Peru: Cusco: Where to Eat: Big Night Out: MAP Café

MAP Café

This incredibly stylish restaurant, opened in 2006, is set in a glass cube in the courtyard of the grand Casa Cabera, now the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. (The name MAP comes from the Spanish name, Museo de Arte Precolombino). As appealing as the atmosphere is, though, the food is why it is widely considered the best restaurant in town. The three-course prix-fixe dinner menu costs $40 and includes such creative Andean dishes as fava-bean-and-Andean-mushroom medley, tabbouleh of fresh trout tartare with quinoa and avocado, and crayfish-and-yellow-potato gnocchi with creamy rocoto-chili-pepper sauce. Even the desserts, like roasted pineapple “_volador_” with manjarblanco custard foam and vanilla ice cream and quinoa cannoli with lucuma mousse and Quillabamba chocolate ice cream, emphasize mixing local products with cosmopolitan traditions. With only fourteen tables, the restaurant books up, so reserve in advance. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

Tip: The museum stays open until 10 p.m., so you can plan your meal before or after a visit.

Note: This is just a block’s walk or less from the Hotel Monasterio, Casa Cartagena and La Casona.