Every city seems to have that special cafe or restaurant which brims with people, ambiance, and has that extra spark of light to it.  While other restaurants and stores lined the streets there is always one which stands out above the crowd.   While visiting Lima Peru for me that one restaurant was Manolo.

Manolo is a brightly lit restaurant café which spells out into the street In Miraflores. Just down the street from Kennedy Park a.k.a. the cat park, there is no missing this place as all you have to do is look for the line of people and the prominent orange awning.  Curious as to what all of the fuss was I myself was lured into this place.  Ranked at number 62 on TripAdvisor in all of Lima it must be great right?

Their claim to fame as per everybody's reviews are there great Churros.  I love churros so hey, why not?  The timing was perfect as earlier in the day after visiting the presidential palace as well as some catacombs in the historic area of Lima Peru I had sampled a random street vendor's churros. Actually the street vendor was really selling keychains but just happened to have been also selling her homemade churros.

 What makes Manolo's churros unique is that they are Filled with different fillings such as chocolate, Nutella, and vanilla cream.  All of the churros cost five Soles however the Nutella Filled churro comes at a premium as they charge eight Soles which is almost three US dollars.  Given that the churros are only about 5 inches long and relatively narrow with perhaps a 1 inch diameter I find that the price very expensive.  But maybe a Taste so good that it compensates for the price you know kind of like a macaroon.

Ultimately I tried two different flavors. The first one I tried was the Dulce de Leche.  It was crispy a bit chilly but the feeling was quite good. Having said that the Actual Churro it's self was not that great. In that regard it was really only the filling which tasted good.  So what about the Nutella filled one?  For being in a South American country it was quite expensive so hopefully it was going to taste better. Unfortunately it did not.  Don't get me wrong they did not taste bad but compared to the average street vendor the actual churro itself was probably below average. The only thing that made either of these churros taste good where the fillings which technically would taste good on their own independent of the actual churro.

 So what can I say? That is pretty much my review. If you're passing by it's probably worth checking out at a minimum just to say you did. But if you have other better things to do I would not waste your time going out of your way to have a churro here.  They're overpriced and taste average at best.  

I actually found a good place just around the corner from Manolo cafe called Blueberry Cafe.  Their churros were also filled with different sweetness, they had great coffees and smoothies, and best of all, they were fairly inexpensive - their churros were only 2.5 Soles versus 8 Soles at Manolos.

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So that's my review!  Enjoy walking in this great part of Lima and I have no doubt you will also find some great spots.  If you stumble upon anywhere feel free to drop us a line in the comments section!