Lima

First, I ate on my own, on a weekday for dinner.
Food: great display of contemporary kinda style of dish. Personally, I enjoyed looking them. However, I found a little pricy for two courses
What I had:
Starter– OCTOPUS OLIVO, Braised Octopus. Purple Corn. Botija Olive. 14£
Overall, it has the Peruvian kinda ingredient, such as corn down there. The octopus is nicely cook. Chewy and flavored.
Main– SUCKLING PIG. Giant Corn. Piquillo Pepper. Green Rocoto. Cashew Nuts.26£
This is a pork dish. It is decent. The skin is a little overcooked and hard to bite. Others are on point.
Finish– none

Fancy Peruvian
Although Lima’s dining room is a little too modern and bare for my taste, it is very calm place to enjoy a meal and actually hear what your friends at your table are saying.
The menu really excites me. After visiting twice, I have been impressed with the presentation, bold flavours and colours in each dish. In fact, each dish looks like a piece of art.
Great pisco sours and good service.
Octopus Olivo, braised octopus, purple corn, botija olive is delicious and the purple colour is so vibrant. The olive adds a nice acidity to the dish.
The sea bass ceviche with avocado, yellow tiger’s milk and cancha corn was a refreshing start to the meal — as you would expect a ceviche to be. Although at £12 this is quite expensive, when I compare to the ceviche I’ve enjoyed at Andina/​Ceviche/​Señor Ceviche etc.
The Artichoke Amazonia was one pretty dish, but unfortunately I found it very vinegary and could not finish the whole dish.
My dinner dates ordered the Beef Pachamama with yellow potato purée, cows milk, aji panca juice and absolutely loved it. The beef was cooked perfectly.
Equally as delicious was the Duck Cocona wth magret, plums, cocona syrup and cusco corn cake.
This is a place that emphasizes presentation and sophisticated dishes. A little on the expensive side, but you can tell there is a lot of work behind each dish.
I like it!

Lima is absolutely outstanding. It is arguably the best South America food I’ve ever had (including literally in South America) and definitely the best Peruvian food. The restaurant is small, but large mirrors make it feel bigger than it actually is. The service is the quality that you would expect from a restaurant with Michelin Stars. In the two times I’ve visited Lima, i have ordered 6 dishes and every single one has been amazing. They are:
Sea Bass — Avocado. Yellow Tiger´s Milk. Cancha Corn.
Scallop Causa — Yellow Potato. Scallops. Red Quinoa. Ají Limo.
Octopus Olivo — Braised Octopus. Purple Corn. Botija Olive.
Lomo Steak Huancaina — Beef Loin. Yellow Ají Sauce. Coriander Cress.
Amazonian Paiche Fish — Seaweed Brown Butter. Achiote. Yuca Root. Cacao Amazonia.
Cobia Fish — Cobia. Black Tiger’s Milk. Jerusalem Artichoke. Chia Seeds.

I went to Lima tonight with my son and it was highly disappointing ! We ordered the tiradito and it was good and interesting. We also ordered the causa to start and it was bad. I am Peruvian so I know what a good causa is all about. This one had lots of potatoe mash and mayonnaise –not a lot of scallop filling. The causa was cold when it should be room temperature. My son ordered the lamb and it was v good but the portion size tiny. I ordered the root vegetables and it was unbelievably bad. It was a soup plate of ricotta cheese with a small beetroot cut in half and a baby carrot. I obviously ordered the vegetables because I wanted something healthy but I did not get it. We also ordered a side dish of yellow potatoes– they gave us the mash for causa. Pudding was v good. Alfajores were excellent and the Lucuma ice cream too!
I am not coming back!

It’s quite rare that everything I order at a restaurant convinces me 100% from starter to dessert. It has just happened at this restaurant.
Lima is a great place, great food, great presentation, pleasant décor, very kind staff. Can you wish for more? No wonder it got its Michelin star.
I will surely come back

So this is a bit of a weird review — I’ve now been to Lima twice. And had different experiences.
The first time was a client a la carte lunch. Well that was amazing, the food was delicious, fantastic combinations of flavours. The ceviches are of course absolutely amazing, but the menu itself is just full of excitement. Desserts are not bad either.
Of course, must bear in mind it’s not cheap… But I do not think it’s crazy priced either, especially for a Michelin stared restaurant.
The second time, I went for the bottomless brunch for my birthday. Bottomless booze is always a winner, nothing else to add to that! However, the menu itself really wasn’t breathtaking. The ceviche was great but the rest of the menu really wasn’t special. I’d even go as far as saying the chicken wasn’t even good.
I appreciate you must also keep in mind the price, which was cheap! But still I really wasn’t convinced this was michelin starred quality, I wouldn’t say it was good either.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend the brunch and I definitely wouldn’t go back for the brunch. Nonetheless I definitely want to go back and have the a la carte menu.
One more little anecdote — my friends have the Lima cookbook. They fell in love with Peruvian food during the Peruvian holiday. They invited us for dinner and cooked for us, three course meal & even made a few pisco sours! it was delicious! Conclusion, the cookbook is pretty rgeat too! :) Here’s my literary review of the day!

In light of a trip to Peru later this year, I thought I’d prepare myself a bit culinary.
The only reason to put the bread and dip on the table is the colour (purple and orange), there is no flavour in it at all!
Luckily you can rinse your dry throat with an excellent pisco sour!
Maybe it’s a strategic move… The octopus with purple olive sauce (I guess purple was on sale)… It’s a small dish but I savoured every bite!
Next the scallop ceviche with tigermilk… Although too much of the of the tiger milk overwhelms the flavours of the delicate scallop, the right proportion of both blows you away!
There must be a peru on different planetexporting traditional sea bream ceviche. An excellent mixture of savoury crisp onion, sweetish corn, fresh seabream and zesty lime, this dish is simply divine!
Even though the restaurant was packed, the waitress really took care of me, to that extent that she talked me in ordering one of the specials: Amazonian paiche soup… Either the peruvian cuisine allows playing with sour and crispy and savoury, or this chef is a mastermind…
If peruvian cuisine is like this everywhere in Peru, I’m doomed to gain several kilo’s!

Wonderful impromptu meal with my wife.
We have read about the new Peruvian restaurants opening in London and having travelled in Central America we thought we would give it a go.
Well known Peruvian chef brings his cuisine to central London.
What a treat.
Super authentic Piscos some with a twist.
The flavours and colours along with wonderful presentation made for a super meal.
The corn bread — side, salad and desserts, areas so often ignored by chefs were great.
Suckling pig main course and any dish with blue potato were great.
Friendly and attentive service.
Highly recommended

Lima is the upscale, Michelin starred version of the other big Peruvian name in town, Ceviche /​Andina of the Martin Morales family. It apparently is a foreign outpost of the famed Virgilio Martinez, head chef at the world renowned Central restaurant located in Lima, Peru, who makes all the executive decisions on the London menu. We came on a weekday evening and had a table for 2 in their upstairs dining room, which benefits from a high ceiling that is entirely skylight. The staff were very friendly and guided us around both the menu and the wine list. They advised getting 3 starters and 2 mains for 2 people, which was the perfect amount of food. We got both of the Lima signature dishes, octopus olivo and lomo steak, as well as the sea bream ceviche. I was very impressed by the octopus, which was beautifully plated with delicious bites of octopus sitting atop yellow quinoa, and decorated with drops of an olive sauce on the other side of the plate. The lomo steak was good, but not as noteworthy. I wasn’t a fan of the powdery yellow aji sauce, and I would have preferred juicy cubes of steak instead of the thinly sliced, rather dry presentation that gave it the consistency of roast beef. The sea bream, however, was delicious and swimming in a very tasty tiger’s milk broth, and the crunchy corn in it was a perfect complement. For mains, I got the recommended Amazonian fish, having decided that it might have been a once-​in-​a-​lifetime opportunity to try such a fish, and my friend got the pork cheek special. I didn’t try the pork cheeks, but my fish was a meaty, white fish that came as fillets in a rich buttery sauce. As with all these dishes, I can’t tell you exactly what the ingredients were (the descriptions on the menu are not very comprehensible to the occasional diner of Peruvian cuisine), but it was delicious. All in all, I very much enjoyed my experience at Lima and would keep it in mind for another special occasion.

Excellent flavors and a very cool atmosphere. Scallops, octopus, and beef starters followed by beef, lamb and a native Amazonia fish. Oh my. Pisco sours strong and yummy.

One of the best meals I ever had! Very well planned dishes with interesting touches. The seabass ceviche was to die for! Service is of course top notch and very quick.

Enjoyable fresh food, very attentive service.
Delicious fruit cocktail and warm bread cubes with butter did a good job in getting up your appetite. Refreshing asparagus for starter, soft lamb shoulder for main, and lemon tea with chocolate ice cream to finish. These were not spicy dishes.
All enjoyable, well-​presented and worth the price. Tasting menu available. Recommended for a pleasant informal dinner minutes away from Tottenham Court Road tube station.

Well well well… Well done Lima. Let’s get the Michelin star thing out of the way… yes it’s been awarded one, and does it deserve it? Probably. Food is superb in terms of taste and presentation, but unlike most other Michelin star restaurants it has a nice relaxed atmosphere whereby the food is the real star. I might not have understood everything on the menu but it wasn’t because Lima was pretentious. It’s probably the most relaxed Michelin star environment I have been in and that’s not to say that the décor or service is bad (although it is a little tight in terms of space). And perhaps this lack of stuffiness allows anyone and everyone to really enjoy the food, this can b put down to not o my the ambience of the space but the friendly nature of the waiters too.
Like tapas or dim sum, you have the best experience at Lima by going with more people as all the dishes are great for sharing. We went as a party of four which allowed us to explore the menu but there were still dishes I wanted to try but didn’t. Presentation of all dishes were beautiful and not a single one of the 10 starters/​mains/​sides disappointed. The octopus, scallops, duck and halibut where the stand out dishes for us. All the dishes had a great balance of flavour often mixing subtle tones of sweet, sour, spice and savoury. Plus a few flavours that aren’t common in western European cuisine. The warm bread is amazing too.
Lima ticks one of the best boxes for me in terms of food: interesting and tasty plates of food that are not overly trying to be.

The first Latin American restaurant to win a Michelin star and I can see why! One of the best meals I ever are. Luckily I was in a group of four so we ordered different dishes for each course and shared. The fish was incredibly fresh and the flavors were all new to me for I never had been to a Peruvian restaurant.

I came to this restaurant after watching a demonstration of their food on Sunday Brunch one morning. The food was beautifully explained and loved by the presenters. The reality of the restaurant with it’s 1 Michelin hype and good reviews was incomparable. The restaurant is small and casual, not smart at all. The service was friendly but lacked lustre and petered off towards the end of our stay-​not offered more drinks, waitress clearing plates from across the diners rather than walking around etc. Drinks took ages to arrive and the food… we went for the set menu, starter took a long time to arrive-​some rubbish about the sauce being made fresh to order but even a hot sauce would take less time and it was only ceviche! The salmon ceviche was a tiny portion in a pretty nice but large amount of dressing served with a sweet purée, banana chips, micro coriander and nuts of some type-​why so much sweet stuff? Main course for me was the grouse-​overcooked but tasty, the pieces of meat themselves were 2 parts of a joint and they weren’t even cut at the joint! Had an annoying sharp bone situation. The tiniest portions again. My friend had something with mushrooms that had no mushrooms in it, the waitress set it down as vegetable… and didn’t bother to offer an explanation about the change. I went to a much more expensive establishment recently and the portions were bigger and offered service this place is far removed. This place is a waste of time, money and energy. For all the hype and money, I felt cheated. Never again. Avoid at any cost!

Lima London is an informal 1 Michelin star restaurant serving modern Peruvian cuisine. We arrived before 6pm to order by 6.15pm from the lunch/​pre-​theatre 2 or 3 courses set menu at £20/£23. We opted to order and share all 6 dishes on the set menu. Preferred dishes are marked with an asterix.
Starters
* 1) Salmon Ceviche
2) Tuna Causa
Mains
* 1) Lamb Seco
2) Swordfish (replaced Bacalao)
Dessert
1) Lucuma fruit cream, soft meringue
* 2) Alfajores, ice cream, sweet beetroot
The lamb stew main was nicely presented although we both found the lamb to be overly salty. The swordfish main was rather disappointing looking and tasted overcooked, dry and chewy.
Overall the plating was creative with the exception of the swordfish main which looked like just a pile of foodstuff in an oil slick. I would have to say that generally the dishes looked prettier than they tasted. Perhaps I had too high expectations given the other reviews.
Service was slow and needs improvement to reach the standard expected of a 1 Michelin star restaurant. Dishes were not described in any detail when they were served. The ground floor dining area is tightly packed with very little space between tables, once full the noise level was so loud that we had difficulty hearing each other speak. The basement dining area is much more spacious with a bar and a lot quieter.

Another wonderful discovery I made in London.
This is a wonderful place. And I just heard it is the first Peruvian restaurant awarded with a Michelin star in the world!
I came here because I was craving for good ceviche.
No hesitation after I was seated, I immediately chose to order the sea bream ceviche, then the salmon one.
Well presented, the seafood is marinated and it has the bitterness like it should be!
Fish is fresh and served in great portion.
Then, I decided to try their meat. No disappointment with the sweet potato mash topped with minced lamb. I just wish to go back soon!
I was wondering how the dessert would be. And. again it is pleasant to eat the chef dishes. I got the white biscuit with dulce de leche in the middle.
The restaurant is bright and is quite busy at lunch time, book your table!
Service is really nice.
Price is competitive for the lunch. Amazing experience!

4 big stars for Lima, arguably the best modern Peruvian restaurant in London and (I think) the only one to earn a Michelin star. Great creative dishes are on offer in an intimate but buzzing space in Fitzrovia.
Among the memorable dishes we tried were the salmon tiradito and seared lomo (steak) for starters and the lamb shoulder and suckling pigs for shareable mains. The lamb and pork where fall off the fork tender and a highlight of the meal. All dishes were colourful and well presented — at almost picturesque level — perhaps the kitchen staff knew I take photos of my food!
All in, if you’re looking slightly off the beaten path high-​end yet casual meal, Lima should be on your short list.

Ooh a difficult review to write. I usually write a review based partly on expectation — it wouldn’t be fair to hold a mom and pop hole in the wall restaurant to the same standards as a Michelin star restaurant
My dilemma is that Lima has been heavily trailed as being the first Peruvian restaurant in the world to be awarded a Michelin star, which will appear in the 2014 guide. Based on this, my sister kindly took me here for dinner on my birthday last week
I’m not that familiar with Peruvian food, assuming it to be similar to Mexican and south American cuisine. Hence the fact that there were quite a few ingredients on the menu, which weren’t familiar to us, such as chia seed, Algarrobo tree syrup and aji panca. Unfortunately, our waiter struggled to convey much about these mystery ingredients, so we just ordered what looked interesting on the menu
We started with duck crudo and scallop tiradito. I must say that the plating of the scallop was exceptional with the delicate this rounds of white scallop meat being paired with vibrant bright orange oil, which looked like the scallop coral. The sweet scallop meat was paired with zingy flavours from the rest of the dish.
My favourite dish of the evening was the duck crudo — soft, hardly cooked duck with sweet and savoury elements from the sauce and accompaniments that made it a perfect mouthful. Don’t be put off by the appearance of the dish which looks like a Jackson Pollock painting when it arrives
My sister and I both love suckling pig and we got a few slices of pork with a green and nutty sauce. Perhaps the skin could have been a bit crisper but this was a competent dish, both in concept and execution
We shared a couple of desserts with unfamiliar names and ingredients but both tasted like ice cream with bits. Nothing memorable to report.
Now, if this was a regular meal, I would have said it was a good meal but as much as I hate to be a party-​pooper, it isn’t Michelin star standard. I understand that Michelin do maybe have to have an eye-​catching headline to sell their books but without wanting to put Lima down, which is a nice restaurant, I think Michelin have lost their minds and their palate when Lima gets a Michelin star and Kitchen Table, which has served me 2 of my favourite meals this year, doesn’t get one. I’m just asking for consistency
I hope that Lima won’t be burdened by their Michelin star tag and suffer like Petersham Nurseries a few years ago, which was unexpectedly awarded a star and was unable to meet the expectation of eager foodies, who turned up and were disappointed, leading to the eventual departure of their star chef Skye Gyngell
Having said all that, Lima gets 4 stars and I can recommend their starters

I really love this place. It’s a great place to catch up with friends, the atmosphere is casual and comfortable.
The food is great, it’s traditional Peruvian food with a modern twist but the portions are not large. The food presentation is amazing.