Lima Cuisine: You Don't Know What You're Missing

· Dollars are accepted in most places, as are standard credit cards.

· Tipping is not as common in Peru as in the States, and 10 percent is considered generous; at some places service is included in the check, so ask if you're not sure.

· With the exceptions of Astrid y Gastón and Costanera 700, restaurants in Miraflores are cheap by American standards; two can eat gloriously for under $30 (not including alcoholic beverages) at many of my favorite places.

Indeed, that's where we'll start: at one of my favorites. It's a cevicheria called Punto Azul (Calle San Martin 595), a half-mile from our apartment. It's hugely popular in the neighborhood, and after 1 p.m. there are always long lines outside. The food tells you why. Punto Azul (which has four other locations in Lima) uses a fish called palmerita for its seviche and tiradito. It is perhaps not quite as sweet as sole, but it is tender and tasty. I usually order tiradito, half under aji sauce and half under rocoto; it costs less than $6 and is a meal in itself. The most expensive dishes on the menu are under $8. Somehow my wife and I managed to spend $22.50 on our most recent visit, but that was a three-course meal.

There's no such thing as a cevicheria district, but many of the best seafood places are concentrated in an otherwise unfashionable section of north Miraflores centered on Av. La Mar. These include La Red, Pescados Capitales, Costanera 700 and La Mar, an offshoot of the Gastón empire. As to which of these is the best, my honest answer is that though all are excellent, the best is the one I ate at most recently. La Red (Av. La Mar 381) is the least expensive -- our three-course lunch weighed in at $30 plus tip, pisco sours and wine included -- and has an especially good causa, though I'd be hard-pressed to choose between that and the causas at La Mar and Pescados Capitales.

La Mar (Av. La Mar 770) and Pescados Capitales (Av. La Mar 1337) are five blocks apart and look a lot alike, with open, airy dining rooms under bamboo roofs, and roomy tables spaced generously. The causa at La Mar is basically the same as what Gastón serves at his flagship restaurant: four little potato mounds topped with the ingredients of your choice. My wife is especially partial to the wontons packed with shrimp at Pescados Capitales, and we tend to agree (at least immediately after eating there) that it serves the best pisco sours -- Peruvian brandy, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white -- in Miraflores. At both restaurants the seviche and tiradito are superb, though by the narrowest of margins I favor Pescados Capitales. At La Mar, a superb lunch set us back $90 plus tip, while we got out of Pescados Capitales for $60.

The most expensive restaurant in this part of town is Costanera 700 (Av. Del Ejercito 421), operated by the legendary Japanese chef Humberto Sato. Ask for a table upstairs, where you can look across a small park to the ocean. I recommend the tiradito lenguado ($14) and the causa de centolla ($8). On a recent visit, we shared the house's signature dish, a tender fish called chita baked in a thick crust of salt, and we shared, as postre (dessert), a heavenly plate of three sorbets made from indigenous fruit. It all came to $95 plus tip. A bonus was that as we walked out the rear entrance we saw, eating quietly at a corner table, Gastón himself, checking up on the competition.

Gastón wasn't on the premises when we visited Astrid y Gastón (Cantuarias 175) in April, but the restaurant was at full glory. We were seated in the wine cellar and welcomed by the manager, whom the Easter holiday seemed to have inspired to heights of hospitality. For the somewhat daunting price of $185 we had a meal that can only be called astonishing, beginning with (of course) seviche and causa, continuing through stuffed rocoto, grilled swordfish and shrimp ravioli, culminating in dessert, coffee and the unique jungle-fruit confections with which the restaurant closes all meals. Wow. Or, as we say down there: Guau.

Still, if I could go to only one restaurant in Miraflores it would be (again by the narrowest of margins) Alfresco (Malecon Balta 790), where the tiradito lenguado alfresco ($7) apparently is made in heaven. It swims in the simplest of olive oil sauces, delicately flavored, and is tenderness defined. The causa mixta of fish and shrimp ($5) ranks with Gastón's, and the panko fried shrimp ($7) are the best I've ever eaten. Anywhere. The restaurant is in an old house, but the enclosed main dining room is built out onto the sidewalk and is as airy as any cevicheria. Lunch for two came to $62.50.

There you have it: Seven restaurants for seven lunches during your week in Miraflores. For dinner or breakfast, try the other places listed under Details. I can vouch for all of them. Of dining in Miraflores, this must be said: It is just about impossible to have a bad meal there, and it is easy to have a great one.

Jonathan Yardley, book critic of The Post, lives in Washington and Miraflores.