Chicha por Gastón Acurio

Chicha is the Cusco restaurant of Gastón Acurio, the Peruvian star chef. It occupies a second-floor space on the west side of Plaza Regocijo, one block from the Plaza de Armas, and El Comercio's Premios Somos 2025 nominated it for best restaurant in Cusco, describing it as a reference point for reinvented regional cooking. Before opening here, Acurio had already taken his restaurants to cities such as Madrid and San Francisco, and Chicha is his answer to the food of Cusco and the southern Andes.

The menu takes regional Peruvian recipes and gives them a modern twist, using traditional and ancestral techniques. Diners can choose from a regional seasonal menu, a chef's creative menu or an eight-dish tasting menu. Among the dishes that reviewers single out are adobo de cerdo, pork cooked in a sauce of chicha, ají and spices; a trout ceviche with tarwi, a protein-rich Andean legume; a wood-fired pizza topped with alpaca carpaccio; and a lamb-stuffed flatbread with a sauce of muña, the Andean mint, and uchucuta, a local chilli blend. Other guides have mentioned a chicha soup with four kinds of beans and pork rib crackling, a Peking-style guinea pig starter, oxtail and sweet potato tortelli, which gives an idea of how freely the kitchen moves between Andean and international ideas. The drinks list leans on pisco, with a long list of original cocktails.

The dining space is split into two rooms, with an open kitchen on one side and a bar on the other, so you can watch the cooks at work. It suits couples and groups looking for a polished but relaxed meal, and the tasting menu is a good introduction to Andean ingredients if this is your first stop in Peru.

Reservations are recommended, especially for dinner. The restaurant is a natural choice after a day exploring the historic centre: Plaza Regocijo was once part of the great Inca ceremonial square, and the Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral and the Compañía church are all a minute or two away.

If you are planning several upmarket meals in Cusco, Chicha makes a useful contrast with the more experimental restaurants such as Mauka or MIL, since its focus is on recognisable regional dishes. Vegetarians should check the menu in advance, as many of the signature dishes are built around pork, lamb, alpaca and trout.