Chicha por Gastón Acurio

It occupies a colonial house with a patio and fountain on Calle Santa Catalina, the same street as the monastery. In 2025, for its fifteenth anniversary, studio PUNA rebuilt the room around chicha de guiñapo: handmade ceramics, textiles and a contemporary reading of the picantería. The menu does two things at once: the traditional Arequipa repertoire —cuy chactado, ocopa, rocoto relleno, adobo, river-shrimp chupe from the Quequezana valley— and the kitchen's own, far more playful dishes. Our read: it is the best entry point to Arequipa cooking for a visitor, comfortable and smoothly run, though the purist will still head for a neighbourhood picantería. Book ahead.