La Botica Taberna

It sits at Av. Petit Thouars 3910, between La Chacarilla and Carlos Acosta, in a space that used to be a pharmacy — a botica — which is where the name comes from. It opened in 2011 under Rómulo Vinces, who left a bank job to build the Lima tavern he remembered from walks through downtown with his father and grandfather, according to Lima Gris. The menu leans on tavern-style criollo cooking — sangrecita, cau cau, escabeche de bonito, papa rellena, choritos a la chalaca — while the bar turns out cherry-laced capitanes and chilcanos; Google flags rocoto relleno and pallares with lomo saltado as the popular dishes. Our read: this is a working tavern rather than a cocktail bar, the kind that fills up at lunch and lingers afterwards, so it pays off more with a group than on a date. It opens at 9:30 on weekdays, closes at 22:00 Monday to Wednesday and does not open on Sundays; street parking is free but scarce. Curation note: there is no website of its own and no owner-uploaded photos on Google, so the listing has no images.