(Condé Nast Traveler, March 2025) For years, well-heeled foodies had only one reason to put La Paz, Bolivia, on their bucket lists: Gustu. Opened by Noma cofounder Claus Meyer in 2013, the fine-dining restaurant focused on indigenous ingredients like oca tubers, llama, and fermented yucca. The first of its kind in the city, it proved that an appetite existed for creative interpretations of traditional Bolivian flavors.

In the decade-plus since, Gustu alumni and other rising chefs have created a restaurant scene that’s uniquely their own. Marsia Taha, Gustu’s former head chef (Latin America’s 2024 best female chef, according to World’s 50 Best), opened the three-floor Arami in the buzzy Achumani neighborhood, near the four-year-old Phayawi. Meaning “piece of heaven” in the Guarani language, Arami focuses on the rainforest. Freshwater fish such as paiche and palometa are the menu’s stars, along with lagarto (yacare caiman), the product of a collaboration with Indigenous hunters. Local sommelier Andrea Moscoso Weise, a veteran of Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, is a leading advocate for Bolivia’s criolla grapes.

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Ph: Christian Gutierrez/Ancestral.