Traditional Peruvian Food & Andean Fusion at Plus Restaurant in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco

Cusco’s Plaza de Armas is a multisensory experience, where barkers invite travelers and locals alike to enter stores and restaurants housed in colonial buildings erected upon Incan foundations. Competition is intense, and often they’ll offer a complimentary drink as an incentive to choose the locale they represent. Although the insistence can be fatiguing, there are great reasons to dine in the Plaza, mainly quality, accessibility, and the view.

On Portal de Panes, you’ll find Plus Restaurant, although its colonial balcony is more easily spotted than its unassuming entrance. The first thing one notices upon entering is the view overlooking the Plaza de Armas. Because the square becomes very crowded during festivals, the balcony has become quite popular for views of parades and other festivities without the street-level jostling for space. In fact, it’s become so popular that these days if you plan to visit Cusco during large events like Inti Raymi, you need to make a reservation if you wish to sit in the restaurant’s balcony to watch.

Prices are reasonable, especially compared to other locales in the Plaza de Armas, where prices can sometimes be inflated. The menu is broad, offering both café standards (breakfast dishes, sandwiches, and pastas) as well as restaurant-quality dishes for lunch and dinner. Among these dishes, there is traditional Cusqueñan food, international fare, and innovative modern dishes fusing the two.

Traditional Peruvian dishes include papas huancaína, steamed potatoes in a creamy and spicy yellow chile pepper sauce with cheese and egg, quinoa chowder, lomo saltado with tacu tacu (a stir-fried beef dish served with a rice and bean mélange), roast guinea pig, stuffed hot pepper, trout ceviche and a spicy red stewed pork with yucca croquettes. In this category, you really can’t go wrong with the Peruvian standard Ají de Gallina, a stew of shredded hen in a creamy yellow chile sauce.

On the other hand, modern options with Andean touches include Alpaca carpaccio, Alpaca roulades in an Aguaymanto Sauce, a Trout Lasagna with Andean cheese, and trout in a creamy almond cheese sauce. The Andean Fusion dish du jour is quiñotto, similar to risotto but based on quinoa rather than rice. Vegetarians are limited to mostly international options, mainly salads, soups, and pastas. Deserts span the same range, with chocolate cake and ice cream or peach melba for the homesick, and panqueques with aguaymanto for those who want to sample Andean fruits.

In the evening, relax near the fireplace with a warming coffee or glass of wine as you fill out your postcards or plan the next leg of your Peruvian adventure. And, as always, buen provecho!