Day 2: Eating our way through Lima

Thursday morning, we left our room at the Westin and checked into the Miraflores Park Hotel in the Miraflores District of Lima. While the Westin was incredible in terms of service, the location wouldn’t have been our first choice as non-business travelers. The Miraflores Park Hotel, however, offered an incredible welcome and a fantastic jumping off point to explore a more tourist-friendly area of Peru’s capital.

We arrived a bit early and opted to have a couple of Pisco Sours at the hotel bar, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while waiting. At this point, we had yet to nosh on ceviche, so we decided lunch offered the perfect opportunity to delve further into Lima’s dining scene. Per the bartender’s recommendation, we headed to a little nearby cebicheria, El Pez Amigo. It turns out El Pez Amigo is a Top 10 restaurant by TripAdvisor standards so it wasn’t quite as obscure as we originally thought.

After lunch, we made it back to our hotel in time to get checked in and enjoy a bit of our first super luxe experience in Peru. (To be honest, I was nearly two pisco sours deep and desperately needed a nap. I’m not a big drinker and these bad boys were strong.) We got the grand tour of our room and were pleasantly surprised; besides an incredible room with first-class touches, we have a sauna in our room. If that’s not a testament to how styled out this place is, I’m not sure what is. We typically don’t stay in hotels like this so naturally we spent a few hours in the hotel, admiring and enjoying. We each hit the sauna for a bit before taking a much-needed nap. Typically I would feel bad luxuriating in a hotel room while in an international city, but to be honest, we felt like we saw what we needed to see in Lima in a single day. Our Peruvian friends noted that while the Highlands offer the sights that have made Peru rather famous, Lima’s claim to fame is truly its dining scene. After a long week of wedding festivities, napping didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

We woke up from our power naps just in time to prep for our dinner outing. We had secured reservations at a Japanese-Peruvian (Nikkei) restaurant called Maido in Miraflores. Based on the reviews, we were expecting a great fusion experience, but Maido really provided a delicously new experience. We opted for a traditional sushi roll, but also had steamed bun sliders (why doesn’t every Japanese restaurant do this?), creative nigiri — including foie gras nigiri for him — plus incredibly fresh sashimi and ceviche-esque options to whet our palate from the get-go. We finished the meal with churros… I mean, who am I to pass up dessert?

We were initially optimistic about going out in Barranco after dinner, but were both too tired by the time our meal was over. Instead, we retreated back to our hotel to get some sleep. We were excited to be welcomed by this (minus the pisco sours– those we’re from earlier!):

I can’t imagine that good service and unexpected touches ever get old.

xoxo from Peru,