I was a regular at Lima Fitzrovia in the early years, when Virgilio Martínez was still part of the project. I loved it. The lively colours on the plate, the brightness of the flavours, the sheer joy of it. It was my happy place. I went so often that one day I caught myself and thought, I cannot eat only at Lima. I have to know the rest of the city too.
So I drifted. I was travelling constantly in those years, rarely eating out in London. And when I came back to London properly, there were so many new places asking to be discovered that Lima, somehow, slipped out of my orbit. Not from any falling out, just the way a favourite song leaves the rotation without you ever deciding to stop loving it.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, Gabriel Gonzalez wrote to me. It had been too long, he said. Come for lunch as my guest. I said yes happily, and the moment I did, I realised something I had not let myself notice – I had missed Lima.
Gabriel told me what changed. There is a new chef now, and next year, Lima Fitzrovia turns fifteen. It feels like the restaurant is going through a revival. So I went back to taste what Lima is today, not what I remembered.
The chef is Diego Recarte. Peru born and bred, Diego came to Lima the long way round: Astrid y Gastón at home, D.O.M. in São Paulo, Enigma and Pakta under Albert Adrià, Le Calandre with the Alajmo brothers, and most recently a spell cooking in Bali. A serious lineage, the kind that usually arrives with a certain performance. No performance here – he is warm, quick to smile, plainly happier talking about a dish than about himself. You get the sense he would rather be at the stove than working the room, that the cooking matters to him far more than the applause for it. In a world full of chefs who have learned to sell, this is disarming, and rather wonderful.
The meal had the feel of a kitchen that is finding its voice again.
The ceviche carried the old Lima brightness. Stone bass in leche de tigre, sweet potato, the crunch of cancha, that clean acid lift. It was so good to have it again, and exactly right for the summer, the kind of plate that cools and wakes you at the same time.
The high point came early. Bluefin tuna, cut into deep ruby cubes, with cherries and a whisper of something spiced and foamed over the top with a beautiful umami. Fruit and fish is easy to get wrong, and this got it right. The cherries did not sweeten the dish so much as deepen it. It was the plate I kept thinking about afterwards, the one that reminded me why I used to come.
The rest reassured me. The white crab, in the causa with avocado and cucumber, was good, cool and clean.
The Iberico pork presa was super delicious, blush-pink under a green chimichurri, the kind of plate you keep returning your fork to.
And the flan to finish was one of the best I have had, and I do not say that lightly about a flan. It is the simplest test a kitchen can set itself, and Lima passed it.
Not everything is settled yet.
The charcoal-grilled squid, with Trombetta squash and a beef fat persillade, did not quite convince me. The idea is good, but it has not found itself. It needs a little more time, a little fine-tuning. I say that as someone who wants the kitchen to get there, not as someone marking it down.
That is the honest picture. A kitchen with real talent, some dishes already joyful, others still finding their pitch, and a year to bring it all together before the anniversary. The joy I remembered is still there, now being rewritten in a new hand.
It is worth remembering Diego is still early in his time here, still working out what his Lima will be. A kitchen is not remade in a season – it takes time. But the promise is unmistakable, and I will be following what he does next with real excitement.
I am glad Gabriel called me back. Some places you do not realise you have missed until you are sitting in them again.
Andreja Lajh is the founder of Haut de Gamme, a London-based agency working with chefs, restaurants and food producers worldwide. She writes about food, wine and the restaurant world at hautdegamme.net.