{"id":501397,"date":"2026-01-08T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501397\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:21:10","slug":"best-peruvian-restaurants-with-lomo-saltado-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501397\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Peruvian restaurants with lomo saltado in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main ingredient in lomo saltado, the juicy, stir-fried comfort dish of my childhood, only takes a minute to cook. It can go by in such a flash that you can miss it if you\u2019re not paying attention, so I always made sure to watch for that moment when the flames go up.<\/p>\n

I remember standing in rapt attention at the edge of the stovetop as my mom tossed fresh, thinly sliced beef into an oiled pan set on maximum heat. The steak hissed and leaped in a dramatic dance as flames licked the pan from underneath. My mom turned to me and said, \u201cThis is why it\u2019s called lomo saltado: the lomo is the steak, and watch how it\u2019s saltando \u2014 jumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secret is in the smoke,\u201d says Miriam Ramirez, owner of Lonzo\u2019s Restaurant in Culver City. \u201cWhen you cook lomo saltado, the room should be filled with the smell of smoke. I remember getting it for lunch in Peru and thinking, \u2018Oh no, my hair smells like smoke!\u2019 But that\u2019s how I knew it would be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lomo saltado consists of tomato, onion and bell pepper, seared with steak, traditionally in a wok, and served with sides of rice and potato fries. Peruvians call soy sauce, which is used generously in the dish, \u201csillao\u201d (pronounced see-yow).<\/p>\n

Newcomers to Peruvian cuisine might be surprised to find that soy sauce has a major place in recipes. My Peruvian family always says that in any good meat dish, sillao is the secret ingredient.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the dish is already so simple, every ingredient matters,\u201d Ramirez says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee-yow\u201d is also the pronunciation for soy sauce in Cantonese. Understanding how a Cantonese word entered Peru\u2019s lingo is a long historical lesson that can be best explained by another Chinese-Peruvian word: chifa. Chifa, which comes from the Mandarin word \u201cch\u012bf\u00e0n,\u201d meaning to eat, describes the thriving Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine and indirectly, the immigrant history of Peru.<\/p>\n

According to researcher Patricia Palma<\/a>, Chinese immigrants arrived in Peru in the mid-19th century, as laborers after the abolishment of slavery created a demand for cheap labor. As this population grew over the years, Chinese-Peruvian descendants carved out a niche in chifa that reflected their heritage alongside centuries-old Peruvian staples.<\/p>\n

\u201cL.A. is so diverse and that\u2019s why I think Peruvian food draws people in. It has a multicultural identity too,\u201d says Benny Gomez, owner of Rosty Peruvian Food in Highland Park. \u201cThere\u2019s Chinese and Japanese communities who identify with the Asian influence but also Mexican people who are seeing a different type of Latino food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peru\u2019s lomo saltado is not only a beautiful marriage of the two cultures, but a perfectly balanced ode to each culture\u2019s culinary traditions: Peru is reflected in the potatoes, aji amarillo and bell pepper, and China in the stir-fry technique and of course, the sillao.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeruvian food has 14,000 years of history,\u201d says Ignacio Barrios Jacobs, lead chef of Merka Saltao in Culver City. \u201cI think [lomo saltado] holds the story of Chinese immigrants who were cooking their food for people who said, \u2018this needs my potato and chile peppers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Culver City, East Hollywood, and the San Fernando Valley, Peruvian restaurants are combining traditional flavors with distinctly Angeleno flair, like saltado burritos or California oak wood-fired rotisserie chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my dad opened his Peruvian restaurant 30 years ago, Peruvian was not popular at all in L.A.,\u201d says Dennis Tamashiro, owner of Mario\u2019s Peruvian and Seafood. \u201cNow, people are paying attention, because it proves that it\u2019s unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are eight takes on lomo saltado to try in Los Angeles, from classic versions that remind me of home, to creative takes that make the dishes distinctly L.A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The main ingredient in lomo saltado, the juicy, stir-fried comfort dish of my childhood, only takes a minute…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":501398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,224923,15842,44957,246,2961,160663,190007,224,5337,9797,46750,3416,224924,224922,117173,8463,41290,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-501397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-classic-saltado","11":"tag-culver-city","12":"tag-dish","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-lomo-saltado","16":"tag-lonzo","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-mario","20":"tag-owner","21":"tag-peru","22":"tag-peruvian","23":"tag-potato-fry","24":"tag-ramirez","25":"tag-restaurant","26":"tag-steak","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115859690981411685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}