Eau Vive (L')

Description:

• If you're feeling obscenely rich in this impoverished country, you'll do a tiny bit of good and feel better by eating here. The restaurant, run by a French order of nuns, donates its proceeds to charity. In a colonial palace 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas and across the street from one of Lima's most important mansions, Torre Tagle, it features several large dining rooms with high ceilings. If you come for the cheap lunch menú, though, you'll have to sit in the simpler front rooms. The "a la carte" dining rooms are considerably more elegant. The lunch menú is a deal, and at night you get a pious show free with dinner: The nuns sing "Ave Maria" promptly at 9:30pm. The French menu includes items such as prawn bisque, trout baked in cognac, and grilled meats; it also incorporates some international dishes from around the globe -- chiefly, the many countries from which the order's nuns come. The restaurant's heyday was clearly a few years ago, and some have complained that the food and service aren't up to snuff anymore, but this is still an old favorite you can feel good about patronizing, even if it's not the finest meal you can have in Lima.

• © Frommer's 2012