Costa Verde

Description:

• Any time a restaurant in Peru lists all prices in dollars, you know it's not going to be cheap. Costa Verde, perched on a promontory jutting out into the ocean along the "green coast" south of Miraflores, is probably as expensive a meal as you'll have in Peru, but it's also good enough to draw a decent number of Limeños celebrating special occasions. It draws a bigger share of foreigners, as evidenced by the touristy little national flags the hostess places on everyone's table. The big-time seafood buffet is what makes everyone's eyes bulge. There's a daily lunch buffet and also a huge gourmet dinner buffet ($60/£30 a head), which the restaurant claims is registered in the Guinness Book of Records. The regular menu seems not to have changed in more than 3 decades of business, but you can't really argue with sea bass with wild mushrooms and morel sauce with scallop mousse, or basil and ricotta gnocchi with river shrimp in saffron sauce. Sit in the glass-enclosed atrium -- although it's rather devoid of character, you'll get to hear the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Then again, that could be the sound of your bank account groaning.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010