Machu Picchu is one of the world’s most famous heritage sites and a spectacular place everyone should visit at least once. Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge is the only hotel that is directly adjacent to the Inca ruins. Tampu is the only fine dining alternative and is both a bar and a restaurant.

Of course people do not come all the way to the Inca citadel for the cuisine, but there is nothing wrong with an okay food alternative for all who appreciate quality in life. Most people who come to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge Hotel never return since the major attraction is the Machu Picchu world heritage site and the location of it is anything but simple to get to. No cars, planes or helicopters are allowed, only trains from Cusco and buses the final winding road are permitted by the government to protect the site. When you are all the way at the site it is convenient indeed to have some high altitude Peruvian cuisine and entertainment by the local band Allpa that plays every evening at Tampu.

There is a well stocked bar at Tampu, not the typical Western bar, but a bar with a great selection of the Peruvian pisco that is strong as vodka, but based on different grapes and offers a more gentle taste and often is flavoured or used as a part of local drinks. The Peruvians even got a public pisco day so it is important and a part of the country’s culture.

Most Peruvian restaurants will have the traditional or some version of the main traditional dishes that are the ceviche, lomo saltado and the aj í de gallina to mention the three most common one. The ceviche based on seafood you should not have all the way up in the Andean mountains where Tampu is, since its main ingredients are coming from the sea far away, but the lomo saltado is delicious and the aj í de gallina is okay as well.

You pay for the location when you are eating at Tampu and it is not inexpensive in any way. A dinner easily costs around 100 dollars per person if you are not staying at the lodge that often has packages with all meals included, but it is around 1,000 dollars or more per night at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge Hotel so forget about cheap.

The cuisine at Tampu is mostly traditional Peruvian where you can feast on an alpaca loin or some Andean trout, but several of the dishes lack any rich flavours which must be paid extra attention to on high altitude and the food is mostly adapted to the never returning tourists, without any rich personality or commitments to the food served.

Written by Andy