Central has long been one of my favorite restaurants ever and it’s actually particularly special to me because it was my first ever fine dining experience 7-8 years ago! I finally got the chance to revisit last year and it was even better than before. The concept at Central is to share the ecosystems, ingredients, and terroir of Peru and they do it by taking you on a journey through the country. Each dish represents a different altitude and all of the ingredients in that dish come from that particular ecosystem.
I will say that Central is not a dining experience where every dish will be purely delicious, it’s a bit heady/esoteric and I think going in expecting it to be a bit more like a reflection of Virgilio nerding out about Peruvian ingredients will give you a much better experience.
Onto the food: the food itself is interesting, there’s no better way to describe it. For most people, >50% of the ingredients you’ll never have heard of which I personally think makes for a unique dining experience. Most of the courses come with a number of different plates of food, so the total number of “dishes” you’ll get winds up being somewhere around 25-30 over the course of the meal. But the textures, colors, flavors, and philosophy behind the food is truly special and I think it’s incredible that Virgilio has dedicated so much to sharing Peru with the world.
Some food highlights:
Their final dish (first photo) is a collection of different preparations of theobromas (the same family as cacao). You get crisps, pastes, candies, drinks, and much more that use every part of the theobroma and it’s a pretty impressive display/usage of an ingredient that you normally just associate with chocolate
The starting assortment of seafood (photo 9) is a great introduction to the meal, again playing with different textures and flavors of seafood. It really feels like you’re taking in the ocean when you try everything because you get freshness, salinity, sweetness, etc. all from ingredients in the sea
Extreme altitude (photos 3 and 6) have a great contrast, a fresh salad with algae that looks like boba paired with a dish that is a bit more rich, featuring the flavors of different corns that they have in Peru
Overall, I see a lot of debate on whether or not Central is worth visiting. I think if you really just want food that is super tasty, then it’s probably a pass, but if you’re actually interested in learning about a country’s cuisine, you want one of the most unique menus you’ll ever have, and you are open to something that’s different from what other restaurants are creating, Central will be one of your favorites for sure.
by Ligiers
5 Comments
Still the best meal of my life, since back in 2017
Nice pictures man!
My first meal was 2012, and I keep going back, it’s the perfect example how a single restauranr is capable of elevating a country to a culinary destination!
I sort of felt the same when I dined at MAZ in Tokyo. Not all dishes are going to be “good” in a traditional sense, but you can really see the vision of what chef is going for. I will say though, the different forms of chocolate were really, really good. I’ve heard it’s gotten harder to book when it received it’s 2 stars though, I went before-hand, so maybe another visit is due.
Haven’t been, but it looks amazing. Have been to Maz in Tokyo twice already and will be going back in 5 weeks. Looking forward to heading back to South America in 2027. Hopefully will get to dine here.