#central restaurant

[discoleo]

8/6/2025

Central Restaurant

Lima, Peru

[discoleo]

8/6/2025

Lima, Peru

Central Restaurant

[queeniedarleen]

Central (Lima, Peru)

Back in March I got to meet Central’s chef and owner Virgilio Martinez while in Miami. We talked about the food scene and the possibility of him opening a restaurant in Miami, but both agreed that the city was more about the social scene and about being trendy, than it was about great food. However, it was last October when I flew to Peru and got to experience Central. 

Currently number one in Latin America and fourth in the world according to the Diners Club® World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, Central is reason enough to visit Peru. Now, I do have to say there are plenty of other excellent restaurants in Lima that are worth visiting, but as it happens when dining at World’s Best restaurants, dining at Central is not just about the taste and look of the food, but about the story behind the ingredients used in each and every one of the dishes, the creative process of those and more.

Situated in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores in Lima, Central serves creative Peruvian food made with local Andean ingredients. The space is modern but warm, with natural or light-colored woods, some greenery and a view to the kitchen. Dishes are pretty straightforward but packed with flavor and made with ingredients mostly unseen outside of Peru.

Above: Coca bread. Served warm, this bread is unlike anything I’ve ever tried. Below: Toasted butter and a brioche type of bread made with a yuca-like root vegetable.

Warm ceviche. 

How can I describe this dish without being repetitive? It’s just not possible. Again, it was beyond delicious and unlike anything I’ve had before. For starters, ceviche is always served cold-- never at room temperature or anything warmer than that-- so it being served warmed automatically made it intriguing. And it didn’t disappoint. It sounds and looks much different from what is known to be traditional ceviche, but it maintains its essence. For example, I’m not sure about the exact ingredients, but the warm broth had the acidity of something like tomatoes in place of lemon, and it had a crispy (pork rind?) topping in lieu of choclo-- a Peruvian type of corn.

Charcoal-grilled octopus with lentils.

Octopus and lentils? Who would have thought that this two paired so well? I wouldn’t. But the earthiness of the lentils, combined with the charcoal and the sea flavors of the octopus, plus the ají amarillo and black olive sauces was genius.

Grouper and quinoa.

When in Lima, you must eat fish and seafood. Everything is so fresh, flavorful and perfectly cooked. 

I was pleasantly surprised when tiny, shiny pots made it to our table with the main courses. There was no mention of it in the menu, so I had no idea what it was, but they turned out to be a creamy mashed potatoes and squid side dish, so delicious it could be a menu item of its own.

Chia and chirimoya with berries.

Light and fruity. It had a mousse, pieces of chirimoya, meringue... many different textures. But not being a fan of chirimoya, I wasn’t completely blown away by it. Good for sharing though. 

A sample of their tangelo and honey dessert.

Lúcuma, chocolate and coca leaf.

Lúcuma, native of the Andean region, is the quintessential Peruvian fruit. It’s similar to mamey-- and if you don’t know what that is and have never tried it, I don’t know what to tell you. Apart from being similar to each other, I don’t know that they are anything like any other fruit, except maybe avocado-- and that’s a huge stretch. They have a similar shape and seed to avocado but the color, smell, flavor and texture is completely different. Anyway, lúcuma is widely used in beverages and desserts, including milkshakes, mousse and cheesecake in Peru. In many ways, this dessert is Peru in a plate-- it’s got cacao, lúcuma and coca. 

Final words

Reservations: Back when I made my reservation, it was done via email so it wasn’t very convenient, but now there’s a online reservation system so you should have no trouble booking in advance.

Service: Servers explain dishes in detail; no issues with the pace.

Food: The bread was warm! Yes! It seems like warm bread is such a rarity in fine restaurants, so I was happy to find that not only was the bread unique and tasty but also warm. The appetizers and main courses were outstanding. Dessert was good, but I never seem to be completely satisfied or over the moon with desserts because I always see room for more decadence. The good thing is that these desserts were sweet, nothing was burnt, they showed creativity and made use of fresh, local ingredients. All in all, I absolutely loved my dining experience and can see myself going back. In fact, I can’t recommend this restaurant enough. Anyone unfamiliar with Latin cuisine might find the food a bit too salty or bold for their palate compared to other cuisines and similarly rated restaurants, but in my experience I find that to be somewhat part of the Latin culture and food.

Cost: Bargain, especially compared to other restaurants in its category.

[eatandtheworld]

Lima, Perú [Lima, Peru]

Lima, Perú [Lima, Peru]

Hola from Lima, Peru, the gastronomical capital of South America… if not the world ! I once read that without Peru, the Irish would have no potatoes, the Swiss would have no chocolate, and the Asian continent would be without chilis. That may be true, since Peru is home to so many of the ingredients we value in today’s cooking. But what’s more is that Peru embraces its agriculturally rich and…

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[luxevn]

10 nhà hàng xuất sắc nhất Thế giới

http://luxevn.com/tin-tuc/du-lich/10-nha-hang-xuat-sac-nhat-the-gioi/

10 nhà hàng xuất sắc nhất Thế giới

LuxeVN – Đầu tháng Sáu vừa qua tại London, danh sách 50 nhà hàng được nhận giải thưởng World’s Best Restaurant Awards dành cho những nhà hàng xuất sắc nhất thế giới đã được công bố. Hãy cùng điểm qua 10 nhà hàng đứng đầu trong danh sách này. Ba anh em nhà Roca, bếp trưởng của nhà hàng...

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[aboardthekobayashimaru]

Death to Spontaneity & Fun @ Central Michel Richard

Had a very uncomfortable experience at the Central Michel Richard restaurant yesterday. We tried to do a walk-in at around 5:30pm to a largely empty restaurant for a party of four. I know they are usually busy, so we just wanted to give it a try. 

Believe it or not, the Hostess actually said to us:

We can seat you in the dining room, but you have to be out in 1 hour.

I should have known right then and there that it was going to turn out to be a bad experience. I mean, that already showed rudeness and bad judgement. If the Hostess needed all the tables, then she should have just turned us away, or better yet, direct us to the bar! Plus, any good restaurateur knows that is not how you greet a patron. Central prides it self on a fine-dining type of restaurant, too bad the management is so sub-par. 

But I was craving fried chicken, and I've visited Central quite often that I know if we just stuck to our entrees, we can accommodate. So we took the table.

Obviously this person has trust issues, because after we were all seated, the Hostess puffed her chest at us and AGAIN, repeated:

You know that means 6:30, right? We need you out no later than 6:45.

I am beginning to think God punishes the nice and the accommodating, because I again reassured her, no problem, we will be out by that time!!

But of course the Lady with Trust Issues proceeded to watch us like a hawk the entire hour, tactlessly averting eye contact whenever anyone in our party senses her relentless glare. 

So at around 6:20pm, we asked for our check. The waitress brought us our check promptly, and said, "No dessert?" We were going to come up with a gentle excuse, and what happened next really blew us out of the water. 

Before we could respond, she looked at her watch and said:

Yeah, you guys don't have much time.

I think one of my friends actually gasped at the blatant rudeness and insensitivity of it. The silence that immediately followed was obvious, and the waitress definitely felt it.

So of course my friend said in anger, "Sure, I'll take a look at the dessert menu."

At this time the waitress was quite nervous, so she walked away meekly to get the dessert menu for us. 

Anyways, to make a long story short, we did not order dessert and we got out around 6:30pm. Still tipped our waitress well despite her snide remark because other than that, she did a decent job.

Oh Central Michel Richard, why did you have to ruin an otherwise wonderful evening? I will greatly miss your awesome fried chicken and meat loaf, as well as the perfect creamed spinach and bacon Brussels sprouts. Not only will I not be back, but will definitely not be planning any professional functions there again.