El Olivar, a beautiful park in the San Isidro district, is where you can find Manto Hotel Lima, a boutique space where you can rest, eat and live well. It’s the perfect getaway you can find from the hustle of bustle of Metropolitan Lima.
San Isidro – a peaceful district
In San Isidro, melancholy rules. Also beauty. Those of us who live in Lima know that it is one of the kindest places to live, to walk, and to enjoy.
It is a space that, despite some crowded avenues, has managed to keep endearing corners where the green of the parks prevails, where the architecture does not make noise, and where one can walk in peace.
One of its emblematic places is, without a doubt, is El Olivar, a beautiful park that shelters centennial trees, large gardens, and spaces to walk freely. A few meters from the place is the Manto Hotel Lima, a boutique place that opened its doors in 2018 and that not only knew how to integrate itself with the benefits of its surroundings but also enhance them. If walking through El Olivar is a pleasure, having lunch or a drink on the terrace, or spending a weekend there is even more so.
A tribute to Lima
Manto Hotel Lima is elegant, it is sober, it is feminine. Hens Maas, who runs the space, is a Dutch woman living in Peru for several decades. She tells us about the concept of space: “Manto owes its name to the covered Lima, the one who used the mantle and the skirt not so much to hide but as a vehicle of freedom. For this reason, it is delicate and sophisticated, but never alien, like the Lima of yesteryear ”.
Then, she adds, “Flora Tristán, in her book ‘Peregrinaciones de una paria’, talks about the inequalities of Lima society, but also highlights how women had earned their freedom, how their intelligence had made them defeat some injustices imposed by social conventions. In Europe, this French woman from a Peruvian family wrote that there was no woman freer than the woman from Lima ”.
Manto Hotel also pays tribute to another emblematic Peruvian, the famous Micaela Villegas, La Perricholi who, although she was not born in Lima, made this land her territory.
Because this is another of the characteristics of Lima: many times its beauty is not recognized by the people of Lima themselves, but it is recognized by the eyes of others, outsiders, whether they are provincial or foreigners.
Manto Hotel also contributes to this rescue of her beauty by making it clear that a kind and peaceful life in her is possible. For this reason, its interior design, which makes a nod, is covered as the old Lima architecture. So some high ceilings, hence, the colonial colors, its decoration with emblematic local scenes, its flooring with Andalusian touches.
Impeccable details and conceptualization
In the rooms, there are tall shelves full of books and pictures that tell us about a contemporary city. In its reading room, named Flora Tristán, there are works by Basadre and Raimondi, the complete edition of Amauta magazine, and the famous Populibros.
Ana María Villanueva was in charge of the hotel’s conceptualization. She turned to “materiality as a fundamental element. The floor tiles take us back to the patios of the old Lima houses. The tones of the walls and furniture also tell us about Colonial Lima. Lima had wooden balconies from where the covered women watched what happened. We have a terrace and open spaces from where you can look at the street without being seen, like in the old days ”.
The paintings that decorate the walls are by the artist Aisha Ascóniga, and the ceramic pieces by Corinne Silva, who has created, with cubist touches, Lima coverings, and objects that remind us of Lima cultures such as Chancay.
Saya, the in-house restaurant with a flavorful punch
Although due to the pandemic, spaces such as the bar are still closed. Saya, the restaurant, is still a good alternative to eat good contemporary Lima cuisine.
Saya is in charge of John Evans, a young but experienced chef who directed the kitchen of Barra Lima, that very lovable Sanisidrino space that, due to these difficult days, had to close its doors last year.
Manto and Evans have achieved a successful symbiosis since both the concept of the hotel and Evans’s cuisine look to the Lima tradition, but not with nostalgia, rather with a new look and, above all, current flavors.
Due to the pandemic and the restrictions that tourism still has, Saya has reduced its proposal to a daily menu, which is served from Wednesday to Saturday, at a super price of 35 soles that includes a main dish, a tasting soup, and a soft drink. Thus, Wednesdays are for pasta, Thursdays for Creole food, Fridays for hamburgers, and Saturdays for Lima cuisine, always with Evans’ personal touch. Ah, within the same category, the main dish is changed every week, in such a way that, for example, if this week on pasta Wednesday you tried some tortellini, then next week you could find a carbonara or a lasagna, and so on. The possibilities, like Evans’ creativity, are immense.
Our food recommendations
We, within these proposals, recommend, on Wednesdays, a criollo squash tortellini (it has cottage cheese with toasted chestnut sauce, fermented loche and its ashes, borage and more); Thursdays, a pork belly and arracacha (Evans has made himself eat arracacha, a root he hated as a child, that alone is enough for an enthusiastic applause); on Fridays, the Saya burger (made with the exact point of fat and beef, which is accompanied by tomatoes, caramelized onion with bacon and Syrah, cheddar cheese, house sauce, and many, many, fries), and on Saturday, a slow-cooked ossobuco stewed with citrus trigoto and cream (just naming it makes you want to eat it).
Manto Hotel offers, in addition to accommodation, breakfast, early check-in, late check-out, parking, chocolate strawberries, a sours workshop and more. If you want to make your experience even more exclusive, there is also an option with dinner and wine tasting. You just have to dare. Traveling in time in search of pleasure is still possible.
Hotel details
Boutique Hotel from the MGallery collection.
Web: www.mantohotellima.com
Reservations: mantohotellima@accor.com
Phone: (01) 630-0000
Address: Calle Los Libertadores 490, San Isidro.
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In-text photos courtesy of Gonzalo Pajares
Cover photo from Manto Hotel: www.mantohotellima.com