San Ceferino is one of the most renowned, upscale Italian-Peruvian restaurants in Lima. It is located on the leafy Dos de Mayo Avenue in San Isidro.

The restaurant is decorated with bottles hanging from the ceiling, mostly whiskey. I can’t imagine the costs in dusting those off every week!

The Italian immigrants to Peru largely settled in the port district of Callao. So Italian cuisine in Peru will have the pasta mainstays, but the Italian-Peruvian restaurants will have an unexpected amount of seafood on the menu. See San Ceferino’s menu.

We started with the house specialty causa, the Volcanic Crunchy Causa Stuffed with Crab Meat and Avocado and Smothered in House Rock Sauce and Shellfish. Note the octopus. It was delicious and the picture illustrates one of the main features of San Ceferino, portion size. For big guys like me, it can be frustrating to spend $100 at a restaurant and not be full afterward. That doesn’t happen here.

I ordered the daily special of veal shanks (ossobuco) with three pastas in their house “rock sauce,” which was a light lime-butter. The pastas are made with squid ink (black), aji amarillo (yellow) and spinach (green).

My wife is a lasagna aficionado, and that’s the only thing she orders at Italian restaurants. At San Ceferino she opted for the lobster lasagna in Alfredo sauce.

Everything was amazing as it looks. For dessert we had the ricotta pie, which was a perfect finish to a great meal.

I’d add that the service was above and beyond what you get at comparable Peruvian restaurants. We can debate whether you like the sometimes unwanted friendliness of American-style service, but Peruvian service is usually simple order-taking and considered good if they don’t leave you waiting around for a second beer or whatever.

But the service at San Ceferino went further than standard Peruvian service. Our server took a genuine interest in our dining experience, and asked what we were looking for before making his own recommendations.

Location and info

San Ceferino
Av. Dos de Mayo 793, San Isidro
Phone: 422-8242
Hours: Monday through Saturdays 12 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sundays 12 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
San Ceferino on Facebook

San Ceferino is located on Dos de Mayo Avenue in the northern part of San Isidro, near the border with Lince, one block north of Javier Prado and seven blocks west of Arequipa Avenue.