Michelle Sikic, later that day, I asked: Did they come to Barranco a lot? Martínez sheepishly admitted, “We rarely go out to eat in another neighborhood.”
Who could blame them? Read on for my recommendations on eating your way around Barranco.
From left: Courtesy of Alanya Repostería; Courtesy of Pan Sal Aire
Hotel B
Sunset pisco sours are de rigueur at the ocean-view rooftop bar at this 20-key Relais & Châteaux property. The 1914 Belle Époque mansion makes a convenient base for exploring Barranco and has an excellent restaurant, serving dishes like a trout tartare with avocado mousse, quinoa, and trout skin.
Demo
On every trip, there’s that one cafe that makes you think, “If I lived here, I would be here twice a week.” In Lima, that’s the indoor-outdoor Demo, with its coffees crafted like cocktails, pastries, and Venezuelan corn cakes folded around blocks of oozing cheese.
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Alanya Repostería
This day-to-night dessert shop turns out maximalist croissants that are chocolate-dipped, injected with pistachio cream, and topped with meringue and brûléed marshmallow.
Courtesy of Demo
Pan Sal Aire
Chef Jerónimo de Aliaga’s menu at Pan Sal Aire is a love letter to the Mediterranean. The garlicky head-on prawns bathed in chile butter are a standout, as are the Sardinian gnocchi and orecchiette with tomato, stracciatella, and basil vinegar.
Mérito
In just five years, the restaurant of Venezuelan chef Juan Luis Martínez has gone from an obscure indie project to Food & Wine’s Best International Restaurant for 2024. The beautifully plated dishes, like white fish with yacon root and Andean cereals, manage to be both cerebral and exuberant.
Courtesy of Mérito
A version of this story first appeared in the September 2024 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “A Bite of Barranco.“
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