The Restaurant
Lyon takes its gastronomy with a seriousness that can occasionally tip into conservatism — which makes Miraflores all the more remarkable. Chef Carlos Camino, a native of Lima, arrived in Lyon with a determination to cook the food of his homeland through the techniques and ingredients of his adopted city, and the result has held a Michelin star since 2017: one of the most unusual and most deserved in France.
The restaurant occupies a sleek, contemporary space on the Boulevard des Belges in the 6th arrondissement, all clean lines and warm lighting, with an open kitchen that allows you to watch Camino’s brigade at work. The menu is structured as a journey through nikkei cuisine — the Peruvian-Japanese culinary tradition developed by the Japanese diaspora in Lima — filtered through French precision and the extraordinary produce of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The result is a cuisine that cannot exist anywhere else: the hierba luisa ceviche with its tiger’s milk made from black cocoa, the palo santo braised giant squid with seafoam and nikkei sauce, the dishes that arrive tasting simultaneously of the Pacific, the Andes, and the Saône valley.
Camino has also, notoriously, put ants on the menu: Amazonian leaf-cutter ants that contribute a citrus, vinegar note to the dish they finish. The question of whether to order the ant dish is one of the better dinner-table conversations available in Lyon. The lunch menu is €45 and represents extraordinary value for a Michelin kitchen. The Machu Pichu tasting menu is €165 and covers the full range of what Camino can do. The wine list extends to Peruvian wines and is the only place in Lyon where you will see the grape varieties of the Sierra on a wine list.
Reservations can be made through the restaurant’s own website. Open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. The restaurant books quickly — particularly for the chef’s counter positions adjacent to the open kitchen, which are the best seats in the house for watching the work and engaging with the team.
Why It’s Perfect for a First Date
Miraflores is the single best first-date restaurant in Lyon. The food creates conversation before you have to: the ceviche arrives and you explain what tiger’s milk is; the ants appear and a decision must be made together; the wine list includes Peruvian varieties neither of you has tried. The restaurant does not demand the formality of a four-star tasting menu, but the Michelin star and the contemporary room signal that this is a considered choice, not a default. The price is accessible without being cheap. And the experience is genuinely unlike any other dinner in the city — which is exactly what a first date should be.
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