Where to eat PERU 🇵🇪 Zürich: Barranco
Barranco is named after an upscale, beachside, bohemian district of the Peruvian capital Lima. As a country very much at the crossroads of Asia and the Americas, its cuisine is perhaps one of the original fusion foods of this earth.
Barranco
Sihlfeldstrasse 141, Zürich
What we ordered: For two people, one brioche de ajÃ, ceviche (raw sea bass, star fruit, leche de tigre, aji amarillo), tuna ceviche (raw tuna, Brazil nut leche de tigre, ponzu, almonds), tartare (Swiss beef, fermented rocoto, cured egg yolk, house made potato chips), soft shell crab (Causa cold mashed potatoes, rocoto), chicharrones (pork belly, carapulcra puree, daikon, peanuts) and picanha (beef rump camp, amarillo mashed potatoes, farofa, bordelaise sauce). To drink, we had a bottle of Stäfner Räuschling 2023, Weingut Rebhalde, Zürich, Schweiz and two pisco sours with the birthday cake I pre-ordered (25 CHF when booking) and sorbet additionally with it.
Cost: 317.50 + 25 CHF / €339 + €27 / 396 + $31
Barranco is named after an upscale, beachside, bohemian district of the Peruvian capital Lima. As a country very much at the crossroads of Asia and the Americas, its cuisine is perhaps one of the original fusion foods of this earth. And as its terrain is land and sea, the Peruvians are unafraid to combine flavors, borrow liberally and deliver in a refined, if unconventional manner.
Barranco is also perhaps the name of one of the finest restaurants we have been to on this endeavor to eat the cuisines of as many different countries in the world without ever leaving the territory of Switzerland. To do so is more than a staycation, it is to discover what is right beneath, beside and across the city, canton or country from us.
As such, there are hits and there are misses, but Barranco is as clean and crisp as the white collared shirts of the servers at Barranco. The other part of their uniform consists of stone-washed blue jeans, a nod to another element of style lifted from the old world of Europe and globalized in the new world of the Americas. Taken together, the unadorned simplicity just of the dress code as well as its permutations serves as an upscale nod to the basics. Beyond that, the patio, located on a popular square a kilometer and a half southwest of the main train station, was full.
With impeccable service over a well-paced meal, we were advised that four to six dishes would be sufficient and depending on what we ordered, they would group them accordingly to courses. Unlike many small plates establishments that thrive on the anarchy of bringing you what you ordered once it is ready, again they took the time and deliberation but also with full knowledge of the menu and grouping according to what would pair best.
The voluminous wine list, while short on South American selections, had some wonderful things but we settled for a bottle from the Zurich region to anchor ourselves in place. It was perhaps the finest bottle of Swiss wine I have ever had, lacking the heavy viscosity too many Swiss wines share, and was crisp at the finish. A quick note on the impeccable service: if a glass was empty, whichever server happened to be nearby and noticed offered a pour, full service in the fullest sense.
The server decided it would be best to begin with our raw course, so we had our two ceviches, one sea bass and the other tuna and the beef tartare. The seabass came with starfruit delicately arranged on top and a generous amount of what is known as leche de tigre or tiger milk. This is the liquid that becomes milky when the lime juice and accompaniments are added to the fish and it "cooks" in its marinade in the refrigerator as it cools and thickens.
The tuna was less imaginative and more familiar as tuna tartare is just about everywhere these days, through no fault of Barranco but perhaps in testament to the wider success of internationalizing the cuisines of the Americas. It was quite good but less memorable. Our server also suggested a brioche, a house specialty, for the tiger milk juices. We were in and with no regrets.
The beef tartar was beautifully presented, an occasion to remember why Barranco has earned coveted Michelin recognition. Accompanied by a handful of house-made potato chips which were a nice extra but also wholly unnecessary, it too was crisp and colorful without being ostentatious and overly rich.
For our intermezzo course, we had the softshell crab which was fried in panko bread crumbs and served over a flat, cylindrical dish of what tasted like a paprika-spiked cheese polenta. Not creamy but coarse and also a unique contribution to elevate a dish that while rare in Europe is not so much in the Americas. Softshell crab is a seasonal summer treat and a personal favorite.
For a final course, we had the chicharron and picanha served together. Georg aka "Mr. Swiss Global Dining" tore into the picanha and loved it. The sauce had a bit of bone marrow, the server noted, for extra richness. It was tender and flavorful, rich on its own but light even with the sauce. I had more of the sides as Georg worked through the fan of thin slices before him and the farofa was spiked with a bit of what tasted like cubed pancetta while the mashed potatoes were like air.
The chicharron might have been the one dish we could have skipped, but why really? It was crispy cubes of pork with a soft puree for dipping and a bit of daikon for crunch – along with the fried exterior of the pork. I loved it and would have maybe foregone the beef for it, but then again, that was a pleaser with the birthday boy, so much so that I could not have much of it at all.
As our meal came to a close, we ordered two pisco sours to complement the chocolate cake dessert I had preordered for Georg's birthday. We also ordered some sorbet as an accompaniment. Sorbet was not just sorbet of course at Barranco but a refined compliment, adorned in delicate edible flowers and splashed with a bit of bubbly wine. The pisco sours were like drinking the clouds.
The cake was also very cute, with happy birthday scribed around the circumference as part of the crunchy exterior. They graciously made a quiet presentation with one candle instead of the loud boom boom of some restaurants when delivering birthday cake. The only thing missing was the chance to twirl our napkins then.
How to get to Peru from Switzerland:
Rather obviously given geography of Peru being in the Western hemisphere, there are no options by car or rail to get to Lima from Switzerland.
There are no nonstop flights from Zürich to Lima, but there are options through Paris or Amsterdam on Air France or KLM that are under 16 hours with layover included. Other route options under twenty hours include routes through Madrid on either Air Europa or Iberia. It is possible to utilize Swiss Air for the first leg to Madrid. From Geneva, an additional route on United Airlines via Newark opens up as well. Otherwise, route options are much the same as from Zürich.
How many Peruvians are in Switzerland: More than 3,000
Distance between Bern and Lima: 10,714 km
Distance from Barranco to Lima: 10,668 km
Learn how to make Peru's national dish, ceviche, and about its origins.
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