Chicama

What Chicama is

Chicama is a Peruvian restaurant in Brisas de Zicatela, the stretch of sandy streets in Puerto Escondido that everyone calls La Punta. It opened in 2016 and shares its name with Chicama, the point break on the north coast of Peru famous for one of the longest left-hand waves in the world.

The room is not a polished dining room. There is sand on the floor, posters on the walls, loud music, and a bar that keeps working long after most kitchens in La Punta have closed. Staff dance between the tables. Service runs from noon to 11pm, every day, with no reservation book.

The queue is the thing people mention first. Chicama does not take bookings, and on most evenings there is a line at the door from around 7pm. When I filmed there in July 2026 that had been true for close to ten years.

Who is behind it

Chicama was founded by Erick Jauregui, a Peruvian who grew up in Chimbote and worked in hotels and restaurants in Lima before moving to the Oaxaca coast to surf. The first version of the restaurant was a tiny beach shack. By his own account he did not have the first month’s rent and started with four plates.

The cooking style came out of that constraint. Peruvian herbs and chillies were hard to buy on the Oaxacan coast in 2016, so he rebuilt the recipes with what the local market had: guajillo chilli in place of ají panca, epazote in place of huacatay, habanero in place of ají de limo. The result is Peruvian food that tastes Mexican at the edges, which is now the group’s signature rather than a compromise.

The group has grown out of Puerto Escondido in both directions. Chicama opened in Roma Norte in Mexico City in February 2024, then in Madrid, and then in Nosara on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The Puerto Escondido dining room stayed the original.

Press and ratings

• Mexico News Daily profiled the group in 2024 under the line “Peru by way of Puerto Escondido”, covering the shack origins and the ingredient substitutions.
• Google reviews: around 4.7 out of 5 across more than 2,500 ratings, one of the highest volumes of any restaurant in Puerto Escondido.
• Tripadvisor: about 4.7 out of 5.
• No Michelin Guide listing. The Puerto Escondido restaurants in the guide are Almoraduz, Atarraya and Glou Glou.

How the menu works

Chicama is a la carte and built for sharing. Plates arrive as they are ready rather than in courses, so a table of four ordering six or seven dishes is the way the room works best.

• Raw: ceviche in leche de tigre, usually with the day’s catch, and tiradito. Canchita, the toasted Peruvian corn, comes to the table free.
• Seared and fried: pescado en costra negra, a tataki-style fish in a black sesame and teriyaki crust, and fried octopus.
• Cooked classics: lomo saltado and other Peruvian staples, plus the catch of the day.
• Vegetarian: the kitchen rebuilds its own signatures without fish, including a chickpea and mushroom ceviche.
• Drinks: pisco sour as the benchmark, plus a mezcal-led cocktail list built for this coast rather than for Lima.

What I ate

The tuna tartare with mango and sweet potato was the dish I would go back for, and it is the one I said was my absolute favourite in the reel. Alongside it we had the black-crust fish tataki, a Peruvian ceviche and the octopus. Choosing between them is genuinely hard, which is the argument for coming as a group and ordering everything rather than trying to pick.

What it costs

Chicama sits in the middle of the Puerto Escondido range, not at the top. Listings put the spend at roughly 200 to 600 MXN per person depending on how many plates you share and what you drink.

Item	Price
Per person, sharing a few plates	About 200 to 600 MXN, roughly 11 to 32 USD
Canchita on the table	Included
Cocktails	Charged separately

Two people ordering three plates and two cocktails land comfortably inside that band. The bill climbs fastest through the bar, not the kitchen, so if you are watching the budget the food is the part to be generous with. Prices move with the season and the catch, so confirm on the day.

Do you need a reservation

No, because you cannot make one. Chicama does not take reservations and never has. What that means in practice:

• Lunch, from noon: the quietest service and the easiest table.
• Before 7pm: usually walk straight in.
• 7pm to 9pm: the line. Expect to wait, sometimes a while.
• After 9:30pm: the queue thins and the room turns into a bar.

The phone number is +52 954 167 8874 if you want to check the day’s hours, but do not expect it to hold a table. The Instagram account is @chicamaperuvianfood.

Getting there

• Address: Alejandro Cárdenas Peralta s/n, Brisas de Zicatela, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.
• Neighbourhood: La Punta Zicatela. Most La Punta hotels and hostels are a five to ten minute walk away.
• From the centre of Puerto Escondido: about 15 to 20 minutes by taxi or colectivo.
• From Puerto Escondido airport: about 20 to 25 minutes.
• Parking: street parking on sand roads, limited in the evening. Walking or a taxi is easier.

Before you go

• Come with a group. The menu is built to share and the ordering gets much better with four or more people.
• Pick your hour. Lunch or after 9:30pm if you want to skip the line; 7pm to 9pm if you do not mind it.
• Bring cash as a backup. Card is normally fine, but La Punta loses connectivity often enough that cash saves the evening.
• Dress for sand. Flip flops are the house standard.
• It gets loud. If you want a conversation, book somewhere else or come at lunch.
• Pair it with the rest of La Punta. Monte Alpán Bakery is the morning version of this neighbourhood, and Almoraduz is the sit-down tasting menu option in town.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above is the room, the queue and the plates, filmed in July 2026. For the rest of what I ate on this coast, open my map or browse the Puerto Escondido recommendations.