What it is
A huarique is a small neighborhood place to eat in Lima: usually 10 to 30 seats, often with no sign worth the name, run by the same family for years and known by word of mouth. The cook is usually the owner, the menu is short (sometimes one dish), you pay in cash, and it rarely opens for dinner.
It isn't secret. People in the next neighborhood know it, and the people on the block grew up eating there. It lives off regulars and reputation, with no marketing and no interest in growing.
Once a place has printed napkins, a website, app reservations and a host at the door, most Limeños would call it something else.
Where the word comes from
The origin is debated; a common explanation traces it to a Quechua word for "hidden". As Lima slang for "el sitio escondido donde se come bien", the hidden place where you eat well, it took hold in the mid-20th century in working-class districts like Surquillo, La Victoria, Rímac, Barrios Altos and parts of Callao, where migrants from the Andes opened small kitchens to feed their neighbors.
In the 2000s, during Peru's food boom, chefs like Gastón Acurio and critics like Ignacio Medina started writing about huariques as seriously as about fine dining. Some outgrew the category; Gianfranco Vargas's La Picantería is the usual example. Others stayed small and cheap on purpose. The Summum awards now have a huarique category, and many of the best ones still don't hang a sign.
How to recognize one
- Hardly any sign. A painted board with the name, or just an open door.
- The cook in view, often the same person for many years.
- A handwritten menu on a chalkboard or a clipboard.
- Lunch only, roughly 12:00 to 16:00.
- Cash. Some now take Yape, the Peruvian phone payment app.
At 13:30 on a weekday, a huarique is full of people in office clothes and work uniforms eating quickly. A room of tourists means you're somewhere else.
What to order
Most huariques do one kind of food:
- Seafood: ceviche, tiradito, jalea, leche de tigre. Surquillo, Chorrillos, Magdalena, Callao.
- Criollo: ají de gallina, seco de cordero, arroz con pato, lomo saltado. Centro, Lince, old Surco.
- Sandwiches: pan con chicharrón, pan con pavo, pan con jamón del país.
- Grill: anticuchos, rachi, mollejas. Barranco and Surquillo, at night.
- Early-morning soups: caldo de gallina, parihuela, sudado, around markets from 04:00 to 10:00.
Order what the place is known for, usually the first thing on the board, and the house drink: chicha morada, lemonade or a Cusqueña.
What it costs
| Kind | Plate (S/) | Meal with a drink (S/) |
|---|---|---|
| Seafood | 18–35 | 25–45 |
| Criollo (menú del día) | 12–22 | 18–28 |
| Sandwiches | 8–14 | 12–22 |
| Grill (street) | 8–15 per skewer | 16–30 |
| Famous ones (Al Toke Pez) | 25–40 | 35–60 |
Most come to around S/30 with a drink.
Three to try
- Al Toke Pez, Av. Angamos Este 886, Surquillo. A counter for ten or twelve where Tomás Matsufuji cooks ceviche, sudado and arroz con mariscos with the day's catch. Lunch only, cash only, about S/25 a head when El Comercio reviewed it in 2017. Expect a queue.
- El Verídico de Fidel, Av. Tacna 1149, Magdalena del Mar. A counter cevichería with decades of regulars; the leche de tigre and the arroz con mariscos are the orders. Roughly S/30–50.
- La Picantería, Calle Francisco Moreyra 154, Surquillo. Gianfranco Vargas's place started as a huarique and has grown (you can book now), but it keeps the short menu, whole fish sold by weight and shared plates. Around S/80–130 a head, more than a huarique, and worth it.
The best way to find one is to ask a few people on any block where they eat lunch. The answer is usually "a la vuelta hay un sitio", there's a place around the corner. Tours that sell "huarique experiences" tend to take you to places that stopped being one.
Related
- Cevichería, the most common kind of huarique.
- Sanguchería; many started as huariques.
- Menú del día: most lunch-menu places are huariques in all but name.