Lima can be a chaotic and daunting city for travellers, but we would encourage any food lover to make a visit. Peru frequently tops international lists for its culinary delights, and with good reason.

At the start of our journey we wrote a post on Peruvian food, but during our second visit to Lima, six months after we began our travels, we were mostly eating ceviche as it was summer (January). We already knew that we loved ceviche and indeed we had been eating it at every possible opportunity during the past six months. However, this time we took our ceviche eating to a whole new level of awesomeness, reaching culinary peaks previously thought unreachable. A sort of enlightenment by marinated fish!

Ceviche, a relatively new concept for us westerners, is fresh raw fish lightly marinated in salt, lime juice and chilli. It is normally served with sliced red onions, cilantro, giant corn and sweet potato. It is mostly found in coastal regions, but we have also had river fish ceviche in the jungle and lake ceviche in the Andes thanks to lake Titicaca. However, there’s nothing quite like a Lima ceviche.

It’s worth remembering that Peruvian portions are monumental and lunchtime is the traditional time of the day to have a large meal, especially when fish is involved. It is important to remember that the best cevicherias are only open for lunch, so beware of places serving ceviche for dinner – no self-respecting Peruvian would go for them! We tend to order sparingly and top up if it is not enough, but quite often a starter is just fine. However, if you are in the company of Peruvian folks, we highly discourage anyone from ordering anything less than three massive courses with plenty of beers, they might think less of you as a person! No, really!

As a side note, many travellers do get sick in Peru. For some it is an inevitability, but you can certainly give yourself a fighting chance by always eating in restaurants or places recommended by locals. We are very lucky to know Ana and Mauricio at our favourite B&B – Residencial Miraflores and they can vouch for all of these places. We also owe them a debt of gratitude because, as well as being great hosts and our South American adoptive parents, without them we would have never discovered these great places and their delicious ceviches

This is by no means a definitive guide of the best ceviches in Lima…this is our ‘best of so far’, we are working on trying them all, but we need more time! So, here they are, and don’t forget to wash them down with some fine Peruvian lagers like Cuzqueña, Pilsen or Cristal, served ice-cold!

• EL MUELLE, Barranco. Our friend Mauricio’s favourite restaurant (he is from Barranco after all!), this is a locals’ spot and it comes with locals’ prices, but it is becoming increasingly popular with tourists. Order some scallops with parmesan cheese and some mussels with onions, lime and chilli to start, then try one of their sharing platters. The sharing platter should really be shared between two (unless you are Peruvian of course, than it’s just an appetizer for one) and allows you to taste the best they have to offer. You can experience not only ceviche but other typical dishes like tiradito (a sort of ceviche, cut in the shape of sashimi), octopus in olive sauce, causa (potato cake with various fillings such as crayfish), chicharrones de pescado (lightly battered fried fish) and chaufa (seafood rice with a Chinese flavour)…buenazo! They make a mean pisco sour too! As a side note, they should probably start paying Mauricio commission, as he must have taken hundreds of people here throughout the years that would not otherwise have known about it!

• EL CEVICHANO, Surquillo Market, Surquillo. Eating in markets is great because it is super cheap, but it is not always a good idea unless you are sure that the stall is clean and safe. Luckily this spot in Surquillo market comes highly recommended by locals. You sit at the counter next to the kitchen or the fish shop, so it is certainly a memorable experience. Try the leche de tigre (tigres milk, so-called because it will make you strong and virile like a tiger), it’s a portion of ceviche and its yummy juices (the leche de tigre) in a cocktail glass served with some delicious lightly battered fried fish. Choose the extra picante (spicy) if you dare – even the normal one blew our socks off.

• LA RED, Miraflores. This popular but slightly more upmarket restaurant in Miraflores has great cocktails – try a Chilcano which is a long pisco based drink with different flavours to choose from. Even better are its ceviches, some of which have a Japanese influence like the Nikkei. Slightly more expensive than other spots, but definitely worth a visit!

• PUNTO AZUL, Miraflores & other locations. Punto Azul was the first restaurant where we tried ceviche in Peru…and what a revelation it was! We’d tried it in London but it did not prepare us for the gloriousness of the genuine Peruvian thing! This is quite an iconic spot, well-known among locals and tourists alike – you can’t really say you have been to Lima if you haven’t eaten at Punto Azul at least once (but preferably twice)! It’s so popular that you have to arrive early (like before 12.00), get a ticket and wait in line. But don’t worry, you can sip a cold beer or a pisco sour while you wait, and they may even serve you some appetizers whilst you are in line.

• BAR BARRACUDA, Playa El Silencio. Bar Barracuda is a beach-side restaurant outside of Lima, not far from the ruins of Pachacamac. There are plenty of cevicherias on this beach, and they all kind of look alike making it potentially difficult for a couple of disoriented gringos like us to choose. Luckily Ana and Mauricio knew exactly where to go and once again took us to a great spot! The place looks like a shack on the beach but as you enter it is a whole stretch of the seaside that includes a bar, tables in the shade and a beach lounger service. The ceviche here is huge and delicious, as is the fried fish which we sampled as part of a Jalea. Also it has the best leche de tigre ever!

While there is certainly a lot more than ceviche to the culinary scene in Lima we feel that this is the defining Peruvian dish. It has also really made us rethink the way that we eat fish. With the increasing popularity of Peruvian food in the world, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if in the next few years ceviche becomes the new sushi in the west. London is already full of Peruvian restaurants but we believe that Peruvian food has the potential to be successful even in countries traditionally less receptive of foreign cuisines. Now, excuse us, we think it’s time for a spot of lunch…