5 Best Restaurants in The North Coast and Northern Highlands, Peru

Equal parts funky and friendly, this café offers light snacks, hot and cold beverages, free Wi-Fi, and a seemingly endless supply of newspapers and books in English. Warm up by the fireplace on a cold night, or sit on the outdoor terrace with your laptop and sip a fresh-pressed cup of tea.

This attractive restaurant has an extensive international menu offering traditional rice and meat dishes, as well European-inspired salads, sandwiches, and entrées mixing local and imported ingredients. Whether you choose the Thai salad or lomo saltado (stir-fried beef and potatoes), expect to savor your meal. Relax in the serene dining room, and don't miss dessert—along with, well, a cappuccino.

With a breezy terrace upstairs and a cozy bistro downstairs, this French eatery covers a lot of bases. There are couscous and fondue, as well as hard-to-find local dishes such as grilled alpaca. Don't miss the sumptuous dessert crepes and good wine selection. Added plus: after three decades in Peru, chef and owner Patrick Bertrand now offers homemade goodies that you can take with you, including liquors, jams, mustards, granola, and more.

Exotic flavors such as beer, avocado, and lucuma (a popular Peruvian fruit) make this ice-cream shop something special. Ask for a "macho" (two scoops) cone, and then stroll around the town's pretty Plaza de Armas.