The Place

Osso is Lima’s “temple to meat,” a restaurant, butcher shop, and charcuterie. It was started in the suburb of La Molina, about 30-45 minutes from downtown Lima. There’s also a branch in San Isidro close to the financial district but we wanted to visit the mother church. Most tourists don’t venture much past Miraflores, Barranco, and maybe central Lima so this was a nice adventure and opportunity to see more of Lima.

If you’re looking for great bread in Lima, bingo! this is the place. Crusty chewy super-hydrated breads are the reason to come here. The bread then gets used to make their sandwiches, elevating the humble mixto to something extraordinary. The space is bright, open, with wood everywhere. A place you could sit and spend hours relaxing and enjoying the food and a book. Sadly the coffee, while perfectly adequate, can’t match the excellence of the bread.

The restaurant

IK restaurant is one of the fancy “modern Peruvian” restaurants in Lima that is not part of the Gastón Acurio (Astrid & Gastón) and Virgilio Martínez Véliz (Central) axis. When we arrived our immediate impression was of understated and quiet elegance. IK has dimly lit stone and wood with patterned pools of light on each table. IK has windows onto the kitchen, which we like, and it appears that half of the chefs are women including the head chef (Francesca Ferreyros) which was a pleasant surprise.

La Mar is one of the fanciest, and most expensive, fish places in Lima. La Mar is known for having a great selection of fresh fish, and for preparing it well. Since we wanted to get a good idea of how ceviche was supposed to be prepared, and because La Mar didn’t need bookings, we decided to go for lunch. When we got there, there was no wait at all which was a pleasant surprise. As we walked in we walked past a display of fresh whole fish on ice, which piqued our interest.