Chef Virgilio Martinez’ MIL restaurant, located in the Sacred Valley, is among the top 10 most unique and luxurious dining experiences in the world. Have you been?
His lauded Lima-based restaurant, Central, very well may be considered the second best in all of Latin America, but Virgilio Martinez’ MIL restaurant is what will satisfy the senses of ‘globetrotting gastronomes.’
The top 10 most unique and luxurious dining experiences in the world were recently published in the 2019 edition of National Geographic Traveller Luxury Collection. First place went to Under, a restaurant in Norway that just out from the sea. Rounding out the list was the Peruvian chef’s latest restaurant, MIL, located in the town of Maras in the Sacred Valley of Peru.
Since opening in 2018, many adventurous travelers have included the restaurant in their Cusco itinerary.
With room for no more than 20 diners, getting to the restaurant is a journey that perhaps not all can stomach. A 45-minute drive from Cusco city, eager eaters will have to navigate windy roads in order to reach the exquisite restaurant that sits some 3,500 meters above sea level. Luckily, as pointed out by NatGeo, the restaurant is equipped with an oxygen tank in case guests suffer from altitude sickness.
The menu, which features a plethora of ingredients produced in the biodiverse Cusco region, is just part of the appeal. From the wide dining room window guests can gaze upon Moray, an archaeological site comprising of a series of circular terraces. It’s quite a fitting view considering that these staggered depressions, which result in varied temperatures according to their proximity to the Earth’s core, are believed to have allowed the Incas to experiment with crops and agriculture.
“The way we’re conceptualizing the whole thing is trying to give the diner a sense of time and place and people and view and landscape and produce,” Martínez told Eater Magazine in a 2018 interview.
Photo: AmaraPhotos.com
Sources: National Geographic, Eater
