Maido is Lima’s most renowned restaurant serving “nikkei,” the fusion cuisine created by Japanese-Peruvians. Founded by celebrity chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, Maido was selected as the best restaurant in Latin America in 2017, and this year the 7th best in the world. According to The World’s Best:
Chef Micha’s Nikkei Experience menu is a journey through Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood. There is succulent cod marinated in miso with crispy nuts, nigiri sushi, sea urchin rice, 50-hour beef short rib and even tofu cheesecake ice cream. Everything sings with flavor, zing and the natural bright colors that come from Peru’s produce. There’s also a separate sushi counter and menu for everyday or business diners.
I ordered the Nikkei Experience, their 13-course tasting menu. What else would I get? Unfortunately I didn’t take notes and Maido doesn’t publish their menu, so I’ve forgotten what some of the items were.
This was the appetizer sampler. I believe the item on the top contains trout, and the bowl on the right is the house chawanmushi.
Mackerel ceviche.
My dad didn’t order the tasting menu. He opted for the short-rib beef, which is smoked for 50 hours. The meat is so tender they serve it with a spoon.
This was the Maido variation on the chicharron sandwich, using fried bacon instead of rib meat.
I’m completely perplexed as to the identity of this one, besides obviously being fish and a scallop. But like everything it was delicious.
This was one of the highlights of the meal. Our server delivered it but wouldn’t tell us what it was. He asked us to guess after tasting it. I had the best idea with chicharron de pato, or deep-fried duck. But I was wrong, and the answer drew a ruckus from our table and a round of applause: CUY (guinea pig)!
I believe these were grilled cow tongues which accompanied a trio of nigiri sushi.
There is the trio. One of the others is tuna belly and the other some kind of underwater creature with no scales (hence cooked).
Cod under chestnuts. Those eyeballs are a honey soy sauce with squid ink.
This is a bite-size sample of the 50-hour-smoked short ribs, served with a mashed potato for a nikkei version of the Peruvian asado de tira (roast beef with mashed potatoes).
This is Maido’s version of Arroz con Mariscos but with sea urchins in place of standard shellfish medley. One of those chaps got be with their little spines while surfing in Miraflores this year, so I ate this one up with a smile.
Tofu cheesecake ice cream.
The second dessert was a chocolate shell with lucuma ice cream under raspberry sorbet and something else. The blue bowl is a sweetened mucilage from sea algae, edible and tasting like pure sugar.
My father ordered a bottle of sake. I thought it was a nice touch that they don’t have standard glasses. You get to pick your own sake glass.
I have to give a shout out to Cosas magazine. Without their write up of this year’s menu I would have even less info on what’s in the pics.
Location and info
Maido
Cl. San Martin 399, Miraflores
Hours: Monday to Saturday 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., 7 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. Sundays 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Phone: 446 2512
Maido on Facebook
Maido is located on San Martin just a couple blocks south of Parque Kennedy in the heart of Lima’s tourist district. For reservations, email informes@maido.pe.
Pictures
Click the images below to enlarge.
