Food and culture
The creole lunch, and criollo culture at a Lima hacienda
What's actually included with this booking, and the wider criollo food tradition the hacienda sits inside — described plainly, without overstating what one lunch includes.
See Peruvian Paso horse show tickets on GetYourGuide ↗What's confirmed
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Is lunch included? | Yes, with drinks |
| Is it a large buffet? | The listing says lunch and drinks, not a buffet |
| What style of food? | Criollo — Peru's coastal creole cooking |
| When is it served? | After the show, not before |
| Dietary needs? | Check the current menu on the listing before booking |
What this booking actually includes
The listing states lunch and drinks as an inclusion, served at the hacienda after the show. It does not describe a large buffet spread, which some other, differently priced Paso-horse listings in Lima do advertise — worth knowing if a big multi-dish buffet specifically is what you are picturing, since this booking is not sold on that basis. Read the current listing before you go if the exact format of the meal matters to your plans.
Criollo cooking, briefly
Criollo food is Peru's coastal creole cooking tradition — a blend of Spanish, African, indigenous Andean and later Chinese and Japanese influences that developed around Lima and the coast over centuries, distinct from Andean highland cooking further inland. Dishes like lomo saltado (stir-fried beef, onion and tomato served with fries and rice) sit squarely in this tradition, even though it is not confirmed as the specific dish served on this booking.
Where the blend actually comes from
The African influence traces to enslaved cooks working coastal kitchens under Spanish colonial rule; the Andean influence came down from the highlands with migration to Lima; and the Chinese and Japanese layers arrived later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, giving Peruvian coastal food two more distinct threads than most visitors expect from a single national cuisine. Criollo cooking is the result of all of that meeting on one plate, not a single imported tradition.
Haciendas and criollo food go together
Historically, Peru's coastal haciendas were where much of this cooking developed and was refined, often served to guests as a point of pride rather than a formality — the tradition of a hacienda lunch as part of a visit predates the tourism version of it by a long way. Booking lunch at a working hacienda sits inside that older pattern, not a version invented for visitors.
Ask about dietary needs before you book
As with any set or semi-set menu, dietary requirements are best raised at booking time rather than on arrival. The GetYourGuide listing is the place to check what the current menu can accommodate, since the kitchen and the dishes can change with the season, and a hacienda kitchen serving a fixed group is less able to improvise a substitute on short notice than a restaurant would be.
Drinks are part of the inclusion
The listing groups drinks in with lunch rather than pricing them separately, which is worth knowing if you are budgeting the afternoon precisely — there is no itemised drinks menu published, so treat this as covered rather than an extra line to plan for, and confirm any specific preference (alcoholic or otherwise) is available on the day rather than assuming.
Pace: lunch after the show, not before
The booking is structured so lunch follows the performance rather than preceding it, meaning you watch the horses and the marinera before eating rather than after a heavy meal. If you have a long drive back afterwards and get hungry easily, it is worth eating something light before pickup rather than relying entirely on the afternoon's timing.
If you want more criollo food afterwards
One lunch is not the whole of Lima's food scene, which is internationally regarded as one of Latin America's strongest — if the hacienda meal leaves you curious, criollo and Novo Andino restaurants across Miraflores and Barranco are an easy way to keep exploring the same tradition on a different evening, without needing to book another tour to do it.
A note on portion and pace
A hacienda serving a group on a fixed schedule is not the same as an a la carte restaurant working through individual orders at each table's own pace — expect the meal to move at the group's pace rather than yours, with courses timed around the afternoon's overall schedule rather than each table's readiness. It is a trade worth making for the setting, but worth knowing if you are used to a more leisurely restaurant lunch.