Arequipa restaurants -- YUMMY

Those of you who know us well know we love to go to restaurants – the more, the merrier.  One of the things we are starting to love about Arequipa is that it has a plethora of great restaurants.  Here are a few of our top picks, in no particular order:

Zig-Zag:  The claim to fame for this restaurant is that the cooking is done on volcanic rocks and is brought to your table on the rocks, still cooking.  We aren’t sure if this is typical Peruvian cooking, but we did note that one of the small towns we visited also advertised cooking on volcanic rocks.  At Zig-Zag, the ambiance is great, and so is the food.  On our first trip there, Harold had alpaca, while Julie had a “triple pescado” – three kinds of fish, and one of our companions had the “triple carne,” including alpaca, ostrich, and beef.  We were all provided with bibs because the cooking food does tend to splatter a bit.  Additionally, I had “the best” quinoa I have ever had (that was for you, Juleen).  Oh – and one more claim to fame:  the spiral iron staircase was designed by Gustav Eiffel.

The Eiffel-designed staircase -- iron, as one might expect

The Zig-Zag meat trio:  ostrich, alpaca, and beef

Etsuko -- our Spanish-language school friend.  She is a Japanese chef and will be working with 3 Japanese restaurants in Mexico.  We've been going to a lot of the good restaurants with her.  She knows her stuff!

Anna, another Spanish-school friend hailing from Naples, FL, but originally from Germany. 

Harold -- get that bib on!

Julie showing off her bib.  Notice that all the bibs are different.

Crepisimo:  This little French crepe place is owned by Zig-Zag and is located in the little courtyard of the Alliance Francaise.  There is a nice outdoor eating section in the courtyard and upstairs, there are couches and all kinds of comfortable chairs to have a coffee or a beer or a fruit juice and chat with friends.  Oh – the crepes were good too, and if you sit inside downstairs in the main eating area, you can watch them being made.

ChiCha -- this is the local drink speciality make from purple corn.  It's a delicious drink and comes either alcoholic or non-alcoholic.

El Montonero:  This restaurant is sort-of three restaurants in one – (1)  an Argentinian Grill, (2)  El Montonero (more high-class dining), and (3)  an Arquipeno local favorite restaurant.  The eating area, however, is all combined (as apparently is the kitchen).  There are three distinct aspects of the menu though.  It apparently is the place to go for odobo, the local weekend favorite which takes 3 days to prepare, but it is only served on Sundays and holidays. Julie had the triple: Rocoto Relleno, Chicharrón de Chancho y Sarza de Patitas.  The doble and the triple are common on menus in Arequipa.
Oh – they often also have live, local music, both singing and dancing.  The food was okay. 

The facade of El Montenero

The outdoor eating area -- in use during the day

one of 2 or 3 inside eating areas

Las Conchitas:  We were taken to this little cevicherie by a local, and it apparently is where many of the locals eat their ceviche; the owner of our apartment was surprised we had been there and he indicated that’s where he goes to have ceviche also.  While we aren’t ceviche experts, we do know that Max (the cook at the B&B) served us ceviche that was excellent, and he said his was the best in the city.  Well, the ceviche at Las Conchitas was just as good.  

Unimposing, set between two streets -- Las Conchitas

Peruvian restauants typically offer a free appetizer -- "Chinchas," a roasted, salted corn, and Las Conchitas was not an exception.  It's delicious. 

Chi Cha:  This restaurant has a famous chef – Gaston Acurio, and it, too, is one of Arequipa’s finest fusion restaurants with white tablecloths and, in my mind, a rather sterile atmosphere.  The wine was really expensive.  I had the famous Ariqupen~a favorite odobo – which apparently takes 3 days to make.  Basically, it was one huge chunk of really fatty pork in a broth (mostly fat, not edible for a health-conscious person).  You dip bread into the broth.  The broth was good, but it wasn’t filling and wasn’t worth the price.   We had wine, a shared appetizer (a large one) and entrees.  We each paid 100 soles, a fair amount in Arequipa -- about $37.  

the outside entrance, but you need to get into the courtyard to enter

and you enter the little courtyard and there you are!

Restaurante La Italiana: We have been to two of the locations:  one close to the Plaza de Armas and one in Cayma.  Both are good places to eat – not knock-your-socks off good, but they do just fine.  We sat outside on the sidewalk at the one on San Francisco Avenue, and it was quite pleasant.  The one on Cayma is on a second story (above a casino), and the view and atmosphere is pleasant.  Italian food is always good.

This is the one downtown.  We were there on a gorgeous day and ate at a little table on the sidewalk.

La Trattoria del Monasterio:  This restaurant is quaint and special because it is located in the Santa Catalina Monastery.  We were there for a light lunch -- pizza and an entree.  Both were good.  And hey -- this is a monestary where you can get alcohol too.

The entrance.  Notice how the door is embedded in the wall of the monastery.

There are several small rooms in which one can eat.  This is one of the rooms.  They all have walls that are 3 to 4 feet thick.

Harold's lunch was as good as it was attractive.

Sol de Mayo:  We liked this restaurant.  We had a pleasant lunch on the interior patio, listened to good, live Andean music, and ate heartily.  One of the guidebooks indicated that the food portions are ample, so we ordered one entrée and one appetizer.  It was still way too much.  We chowed down though, and dined on a Southern Peru staple:  lomo de saltado.  

a partially eaten "lomo de saltado" -- a Peruvian staple

The band that played the day we were there;  we bought one of their CDs

LA ZINGARO:   Another superb evening at this restaurant.  Nice atmosphere, attentive servers, good food.  Good wine menu, but not many wines are available by the glass.  They do have some half bottles though.  I had rocoto relleno, a Peruvian standard, made with the very spicy Peruvian rocoto pepper, which has to be boiled at least twice to get some of the spicy taste out of the pepper.  Mine was stuffed with alpaca, but you could have it stuffed with shrimp also. Harold had quinoa taboule.  Etsuko braved it and had alpaca carpaccio.  I can attest that her carpaccio was good, and I did not get sick from the one bite I had.  Portions were not huge, but okay.

We had wine, entrees, and a shared dessert.  The meal came to 60 soles, about $22 per person, which included a generous tip.  

We sat upstairs, but after a trip to the bano, we were wishing we had sat downstairs because you could see the chefs cooking behind the glass.  Lots of flames and tossing of food in pans, etc. 

Julie's half-eaten rocoto relleno.  If you look closely, you can see one of the pepper stems sticking out toward the lower right corner.  The meal also came with a cheesy, creamy potato dish, quite popular in Peru, which is basically scalloped potatoes.

The good news is that we had several wonderful dinners and lunches in Arequipa.  Southern Peru is known for its fine cuisine with good reason.  The bad news is that we simply didn't have the time to get to every place.  There are at least as many other restaurants as we have posted here.  If you get to Arequipa, be sure you are hungry when you arrive.