7 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.

A great hangout and meeting spot for travelers, this eclectic café with cheery yellow walls and wood-beamed ceilings works with local farming co-ops and has a commitment to organic principles and fair trade. The menu is small, but the quality is good. Try the juanes (an egg, rice, herb, and spice mixture, topped with chicken and tied into a bijao leaf), sandwiches, or any of the desserts.

This beautiful café sits inside the Casa Ganoza Chopitea, which was constructed around 1735 and is one of the best-preserved colonial mansions in Trujillo. The interior has original woodwork and frescoes, and the exterior features a balcony and a unique polychrome facade featuring a male and a female lion (which is why it is sometimes referred to as Casona de los Leones). There's decent coffee, though the food is quite simple (sandwiches, pizza, pasta, empanadas). The atmosphere is really why you are here.

This cute coffeehouse serves as a nice break from seafood if you find yourself spending too much time indulging in Huanchaco's cebicherías. The Dutch-and-Peruvian-owned café sources its coffee and other organic ingredients from local and regional producers. You can grab wraps, sandwiches, pastries, pies, crêpes, and other light bites here as well.

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.

In one corner of the Mercado Central, amid stalls selling charqui (dehydrated meat) and rainbow-colored displays of quinoa, you'll find a lunchtime crowd of people lining up for cebiche frito, a locally famous fried version of cebiche. The fish here comes battered and topped with a spicy mayo, along with leche de tigre and all the usual cebiche fixings. Patience here is key: remember that authentic local traditions are sometimes worth the wait.