Rafael
Calle San Martín 300
Miraflores
Lima 18
Perú
Telephone: +511 242 4149
Overall rating: 7,5/10
Date of visit: October 2016
Before going to Peru, my travel companion, who was Italian, had lived in Argentina for almost a year and had told me that Peru was supposed to have the best food in South America. When we left Peru I asked him, and he said that for him, in the five countries he had been, the best food was in Argentina, followed by Uruguay and then Peru. I found the food in Peru in general to be poor. Either it was poor quality, or it was very plain. It also seemed very difficult to find a decent meal, even if you were willing to pay a decent amount for it. But that’s how it is when you travel from one of the richest parts of the world to one of the poorest.
So, when I returned to Peru I was glad to discover Rafael in Lima. Tripadvisor is often misleading because many people just give five stars to their favourite coffee shop or pizza place, but in this case, some of the best restaurants in town were actually ranked highest.
I went to a couple of high-end restaurants in Lima, and along with Astrid y Gaston, Rafael was the best one.
For starters I had lobster or spiny lobster (I was a bit confused):
My girlfriend had sweetbreads with a pea purée and quail eggs:
We then shared raviolis with prawns and truffles, although I think the latter was merely truffle oil. This was a really nice dish, and the best one in this meal:
For dessert we shared a dishe with apple sorbet, but unfortunately I can’t recall what the rest was:
The dishes were all a la carte, and including at least one glass of wine (maybe two), the bill came to around 250 sol (€67) in total for two.
We wanted to go back here in February 2017, but unfortunately we couldn’t get a table the days we wanted to go. But if I go back to Peru, I will most likely go and write an updated review.