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.

Everything is served on wooden cutting boards, they have a fresh juice menu with things like spinach, apple, and ginger; and carrot and orange. There’s a nice selection of pastries. We try not to be the kind of people who say “this place is nice, but it’s not Tartine” or “why can’t we find a nice brunch place like in Melbourne” but this place does remind me of a brunch place in Melbourne right down to the avocado and hummus sandwiches. The bread and the morning bun does remind me of Tartine, and it was lovely. El Pan de la Chola has good sourdough croissants and pain au chocolate (though not up to the level of a croissant obsessive like Lune in Melbourne), and big oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

This has become our new favorite weekend brunch places. There are families, couples, backpackers, businesspeople, tourists and locals. It will be one of the first places we go any time we come back to Lima. Did I mention they have amazing bread?

• Bread
• El-Pan-De-La-Chola
• Morning-Buns
• Tartine