LDNGuide
The Best Peruvian Restaurants In London
London’s Peruvian population may be modest, but the city’s love of delicately cured fish and dangerously gluggable pisco sours is not. There are plenty of places to find ají amarillo-laced sauces or tenderly grilled anticuchos, from the shiny and slick to the homely and traditional, here are our top Peruvian picks across London.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Llama Inn London
Llama Inn came to London via New York and has made its home on the roof of The Hoxton hotel in Shoreditch. Preened sorts, possible influencers, and digital prophets fill the half-moon booths and foliage-happy room, sharing crispy squid and yuca ceviche or skewers of saikyo miso-topped cabbage anticuchos. The menu’s glossary, which explains the likes of aji rocoto, huacatay, and other Peruvian ingredients, partly shows the seriousness of the food, and that extends to its cocktails. You can comfortably sit at the bar with a pisco sour and a pork shoulder slider, but you’re better off with a few friends and a plate of lomo saltado in between you.
Chicama is kind of like a mash-up between a great little Peruvian place and a pink velvet, marble bar spot. That means you can either come to the Chelsea restaurant for a casual weeknight catch-up and sit out on the patio or in the rustic front dining area, or get a little bit suave at the bar with a couple of pisco cocktails. The seafood is decent, but what you really want to get involved in are the vegetable dishes. Special shoutout to the courgette and cornmeal beignets with chilli jam.
At Tierra Peru, it’s impossible not to smile. There’s the enlivening, citric ceviche. The hum of people swapping stories and anticuchos. The blitzing sound of the blender mixing another drink from behind the bar. The family-run Peruvian spot in Islington can make a Wednesday night feel like a weekend and the food is just as fulfilling. A couple of chef-recommended dishes—cordero huanuqueño (lamb chops rubbed in huacatay sauce) and picante chalaco (spicy seafood stew)—are must-tries, as are their homemade alfajores.
Few restaurants combine British produce, Peruvian cooking, and an epic-sounding narrative, but Pachamama does just that. The Peruvian restaurant divides its menu like Noah organising his ark on Excel—there's soil, land, and sea—and there are plenty of Chinese-Peruvian bits to get you going. Things like prawn toast with an ají panca sauce mean that Pachamama’s menu tastes as exciting as it reads. Combined with an always-enticing trio of plants, exposed brickwork, and pisco cocktails, this Shoreditch spot is a backpocket favourite.
Sabor Peruano has a very specific atmosphere. Outside it’s a canteen, but inside it gives 1960s banquet wedding. The fact you can’t smoke inside feels like a great shame. But you’ll soon forget that once you have a pisco sour in your hand and some yuca frita in front of you. The Elephant and Castle spot should be close to the top of your list in terms of Peruvian restaurants in London for three reasons: it’s great-value, has traditional cooking, and it closes before 10pm, so you can have a great dinner and still have time to do nothing on the sofa.
photo credit: Coya Mayfair
If Coya was a person it would be the beautiful, popular friend of a friend who’s annoyingly nice and intimidatingly cool. Basically, as a person we’d probably find them depressing to be around. But as a restaurant we love them. This slick Mayfair spot mixes Peruvian cuisine with Chinese and Japanese influences. It also has some of the best guacamole we’ve tried in London, as well as some mind-blowingly good crab tacos and some very good wagyu sliders. Plus the OTT interior makes it perfect for a celebratory meal.
Andina in Spitalfields serves slightly stylised takes on Peruvian classics. The excellent ceviche menu features classic combinations like sea bass with leche de tigre and crunchy deep-fried corn kernels, with flourishes like avocado cream. Mains are as hearty as you’d hope: corn tamales, grilled octopus, potatoes, and plenty of sauces. It’s a cool, casual, backpocket kind of restaurant—perfect for cocktails, catch-ups, and casual midweek things.
