La Lucha Sangucheria is one of Lima’s most popular restaurants among tourists, if not the most popular. It serves up familiar enough sandwiches from an open storefront facing Parque Kennedy, which I often call “ground zero” for tourism in Lima.
The service is unusually friendly for Peru and greater Latin America, and that is the one nice thing I’ll say about La Lucha before I tell you to skip it altogether.
While they do serve signature Lima fare including turkey, chicharron and butifarra (jamon del pais) sandwiches as well as the lucuma smoothie, the problem is the price and portions. Those are essentially a price problem, but it’s such a problem I have to make it double-faceted.
I have sworn off La Lucha several times. And every time I break down and go there, I curse myself and vow, “Never again!” The last time was yesterday at the end of giving my long bike tour to a friend from San Diego. We were parched so I took him for lucuma smoothies at La Lucha.
Each one cost 11.40 soles ($3.50), and the “grande” turned out to be a 12-ounce cup. It was a five-minute wait and we inhaled the smoothies in 10 seconds. We could have had two more apiece, which would have amounted to 36 soles per person with tip.
After finishing my Grande, still parched, I remembered the last time I swore off La Lucha. I was alone on the bicycle and hungry for lunch. I had recently had the best Jamon del Pais of my life at El Chinito. Thinking of that I spotted La Lucha and wondered how theirs compared.
For 15 soles ($5) they serve a sandwich with about 50 grams of ham, or 10 grams of protein for my fellow strength freaks. I am a little biased being 6’2 and 230 pounds, but I would need at least three of those sandwiches just to maintain my body weight. That would be 45 soles with no drink, and that wouldn’t be finishing up “full.” For that price I could get a proper spread at a Creole restaurant, or ceviche and causa at a cevicheria.
So this time I’m not going to forget never go to La Lucha again.
Manolo: Sandwiches Near Parque Kennedy
Manolo
Av Jose Larco 636, Miraflores
From now when in Miraflores on it’s just a couple blocks south on Larco Avenue to Manolo, a more authentic Lima institution where the Butifarra comes with fresh yellow aji peppers. Manolo is known for its churros.
While I recommend you steer clear of La Lucha, the family behind the restaurant is clearly doing something right as La Lucha has expanded to several locations in Lima and even in other cities including Arequipa. And I love their 24-hour soups restaurant in my neighborhood, an instant hit where the only complaint are the long lines. Don’t even try on a weekend afternoon!
Don’t Waste Your Time
This is the first article in a new series titled “Don’t Waste Your Time,” which aims to help visitors to Lima avoid the overrated or even unpleasant experiences common among tourists.
This will be a sensitive series given the negative nature. Let me know in the comments if you approve of this kind of article, or if you think I am in fact wasting my time. Thanks!
I believe you are incorrect in your sizes and weights my friend. The grande juice has 16oz – not 12oz. And their sandwiches have 100gr. Not 50 grams like you stated in your article. 50 grams would not be enough to cover the bread, much less serve as a sandwich. Typically most restaurants in peru charge about 15 soles for 100gr of meat, whether its a plate of food or sandwich or whatever. Maybe its not tasty or to your taste, but the value is in line with the competition, delicass, la baguette, etc
I wouldn’t say don’t waist your time trying La Lucha, their prices are within range of other sangucherias and the food has a good quality-price relation compared to similar places. Now, I think your opinion is a bit biased, you said that both times you went to La Lucha were after long bike tours and the food didn’t satisfy your needs. Don’t you think that this could have affected your opinion about La Lucha? Maybe you were hoping for street vendors type of sandwich, where sure, they might be bigger and cheaper but most definitely not the same taste nor quality. You could give it a third try, but maybe just not after pedaling for hours.
I couldn’t disagree more , price not being important to me though . I’ve lived here for 3 months and work with limeños who love la lucha . I prefer quality or quantity though.
Plus its not that expensive it’s cheaper than mc donalds here ( for reference)
i tried these on more than one occasion last month, i haveto say they were absolutely lovely, very clean, staff friendly, fresh smoothies also with your burger and chips (fried lovely with peal on for extra taste). I would in fact drive out of my way to go there and not just have one if passing through. I like them and only compliments from me.
On my trip to Peru early this year before the whole covid-19 thing got really serious in latin america.
I had a very high expectation of La Lucha, i read so many good reviews, their instagram account looked
really good i was like this must be really good, but when I tried the sandwich and fries totally
dissapointed it was far from good.
The next day went to El Chinito and seriously the best sandwich I ever had.
Like La Lucha and El Chinito cant be on the same level like neverrr…