Isolina

What a Lima taberna is

A taberna, in Lima, is a place where you eat, drink and spend time, over generous criollo dishes: the cooking of the city’s homes and old counters, made up of stir-fries, long-simmered stews and sandwiches. Isolina lays claim to this spirit: its website speaks of paying tribute “to the Lima tabernas of yesteryear” and of recipes that were written down in a notebook.

A restaurant and its history

According to the restaurant’s website, José del Castillo first ran La Red, opened in 1981 by his mother, Isolina Vargas. In 2015, he opened Isolina in Barranco, in her honour, with the idea of rediscovering flavours forgotten in old cookbooks. The restaurant has since had a second address, in Surco, on Avenida El Polo. Each has its own opening hours: in Barranco, service runs from noon to the evening every day, with breakfast at weekends.

What the menu says

The published menu reads as families of dishes, which tell the story of criollo cooking:

• Sandwiches: pan con chicharrón, pan con pejerrey, butifarra with artisan pork ham.
• Starters: causa limeña, papa rellena, bonito escabeche, sangrecita with fried sweet potato, and papas y choclos to put in the middle of the table with two sauces, huancaína and huacatay.
• Stir-fries: lomo saltado and tallarín saltado, cooked “over maximum heat”, a legacy of Lima’s Chinese cooking.
• Slow-cooked dishes: seco de asado de tira, cau cau con sangrecita (tripe and potatoes), osso buco estofado, ají de gallina, patita con maní; this is the most “taberna” part of the menu.
• Desserts of yesteryear: arroz con leche, mazamorra morada, crema volteada, budín.

Many dishes come in two sizes: an individual portion and a dish to share, more expensive but designed for several people. The lomo saltado costs S/ 78 as an individual portion and S/ 98 to share: always compare the portion before the price.

Worth asking: “¿Es una porción personal o para compartir?” (Is it an individual portion or for sharing?)

Eat in, takeaway, delivery

The website offers table booking, takeaway orders and delivery. The online menu read here is the ordering menu; it even charges for disposable cutlery. Prices in the dining room may differ: ask for the menu on site before ordering.

Going further

Lomo saltado, ají de gallina and pan con chicharrón have their recipe on this site: see the recipes. To understand where this cooking comes from, see regional cuisines.

A typical meal, based on the menu

Our suggestion

A lunch with several people after a morning in Barranco: two starters in the middle of the table, a stir-fried dish and a slow-cooked dish to share, then a dessert from the cooking of yesteryear.

What to ask before you go

• How many dishes “to share” for the number of diners: the restaurant announces generous portions.
• Whether the prices in the dining room are those of the online menu, which is also used for delivery and takeaway.
• The slow-cooked dish of the day, and whether there is any seco or cau cau left at the end of service.

Have the opening hours, a dish or a price changed? Let us know and we will correct this page.