The 8 Best Peruvian Restaurants In Houston - Houston - The Infatuation (2024)

photo credit: Quit Nguyen

Food from Latin America exists all over Houston, and Peruvian meals are no exception. We’ve collected the best restaurants for cutting into lomo saltado, briny ceviches, and tallarin saltado. Each spot on this guide makes standout dishes in spaces that feel welcoming, no matter how fancy they are. From upscale spots serving Nikkei dinners to low-key lunch places making creamy shrimp stew, here are the best Peruvian restaurants in the city.

THE SPOTS

This cozy Briar Forest restaurant decorated like, well, a lemon tree, serves Peruvian food faster than you can eye up the daily sweets in the dessert display. Pop in here specifically for the incredible tallarin saltado. The noodles come bathed in citrus with tender beef and enough roasted tomatoes so that you get some in every forkful. It doesn’t really matter if you order to-go or eat inside—sitting down with your food will take about the same amount of time as takeout, anyway.

The West Oaks restaurant Latin Bites makes excellent Peruvian food from start to finish. Get your meal going with a well-balanced pisco sour, then dive into a plate of tenderloin beef skewered served with crispy roasted potatoes, and end with the lomo saltado with beef soft enough to fall apart on its own. The room is usually full of families having a mini reunion or celebrating someone’s high school graduation. We’d make any excuse to come back to Latin Bites, and if you’re into all-day Happy Hours or high-energy birthday singing by waiters, you will too.

Going to Andes Cafe is one of the best reasons to visit The Post in Downtown. Make a reservation at the ceviche bar to see razor clams get dressed in spicy aji limó pepper, or octopus smothered in bright tiger’s milk sauce. The intensely flavored and beautiful plates aren’t limited to ceviche, though—you can also try lomo saltado or tender rotisserie chicken. While hitting up this Peruvian restaurant before any 713 Music Hall concert is a no-brainer, the intimate, deep blue stall also makes for a great solo meal or casual date night, especially after grabbing a couple of co*cktails around the food hall.

This tiny, mostly to-go casual strip-center restaurant, which is barely visible from the feeder road, makes some of the best traditional Peruvian food in town. Peru Cafe Express is quiet, scrubbed clean as though someone’s entire family is about to visit, and filled with photos and keepsakes. The staff member manning the counter takes your order, and anything from the one-page menu will be excellent. We especially like the empanadas de carne with a crispy, golden crust full of extra-crunchy air bubble craters, ceviche with a tongue-tingling kick, or loaded plates of lomo saltado glistening with perfumed red wine sauce. Lunch will only cost around $12, which makes it worth all the 59 U-turns to get there.

Every dish at Sabor Y Sazón, a tiny Peruvian restaurant in Spring Branch, tastes like it should be their best seller. They dish out classics like giant plates of tender lomo saltado glazed in a slightly sweet sauce and served with the softest roasted tomatoes. And their bowls of stew with spicy shrimp floating in the creamy broth are so delicious that we don’t mind peeling the ends off of each piece. You’ll see the occasional staff member emerge from the kitchen to shoot the breeze with regulars. Sabor Y Sazón usually closes before 5pm, so pop in early and crown this place as your new favorite lunch spot.

As the only restaurant in Houston serving Nikkei food, there’s truly no other place like Pacha Nikkei in Westchase. The restaurant’s menu covers just about every classic Peruvian dish, with a dozen ceviche options topped with culpe and tender anticucho skewers. Come here when you want a raspberry pisco sour or a maki roll dressed in tangy acevichado sauce, or are just in the neighborhood and need some cuttlefish ceviche.

It’s a shame this Peruvian restaurant got shoved in the back of a food hall near the Galleria. The ceviches here are as fresh and bright as they look, especially the Ceviche 713 with crunchy corn nuts, crisp red onion, and lime-cured white fish so tart your mouth will pucker. Add a glass of maracuya juice and turn lunchtime into your own personal acid-fueled escape from multi-level parking garages and traffic jams. If you have to choose one spot to eat when visiting The Conservatory, choose Cvché.

Head to the Market Square shopping center on Eldridge to fulfill all your Peruvian chicken needs in Houston. This counter-service place covered in wood walls has 24-hour marinated rotisserie chickens spinning in a hand-built, charcoal oven at all times, and that’s exactly what you should order. Get chaufa with a quarter chicken combo and some fried plantains, or take home a whole bird to make your family weeknight meals easier. If you’re into ceviche, order Brasas' best lime-drenched all-fish ceviche and creamy leche de tigre, which will clear up your sinuses.