Local
It’s not a very original name, but the food is very good and the atmosphere is lovely.
I have been to Local five times now, and three of those five times I had the trout. It’s such a yummy dish that it’s hard to make myself try new things at Local. My other favorite that I’ve had several times is the thyme soda. I love the homemade soft drinks, labeled as sodas on the menu, though the hibiscus one was too sweet for me. This is one of my top five favorite places in Cusco and one that I’ll continue to go back to.
On my first visit, I went for dinner with two friends and was happy that this was one of the few places open late on a Sunday. We arrived at the restaurant around 9:00 p.m. which still had five tables occupied. The service was great but I didn’t take a timeline because our goal was to stay as long as possible, rather than eat and be gone within an hour. We left at almost 11:00, after all of the other guests and most of the staff had already gone. They left us alone after the table was cleared, rather than asking us to leave.
One of my friends got the “rustic ham” pizza, which was fantastic. The pizza crust was the right balance of crunchy and doughy and the toppings were spot on. I recommended that the other friend get the trout since I’ve had it before and loved it. Of course, he loved it just as much. I asked the server for a recommendation if I wasn’t super hungry and wanted something vegetarian. He suggested the salad. Usually I would roll my eyes at a person suggesting salad as the vegetarian option but when pressed why that was the recommendation he said that the crunchy seeds on the top made it unique and that it was one of Local’s signature dishes. Fair enough. I did enjoy the salad but dumped on all of the salad dressing, when half of the little pitcher would have been better. I appreciate that the dressing is served on the side and won’t make that mistake again.
Ham Pizza
It looks small in the photo, but really is filling enough as a meal for one person. My friend gave me a slice and it was delicious. I liked the texture of the crust and the flavors were great too.
Soft drinks (as in without hard alcohol)
One of the fun things on the menu are the sodas. Left to right, we ordered the Thyme, Mulita and Hibiscus. All three were flavorful and refreshing. The Hibiscus was too sweet for me but both of my dining companions loved it.
Salted caramel ice cream
This was truly delicious and the chocolate nibs were perfect. We shared this between three people and still barely finished before it melted. It’s a lot more ice cream that it looks like.
On a previous visit, also for dinner, I was with a much larger group. Our group ordered the trout (Trucha a la plancha), lamb linguini (Linguini de cordero), penne with pesto (Pasta pesto), rigatoni (Rigatoni amatrichola), butifarra and oven baked Andean potatoes (sartén de quesos, tubérculos y maíz).
All of the pastas were good, despite the rigatoni being penne. The trout was by far the biggest hit that night. The fish itself was cooked perfectly and the pumpkin purée was creative and a surprisingly good accompaniment to the trout. The only disaster was the potato and cheese dish. The potatoes were dry and the cheese was burnt. The chimichurri flavors did not go at all well with the rest of the dish.
How to get there
Local is on Cuesta San Blas, which is a narrow and very steep street that goes up from Calle Choquechaka to the San Blas church and plaza. Jack’s is an easy place to find and you just need to go uphill from Jack’s about twenty yards. It’s also on the same side of the street as Jack’s.
