The Travel Critic

London is an elite city. It simply is. Not in the peacocking, velvet-rope sense, though there’s a fair bit of that to, but in the far more important way: you can wander into almost any district and, if you know where to look (or sometimes even if you don’t), stumble across somewhere that feeds you absurdly well.

Yes, of course, there are terrible restaurants here. London produces bad dining rooms with the same enthusiasm it produces drizzle and estate agents. But the good ones? The good ones are very good. Properly good. The sort of places that make you pause halfway through a bite and think, Oh right, that’s why I live here.

Alfonsina in Farringdon is one of those places.

The pitch is Peruvian, which is already promising because Peruvian food tends to arrive with personality. It’s colourful, punchy, citrusy, occasionally on the verge of chaos, like a very charming dinner party guest who has had one pisco sour too many. But Alfonsina isn’t just trading on novelty or the fashionable glow of South American cuisine. This place is properly dialled in. It feels… elite.

Not stiff. Not intimidating. Just good at what it does.

The vibe hits you first. Cool without trying too hard, which is the hardest thing to achieve in London dining rooms. The décor manages that rare balance: stylish but relaxed, somewhere between a design magazine spread and somewhere you’d actually want to sit for three hours. Warm lighting, thoughtful textures, the kind of space that quietly says, stay a while.

Then the service arrives and you realise the whole thing is running on rails. Friendly, sharp, enthusiastic without the exhausting theatricality you sometimes get in new openings. They talk about the food like people who actually care about it, and by the end of the meal you find yourself idly browsing flights to Lima. Or at least Googling pisco.

And the food? Spot on.

Bright, confident, layered flavours that feel joyful rather than overwrought. You get the citrus, the heat, the freshness, the little unexpected turns that Peruvian cooking does so well. Plates arrive looking beautiful but, crucially, they are there to be eaten rather than photographed into oblivion.

Which is ultimately the mark of a really good restaurant.

London has hundreds of places to eat. Thousands, probably. Most will be fine. Some will be forgettable. But every so often you land somewhere like Alfonsina and think: yes, this is why the city is what it is.

Because in an elite city, the great restaurants are just… dotted about.

And Alfonsina is very good.