Are you looking to eat at one of the best gourmet Peruvian restaurants during your trip to Lima? Kjolle, a standout in Lima Peru fine dining, offers a great experience for anyone looking to enjoy top-notch Peruvian cuisine.
Lima, famous for its culinary scene, boasts several spots on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, reflecting Peru’s leading role in culinary innovation.
Kjolle, located in the neighborhood of Barranco, is one of these restaurants.
Head Chef Pia Leon offers a unique fine dining experience in Lima that reflects the diversity and richness of Peruvian ingredients. It’s no surprise that her innovative approach to traditional flavors has made her win the award for Best Female Chef in the world some years ago in 2021.
Kjolle Restaurant Lima is a must-visit for its exceptional approach to Peruvian cooking, showcasing the best of gourmet Peruvian restaurants.
Choosing Kjolle: Expectations of a Fine Dining Experience in Lima, Peru
As foodies and regular travelers, my partner and I have dined at some of the best restaurants in the world, including several in the Top 50’s list and Michelin star ones. Looking for the best food wherever we travel is one of the things that we enjoy the most.
There are no Michelin star restaurants in Peru (as the Michelin guide does not rate restaurants in South America), but there are several fine dining restaurants in Lima included in the Top 50’s list.
As a Peruvian and a local resident, we’ve explored Lima’s finest high-end restaurants, including Central (the #1 restaurant in 2024), Astrid y Gaston, and Maido.
So when a friend came to visit Lima, Peru, it was the perfect time to pay a visit to Kjolle. This is one of the top restaurants in Lima, focusing on indigenous produce, presented with modern flair.
You can think of Kjolle as the “sister” restaurant of Central. Actually, the head chefs are married to each other, and they used to run Central together before she started her own restaurant. They also have another restaurant, Mil, in Cusco, near the Moray ruins and the Maras salt mines.
Let me share my review of our fine dining experience at Kjolle, in Lima, where we opted for the à la carte menu instead of the tasting menu.
The Bread Course
The evening at Kjolle started with the bread course, which was as good as the rest of the dinner.
The soft warm bread was made with Kjolle, a flower from the Andes that gives its name to the restaurant. The bread came with a side of butter made with cabuya, a native Peruvian cactus; and a sauce of chili and mint.
What a perfect start for our dinner. The combination of the butter and the chili and mint sauce was one of the best we had ever tried. The texture of the butter was soft and airy, and the flavors blended perfectly well with the soft spiciness of the sauce.
The Starters at Kjolle
Kjolle menu, rich with creativity, places it among the elite of gourmet Peruvian restaurants.
My partner and I are vegetarians, so we were glad to hear that besides the one vegetarian starter on the menu at Kjolle, the restaurant had two extra ones that they could offer. Given that vegetarian dishes in Peru are not so common, this was a nice surprise.
We went for the Diversidad Vegetal (Vegetable Diversity), which was on the menu, and the Avocado Cebiche, which was off the menu. The other off-the-menu option was made with “ají negro”, a syrup extracted from cassava, and cassava.
Vegetable Diversity
The Diversidad Vegetal was a salad, which came with kale, avocado, lettuce and garlic, among other ingredients. It also had dehydrated artichoke mixed through the leaves, which was incredible.
It had the texture and taste of something between chips and rice crackers, with sharp salty notes that were gave a perfect balance to the greens.
The base had a slighty bitter coffee sauce, for a more complex taste to the dish.
Avocado Cebiche
Cebiche is one of the most famous national dishes of Peru, typical of the coast. It’s a cold dish made of seafood (usually fish), with the seafood “cooked” through marination in citrus juice, typically lemon or lime.
Our version of the cebiche at Kjolle replaced the seafood with avocado and zapallo macre (a South American kind of squash). It was served with a citric sauce over a bed of quinoa (which is native to Peru).
The dish was delicious and very fresh, though we personally found this dish less surprising or special. Maybe because we know the cebiche taste well, which was very similar to the taste of this dish.
Scallops and Sweet Cucumber
Our friend went for the Scallops and sweet cucumber (a Peruvian kind of melon). They were served on a sauce made of tumbo (a very sour fruit from the Amazon), lime and ají charapita (which is one of the most delicious chili peppers of Peru, also from theAmazon). It was another light choice, and also fresh and perfect for the weather.
The Mains at Kjolle
The main courses at Kjolle demonstrate its status as a premier Peru fine dining destination.
For mains, we were also glad to hear that besides the one vegetarian option listed on the menu, they had two other unlisted ones.
My partner and I both went for the one on the menu, which was called Raíz de Altura (Altitude Root). Our friend went for the Costillas de Vaca (Cow Ribs).
Raiz de Altura (Altitude Root)
The Raíz de Altura was a mix of different tubers native to the Andes, each cooked in a different way. This dish was by far our favorite from the whole experience. This was not just our opinion, as vegetarians, but our friend agreed as welll.
The bed of the dish was a warm, creamy and milky Huamantaga potato (one of the 4000 potato species there are in Peru) puree. These were not doubt the best mashed potatoes I have ever tried. It’s no wonder that this is one of the best restaurants in Lima, Peru.
In the center, there was mashua, small round tubers, boiled and served in a bittersweet sauce that perfectly balanced the flavors.
Crowning the dish, you found delicately roasted arracacha and slices of carrots, adding a splash of color and texture. To top it all off, there were some leafy greens sprinkled throughout, adding a fresh, crisp finish to the dish.
Cotillar de vaca (Cow Ribs)
Our friend had the cow ribs, which had been cooked for 16 hours and served in its juice. It was topped with some crispy textures and served with a side of mashed roasted corn and tarwi (a native Peruvian grain similar to quinoa). I gave the roasted corn side a whirl, and wow, it was bursting with flavor!
Desserts
As a closing to our dinner, we shared two desserts. One was a chocolate one and the other one was one of a nut one (I can’t remember the exact names).
Chocolate Dessert
I love to have a small piece of chocolate now and then, but I’m not such a fan of chocolate desserts because they are normally too sweet for me.
This dessert, though, had the perfect balance of sweetness and freshness.
As you can see on the picture, the dessert comes served in four parts. At the center, you can see crunchy cacao textures served on a copazu bed (copoazu is a fruit from the Amazon, similar to chirimoya, which is a more well-known fruit across the county).
On the right side you can see the cacao mousse, which had to be served on top of the cacao leaves. The mousse was very soft, very airy and creamy. It had the perfect note of sweetness. Our friend couldn’t stop talking about this mousee, which was the highlight of his visit to Kjolle.
Adding an exotic twist to the sides, we had thin slices of macambo. Macambo is the creamy, flavorful pulp that encases the seeds of the cacao fruit.
The last side was copoazu, the fruit from the Amazon I mentioned before. This sweet but fresh touch was recommended to have after you finished the rest of the dessert.
This dessert exemplifies why Kjolle is among the top gourmet Peruvian restaurants, with its creative use of local ingredients.
Nuez de Madre de Dios
This star of this dessert was a nut that I heard a team from the restaurant had gone to look for in an expedition to the Madre de Dios region in the jungle.
The nuts were cooked and were very soft, in a texture reminiscent to a tender cake. They were served on a lukewarm coconut sauce and ice cream.
However, for our taste, this dessert was a tad too sweet and seemed to miss that extra dash of magic. It was not quite the culinary surprise you could have anticipated compared to some of the other dishes.
Drinks
Amazon’s sour superfruit rich in vitamin C. My partner chose a refreshing pisco cocktail with kombucha and orange, embracing Peru’s national spirit (Pisco is the most typical Peruvian alcoholic drink). Our friend enjoyed a unique blend of sugar cane, buttermilk, and camu-camu, offering another burst of freshness.
We also were offered a non-alcoholic drink to accompany our dessert. It was made with Borgoña grapes, matico (an herb native from The Americas) and red maca. It was sweet and light, perfect to close the evening.
Our Experience at Kjolle
We loved our experience at this fine dining restaurant in Lima, Peru. It was a great evening, the food was 5-stars and the service and ambience were perfect as well.
The menu is full of dishes that are not only special and tasty, but also beautiful to look at. Eating at Kjolle feels like exploring the different flavors and traditions of our country, but in a new and exciting way.
Experiences like dining at Kjolle make a trip to Lima worth it, even if you come just for the food.
Before You Go…
In case you are looking for other food-related experiences, there’s a food tour in lima that I highly recommend. Here you can read my experience at that Lima food tour. It takes you around cafes, top restaurants, markets and even includes a stop at the gourmet restaurant with views to ancient archaeological ruins.
And if you are a vegetarian, like me, I recommend that you take a look at my post about my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Lima for some gems you shouldn’t miss.
