Im a creature of habit - my go to for traditional Peruvian Criolla style food has always been Tanta. With limited meals over the course of a vacation, I was incredibly skeptical when a friend recommended Isolina, but we decided to give it a shot. Reservations are hard to come by (in fact they were booked out for two weeks), but my friend had a connection and was able to get me and my daughter a reservation. We were staying in Miraflores and the restaurant is located in the neighboring neighborhood, Barranco. We decided to make a day of it and walk over and do some walking tours of the neighborhood until our reservation at 6:30. Barranco was very cool with some awesome street art (but I digress). As 6:30 came upon us we were famished and promptly arrived at Isolina for our 6:30 reservation - only to realize I had misread the date and showed up two days early. Isolina handled this like champs and managed to accommodate us fairly quickly (with about 5 minutes) - I was relieved that we would not have to figure out a plan B with a hangry 6 year old in tow. The restaurant had a very cool and cozy vibe, unassuming from the outside and the inside a mix of traditional and authentic stylings. We impressed with the decor, but the true test was about to come. My daughter and I shared two causas (because she couldn’t decide between the Causa de Limeña y the Causa de Pulpo de Olivo) and our favorite dish: Ají de Gallena. They also had a great selection of sugar free juices, my daughter had a Maracuyá (Passionfruit) and I had a pisco sour, very generous glass. Cutting to the chase, everything was absolutely outstanding! My daughter was correct in wanting both causas. The Limeña lived up to the hype as the traditional causa and the pulpo de olivo was a great take on a traditional cevicheria dish. The Ají de Gallena was up for debate, I thought it was outstanding generous portion for their “small” option; the sauce was rich, thick and creamy and the chicken and potatoes were cooked to perfection. My daughter’s one critique is she preferred a little bit of a lighter va thicker sauce, otherwise it was perfect. If you made it this far in the review, thank you. TL;DR, Isolina will definitely be in our future Lima restaurant rotations.