Temperature: Hot, off charcoal
Where: Carretilla / anticuchería
Price range: S/16–70
What anticuchos are
Anticuchos are skewers of marinated beef heart, grilled hard over charcoal until the edges char and the inside stays just-pink. They're served with a boiled potato, a chunk of grilled choclo (giant corn), and three sauces: green (huacatay or cilantro), yellow (ají amarillo), and red (rocoto).
Yes, it's heart. No, it doesn't taste like organ meat — it tastes like a very dense, beefier-than-beef steak. The marinade (vinegar, garlic, cumin, ají panca) tenderizes everything and gives the skewers their signature dark crust.
Why you should actually try them
Skipping anticuchos because of the heart thing is the single most common rookie mistake in Lima. Most travelers who try them rank them in their top 3 dishes of the trip — they're smoky, juicy, and much closer to a great grilled steak than to anything weird.
If you're truly not sold, order anticuchos de pollo (chicken hearts or chicken breast) — but you're missing the dish.
When and where to eat them
Anticuchos are a night food. The classic format is a street cart on a busy corner from around 19:00 onwards, with charcoal smoke pouring out and a queue of locals waiting. There's a reason for the time: the meat needs hot coals, and the cart only fires up after sunset.
Famous spots:
- Anticuchería La Tía Grimanesa (Miraflores) — the most famous version, sit-down, a bit overpriced but consistently great.
- Street carts in Surquillo, Lince, and Barranco — cheaper, smokier, more local.
- Criollo restaurants anywhere in Lima — a slightly tamer indoor version, available at lunch.
How to order them
Just ask for "anticuchos". A standard portion is two skewers (called un palito each), with potato, choclo, and sauces. Order of operations at a cart:
- Walk up. Point. Say "dos anticuchos, por favor".
- Pay in cash (small bills — bring a S/20 maximum).
- Wait 5–10 minutes while they grill.
- Eat standing up, off a paper plate, with the sauces.
Locals dip everything in the green sauce first.
What they should cost
| Where | Per skewer (S/) |
|---|---|
| Street cart | 8–15 |
| Sit-down anticuchería | 18–28 |
| Upscale restaurant | 30–50 |
A full meal is two skewers plus the sides — S/16–30 at a cart, S/45–70 at a restaurant.
What to drink with them
Cold Cusqueña, Pilsen Callao, or Cristal beer. Soda if you don't drink. Anticuchos are smoky and salty — wine and creamy drinks fight the dish.
Origins
Anticuchos are pre-Columbian in spirit and Afro-Peruvian in their modern form. The Inca and earlier Andean peoples grilled marinated meat on sticks long before contact, but the dish as Limeños know it today was shaped in colonial Lima by enslaved Africans on coastal plantations. Given the cheapest cuts — beef heart (corazón), the offal the Spanish landowners discarded — they marinated it in ají panca, vinegar, garlic, and cumin, skewered it on sugarcane sticks, and grilled it over coals. The recipe survived, was embraced by Limeños of every class, and is now one of the most distinctive street foods in the country.