Rafael

Contemporary Mediterranean-Peruvian · Lima · Miraflores · Chef Rafael Osterling

Rafael is the flagship restaurant of Lima-born, European-trained chef Rafael Osterling — who creates a personal cuisine at the intersection of Mediterranean cooking tradition (Italian pasta, Spanish seafood preparations, olive-based cooking) and Peruvian ingredients (Humboldt Current Pacific seafood, Andean native herbs, native Peruvian produce). Located near Maido in Miraflores, Rafael offers a more accessible price point than Lima's altitude-tasting menu restaurants while maintaining exceptional ingredient quality and technical precision.

Calle San Martín 300, Miraflores, Lima 15074, Peru, Lima

• #33 Latin America's 50 Best 2025

Menu

Cocktails

• Pisco Sour — Rafael's Version, Quebranta Pisco (38) — Rafael's pisco sour: Quebranta grape pisco (Peru's most important non-aromatic grape variety, producing a robust, earthy spirit), fresh lime, egg white, gomme syrup, and Angostura bitters. The cocktail is served at a cold temperature that preserves the egg white foam's structure and chills the pisco to its optimal serving temperature.
• Chilcano — Pisco, Ginger Ale, Lime, Bitters (32) — Lima's most popular everyday cocktail: chilcano is pisco (Quebranta or Italia grape variety) mixed with ginger ale, fresh lime juice, and Angostura bitters. The aperitivo of Lima, consumed across all social classes, lighter and more approachable than the pisco sour. Rafael's version uses premium single-grape pisco and fresh-pressed lime.

Dishes

• Lubina en Salsa de Curry — Sea Bass, Ají Amarillo Curry, Andean Tubers (75) — Pacific sea bass cooked in an ají amarillo curry sauce — a preparation that borrows the curry structure (spiced, enriched sauce) and applies it to Peruvian chili, creating a sauce that shares curry's warming, complex character without any South Asian spice. Served with Andean tubers that absorb the sauce. One of Osterling's most inventive cross-cultural preparations.
• Langosta con Gnocchi — Peruvian Lobster, Potato Gnocchi, Bisque (125) — Peruvian spiny lobster (langosta) with house-made potato gnocchi in a lobster bisque made from the lobster's own head and shell. The bisque technique is classically French; the lobster itself is from Peru's northern Pacific coast where the Humboldt-to-warm-water transition creates excellent lobster habitat. The most expensive pasta preparation on the Rafael menu, justified by the exceptional quality of the langosta.
• Spaghetti al Granchio — Crab Spaghetti, Pacific Blue Crab, Bottarga (72) — House-made spaghetti with Pacific blue crab and Peruvian bottarga (cured fish roe — a preparation introduced to Peru by Italian immigrants and now produced with native Peruvian fish). The pasta form and bottarga are Italian; the crab is from Peruvian coastal waters. A direct expression of the Italian-Peruvian culinary lineage that runs through Lima's food history.
• Gnocchi con Mariscos — Potato Gnocchi, Mixed Seafood, Ají Amarillo (65) — House-made potato gnocchi (Italian technique, Peruvian potato — native papa blanca producing a lighter, more flavourful gnocchi than standard Russet) with mixed Humboldt Current seafood (scallops, shrimp, squid, mussels) in an ají amarillo sauce that replaces the standard Italian white wine-butter or tomato base with Peru's most important chili. The dish lives at the centre of Osterling's Italian-Peruvian dialogue.
• Ravioli de Maíz — Corn Ravioli, Andean Cheese, Sage Butter (58) — Ravioli made with native Peruvian corn pasta (masa-based pasta using ground native corn, producing a yellow, slightly grainy, flavourful sheet) filled with Andean fresh cheese and served in sage butter. The corn pasta technique is Osterling's own development, applying Italian pasta-making tradition to Peru's corn tradition in a way that could not be reproduced without both culinary backgrounds.

Phone: +51 1 242-4149

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• Isolina — Lima
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• Mayta — Lima