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Restaurant · Yanahuara, Arequipa

La Nueva Palomino

A picantería in Yanahuara run by three generations of women: the soup of the day, chicha de guiñapo, cuy chactado and what a meal costs.

Red rocoto stuffed with meat and topped with grilled cheese, next to a slice of potato gratin
Illustration: rocoto relleno and pastel de papa

Three generations of picanteras

According to La República (2022) and El Comercio (2025), the picantería was founded in Yanahuara by Juana Palomino de Alpaca, then run by her daughter Yrma Alpaca Palomino and today by her granddaughter Mónica Huerta, with her husband Rudy Bedoya. Mónica Huerta says she took over the restaurant at her mother’s request, after finding the wills of her grandmother and great-grandmother, which had already asked the same of their daughters. In 2025 the restaurant received the award for best picantería at the Premios Somos, according to El Comercio.

The cover of the menu recalls that the Arequipa picantería has been declared cultural heritage of the nation; Wikipedia dates this declaration to 23 April 2014.

The batán, the wood fire, the chicha

What sets the restaurant apart, according to El Comercio: the sauces and chillies are ground on the batán, the large flat stone rocked by hand, rather than in a blender, and several chupes, guisos and the adobo are cooked over wood. The menu thus announces an “ocopa a batán”, with mirasol chilli ground on the stone.

The house drink is chicha de guiñapo, a beer of sprouted purple corn, fermented in earthenware jars. It is ordered by measure: the half-litre “doctorcito” (S/ 7), the one-litre “cogollo”, the litre-and-a-half jug or the four-litre family jug. It is a fermented, slightly alcoholic drink (from 1 to 3 % for chicha de jora, according to Wikipedia); chicha morada, made from unfermented purple corn, contains none.

A soup for each day

In Arequipa, each day of the week has its soup, the “almuerzo”, served at midday with a small main dish (the segundo) and half a litre of chicha de guiñapo. Here is the calendar from the menu:

Day Almuerzo Price
Monday Chaque de tripas: soup of lamb, tripe, squash and wheat S/ 35
Tuesday Chairo: soup of squash, chuño (freeze-dried potato) and beef S/ 32
Wednesday Chochoca: soup of peeled, ground corn, with beef S/ 32
Thursday Pebre amarillo: beef broth with rice S/ 32
Friday Chuño molido, or chupe de viernes with fish and seafood S/ 39 for the chupe
Saturday Tambeñito: beef soup with noodles and squash S/ 32
Sunday Pork adobo at breakfast (from 7:30 to 10:30), then pebre with lamb loin S/ 38 for the adobo

Each day there is also a guiso (stew) and a sarza (seasoned onion salad) of the day.

Bowl of clear tripe soup, with pieces of meat, cabbage, potato and wheat grains
Illustration: chaque de tripas, the Monday soup: one example among Arequipa’s soups of the day

The menu: jayaris, picantes, cuy

  • Jayaris, small starters: rocoto relleno, ocopa, soltero de queso (salad of fresh Lluta cheese), pastel de papa, sarza of pork trotters.
  • Piqueos: escribano (potato mashed with rocoto and vinegar), fried queso, papa arrebozada, torrejitas; and the picanteada, three guisos of the day with rice and chicha.
  • Picantes: the picante del día, a dish made up of several stews, the súper picante, a platter that brings together the essentials of the house, cauche de queso, locro de pecho.
  • Cuy and poultry: cuy chactado, whole cuy fried under a stone that acts as a lid, at S/ 76, chicharrón de cuy, pollo chactado, duck almendrado.
  • Desserts: queso helado, Arequipa’s frozen dessert which, despite its name, contains no cheese, tocino del cielo, buñuelos from Friday to Sunday, sango.

Chupe de camarones and the closed fishing season

Chupe de camarones, a thick soup with river prawns, milk, fresh cheese and chilli, is served in picanterías all over the city, according to Wikipedia. The menu lists it without a price and invites you to ask about the season. Fishing for camarón de río is indeed closed every year in the region; in 2026, the closure ran from 3 January to 31 March 2026 (ministerial resolution 429-2025-PRODUCE): fishing, transport, sale and processing prohibited, except for proven earlier stocks. Outside this period, ask about its availability and price.

Going further

See Arequipa, cuy before ordering, and regional cuisines.

A typical meal, based on the menu

On your own, one Tuesday lunchtime

The almuerzo of the day (chairo, with its segundo and its half-litre of chicha de guiñapo) and a queso helado.

On your own, one Tuesday lunchtime: calculation
Dish Quantity × price recorded Total
Chairo, Tuesday almuerzo, with its segundo and half a litre of chicha de guiñapo
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 32 (per almuerzo) S/ 32
Traditional queso helado
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 21 (per dessert) S/ 21
Total for the meal S/ 53

Prices from the published menu recorded on 3 October 2026; anything not in the calculation (unlisted drink, service, tip) comes on top, unless stated otherwise.

Four people, à la carte

A possible order: three cold and hot starters, a cuy chactado and a súper picante in the middle of the table, two half-litres of chicha de guiñapo and two desserts.

Four people, à la carte: calculation
Dish Quantity × price recorded Total
Traditional rocoto relleno with pastel de papa gratin
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 48 (per dish) S/ 48
Batán ocopa, mirasol chilli ground on the stone
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 45 (per dish) S/ 45
Soltero de queso, Lluta cheese, vegetables, potato and sweet potato
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 38 (per dish) S/ 38
Cuy chactado: whole fried cuy, onion sarza, potato, corn, broad beans and garlic batido
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 76 (per dish) S/ 76
Súper picante: rocoto relleno, pastel de papa, estofado, guiso and sarza, corn with cheese, rice, torrejita, chicha de guiñapo
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		1 × S/ 85 (per dish) S/ 85
Chicha de guiñapo, a half-litre “doctorcito”
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		2 × S/ 7 (per half litre) S/ 14
Traditional queso helado
La Nueva Palomino (Yanahuara) 		2 × S/ 21 (per dessert) S/ 42
Total for the meal S/ 348

Prices from the published menu recorded on 3 October 2026; anything not in the calculation (unlisted drink, service, tip) comes on top, unless stated otherwise. The menu states that the prices include taxes; it says nothing about service charges. Divide the total by four for the cost per person.

Our suggestion

A real Arequipa lunch: arrive around midday, have the almuerzo of the day with its chicha de guiñapo, or share a rocoto relleno and a cuy chactado between several people, before strolling to the Yanahuara viewpoint.

Cuy: availability

On the menu: whole cuy chactado at S/ 76, chicharrón de cuy at S/ 79; pepián de cuy only appears among the Saturday and Sunday extras. Ask for the day’s availability to be confirmed.

What to ask before you go

  • The almuerzo of the day and until what time it is served: in picanterías, the soup is served at midday, until it runs out.
  • Whether there is cuy on the day you want, whole or in pieces, and for how many people.
  • The chupe de camarones: the menu gives no price for it and refers to the closed fishing season.
  • How hot the chilli is: rocoto, ají mirasol and garlic batido spice up many dishes.

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

Sources and dates

6 sources

Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.

Figures and rules cited

Sources consulted

How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.

These prices, and those of the other places

Dollars at the rate of 30 September 2026 (1 USD = 3.437 PEN). All prices in Peru.

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