Lima to open third site in London

Peruvian restaurant Lima is opening its third site in London inside of Shoreditch’s Sun Street Hotel. 

It was launched as a collaboration between entrepreneurial Venezuelan brothers, Gabriel and José Luis Gonzalez, and celebrated Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez, whose flagship site in the city of Lima itself, Central, has been on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

Focusing on fine dining, ingredients were predominantly sourced from the British Isles, though Peru’s vast biodiversity is shown off through wild produce from the Andes and the Amazon.

The Peruvian food trend in London has been largely spearheaded by dynamic duo Ceviche in Soho and Lima London in Fitzrovia, the former (as the name suggests) specialising in ceviche, and the latter offering a broader spectrum of Peruvian cuisine, including huayro potatoes grown at 4,000 metres.

Now, it plans to open its third site in the Sun Street Hotel, which opened a couple of years ago, following its previous Fitzrovia sites and the Cantina in Covent Garden.

According to plans, the new site will have an emerald green and aquamarine design as well as an outdoor terrace and private dining areas. Executive chef Roberto Sihuay is mooted to run the outlet’s menu.

Reviewing the original site back in 2012, db said that Lima’s wine list was described as “refreshingly curt” and while the majority of the world’s major wine regions were represented – from Alsace to Stellenbosch via the Colchagua Valley — the food was “so dazzling” and the cocktails so enticing, that “wine is forced to take a back seat”.

Pisco sours

Indeed, pisco sours would be expected to play a centre part of the menu, including perhaps a spicier number available in the original site – the Cuenta del Diabolo (devil’s story), a mix of chili-infused Pisco, Cointreau and lime decorated with devil horns fashioned from chilies. The ruby red concoction was described as “soothingly sweet, bringing back nostalgic memories of strawberry Skittles, with a warming chili kick on the finish”.

Previous dishes highlighted include sea bream ceviche, which is served in a “tiger’s milk”, and braised octopus. Peru boasts over 3,000 different types of potato and they go large on spuds at Lima London, showcasing the carb in an array of guises, including potato–based “causas”.

For dessert, expect dishes such as dulce de leche ice cream, described as “toffee sweetness” “recalling the sweet-savoury interplay of Heston Blumenthal’s inspired brown bread ice cream with salted butter caramel at Dinner”.