Brainchild of owners Australian Tammy Gordon and Peruvian Jose Francisco, the Baco restaurant Cusco is sister to the well-known and well-loved Cicciolina restaurant just down the road. Baco offers a more informal dining experience favoured by high-end travellers and backpackers as well as those on a budget looking to splurge for a special night out. You can walk in off the street without a reservation and usually get a table here and their generous opening hours from 3.30pm until late mean that you can get a late lunch or an early dinner when most other restaurant kitchens in Cusco are closed.
The menu focuses on Mediterranean flavours using local ingredients. Great seafood that won’t leave you with a nasty tummy is hard to find in Cusco so you might begin with a mezza of mariscos with delicious bbq’d prawns and calamari, chargrilled octopus and juicy scallops. They also have a nice selection of piqueos (the Peruvian term for tapas) like the cazuela – mini ceramic pots each containing a tasty delight such as buttery prawns, chorizo in a spicy tomato sauce or charred veggies with chimichurri sauce.
For mains you can choose between thin, crusty gourmet pizzas, the best in Cusco in our opinion (and also the most expensive, but in Cusco you definitely get what you pay for!) to dishes like the tender Alpaca in a light wasabi butter that combines perfectly with the sweetness of the accompanying orange mash and crispy bacon bits or the perfectly cooked beef in mushroom sauce with hand-made ravioli.
For delicious home style deserts that your grandmother might have made, try the sticky fig cake with butterscotch sauce and ice-cream or the chocolate sponge with hot fudge sauce. With a name like Baco, (Baco noir is a variety of wine grape) it makes sense that they have one of the better wine selections in town with a good range of South American wines for all budgets.
Delicious food, an interesting wine menu, a cozy non-pretentious setting and the warm attention of their smiling all-Peruvian staff add to the appeal.
Best of Peru Travel Recommends:
- Try the delicious blue cheese and marinated fig pizza or go halves so you can also try the goat’s cheese and roasted tomato creation.
