Cantina Peruana

We have been wanting to try Peruvian for a while and came across Cantina Peruana during our search. The restaurant was fully booked but the host, upon knowing that it is our last night in Lisbon, offered to squeeze us in :D the food and drinks are really great - the ceviches are very fresh and interesting combination of textures. We liked the grilled skewers too - grilled just right so the meat was still tender. For the fried dishes, we especially liked the fried potato with stuffed oxtail- interesting and rich flavors but not too much. For drinks, we liked all the pisco cocktails we ordered, but we’d especially recommend the el millionario- made with rum and pisco. Finally the atmosphere was very cozy and “gemutlich”, a great place to go for dinner

We were not aware that this restaurant was operated by one of the most talented cooks on the planet, we entered it because we wanted to eat Peruvian food. While being already in the restaurant we realized that was the best decision ever. Music, cocktails, food, ambient, service and reasonable prices. We left pretty much impressed. We tried a lot from the menu and stars of the night were Pisco cocktail, anticucho de pollo and cheviche cremoso. We will definitely return to this place when we visit Lisbon again. Highly recommended.

What a great restaurant. Staff was very freindly, location is fun and looks great. After a good explanation on how the courses/menu/dishes worked, we were a bit skeptical about the ammount of food brought to the table. Yet.. it was amazing. We had the 2 person menu. The fine taste of the Peruvian dishes, the mix between fish, meat and vegetarian was awesome. Mu personal fafourite was the squid sate. Starting with a pisco cocktail to get the eveningen going. Will definitely recommend.

Cantina Peruana has some nice balanced food, not through the roof but quite flavoured. We had the full course menu as it contains a lot of different dishes and traditional Peruvian beer. Ceviche and Tres Leches were amazing! We had fun!

From the beginning to the end one idea stands...Disappointing... This is one of that places that reveals a lot of potential when you go in and sit but after tasting the first plate you start questioning if the price of the plates is justified taking in consideration that lack of any "wow factor" that could suport such an expensive menu...and if any doubts could be raised I invite to do a simple quality test...ask a ceviche...and when you will measure the quality of peruvian restaurant...this is the kind of plate that needs to be spot on...and it wasn't... The bad news...it doesn't get any better until the end...not even on the deserts...I had a desert that should hero the dolce di leche and it tasted like a tiramissu...wrong so wrong... But you might be asking...ok it is too expensive and nothing special but it was the food so bad to get this rate? Well...This is a rate based on the sum of 2 factors...the poor level of the plates but the even worst quality of the service...and in a place that wants to charge high prices and position it self in higher end the client can not feel arrased during the all meal by the staff that every 5 minutes comes and interrupts to ask something...or even worst...when you ask to someone from the staff to change your plate because you were eating meat and you are changing to fish and tells you without any problem that it would do it as a special favour because the place was not to crowded because it is not usual policy to do it!! Please!! Never but never something like this should be said...regardless if it is an expensive or cheap place... My recomendation? Get a more present restaurant manager that can control everything from the quality of the food to the quality of the service or else people will start realizing that the money they are spending does not match what they get...

Even though the place was packed on a Saturday evening. They managed to serve us fantastic drinks with a smile on their faces. Make sure to ask for “Zè” (Josè?) in the bar. And if you’re lucky he’ll make you his “special” drink.. show him the second picture;)

The food was good but nothing like Peruvian at all. Traditional is not a word. Ceviche - everything’s raw, Peruvian said thumb down 👎👎👎

Food and drinks was delicious. Atmosphere was lovely. Not very 'traditional' tastes one could argue for some of the courses, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Rather small plates for most courses, the price seemed to reflect the portion size. Very helpful and careful when I expressed that I am allergic to nuts. The plate sizes and the long wait for the food drags them down from a five star review to a four.

When my husband and I walked in Cantina Peruana we had no idea that it was the collaboration between the Michelin star Portuguese chef José Avillez and Peruvian chef Diego Muñoz. After an early start (by American standards) bar hopping on Pink Street it was time to fill our bellies. We were warmly greeted and shown a table. Our waitress was patient with our questions and made a few suggestions. We started with round of mojitos (the best we've had in recent memory) and perused the menu. Most items are tapas (small plates) so we ordered several dishes to try and share. We told our waitress to bring us the dishes we need to try as they all looked so good. She was enthusiastic and came up with excellent choices. While we waited for our food we chatted with a lovely couple at the table next to us. They were from Romania and visited Lisbon periodically to dine at all of José Avillez's establishments (I believe he has 7 in the Lisbon region). I knew we were in for a treat. Everything from the octopus and crab ceviche to the grilled octopus skewers to our beef Asian stir fry was flavorful and fresh. Our only regret was not ordering the 7 course prix fixe menu that our new friends next to us were enjoying. We finished our meal with coffee and tres leches to share. It was the perfect finish to a wonderful meal.

So it's by pure accident that my husband and I are going to three Jose Avillez places this trip. We were super happy with mini bar in porto, we have reservations at Belcanto for Valentine's day, and in the middle, I felt like Peruvian food and this place came up with the best menu. I had the best dish of food all vacation here. Namely the tirodito ceviche. I had no idea the explosion of pure umame flavor with great acidity that this would have. I could have sworn it tasted like a sort of peanut flavor? But no, the waiter said it was figure de leche, soy sauce, oyster (assuming sauce), "fish flavor (??)" And condensed milk. Flavor awesomeness. If you don't want to commit to the meal, just come here and get this. Rest of the meal: classic ceviche. Was good but the other one stole the show Pork blade anticucho: very delicious bite Potato anticuccho: only 4 euros. Very yummy. Fried rice: was okay. Kind of full at this point. Husband got the chilcano, I got pisco sour. Both drinks were great!!! Would recommend!service was fantastic and warm.

Yes. We went all the way to Portugal and found a Peruvian restaurant. Very glad we did. This restaurant is located inside of Bairro Do Avillez, which was very confusing to us. The food was great. Very small plates. You will eat 4-5 per person. I mostly remember the empanadas, because we wanted to keep ordering them! Wish we had found this earlier in our stay.

Let me start off by saying that the ambiance is beautiful and my best friends and i ate at Patio the night before which is in the same location as this restaurant. The floor manager was nice and everything started off attentive but as the evening progressed it went south. By recommendation of the server we ordered a couple tapas that were good for ceviche. Classic ceviche, potato stuffed w/ oxtail, yellowtail tiradito, lomo salteado, chaufa rice and 2 couverts. The ceviche was microscopic and was not enough even for one person. For me it was more of an amuse bouche and the fish was fishy :(. This was the first plate that landed on our table and there was nothing classic about it. It really set the tone for expectation on the rest of the night. To add the service was mediocre until we spoke to the manager. The rest of the tapas were okay nothing to write home about. The cocktails were decent i ordered a chilcano classic and i thought it delicious and presentation was beautiful my friend ordered a pisco sour to start which was amazing as well but he followed up with a margarita which took too long and when arrived you can tell it was sitting for awhile. Long story short we gave them some feedback so hopefully your experience will be better.

We tried this restaurant in Lisbon based on a recommendation from our hotel and it was absolutely amazing. It's probably the best meal we had the entire time, and all the food has been great in Lisbon. We had the classic ceviche, octopus anticucho, potato stuffed with oxtail and the sautéed tenderloin. Each dish was delicious. Their custom drinks were also amazing, as well as dessert. We highly recommend this place. We will be back.