A few metres from the Leederville train station, a few kms from the Perth CBD, salsa music can be heard from the Peruvian restaurant Lima Cantina.
Although the place is small, colourful decorations make it stand out. A mural with Machu Picchu in the background, crosses of all shapes and sizes, and traditional Andean symbols such as the Ekeko (representing good luck) and the Pucara bull (representing protection, happiness and fertility) can be seen from the outside window.
Inside, some patrons ask the waiters to explain the unknown dishes and ingredients on the menu before ordering, while others decide with a known familiarity. One of those waiters is Miguel Bellido.
Bellido is not really a waiter. He is the owner of Lima Cantina, but he often brings and picks up plates from tables, jokes with customers, and serves drinks. Born and raised in Peru, Bellido’s journey from Lima to Perth was long and went through many cities.
He moved to Barcelona in the late 1990s to study for a degree in communications and public relations. However, his passion for food, drinks and people led him to the hospitality industry. After university, he dedicated his time to this and worked in many restaurants.
It was in Barcelona where he met his wife, Melissa. She was born and raised in Perth and was teaching English in Barcelona. After some time, they moved to Melbourne, where Bellido continued working in hospitality.
Bellido says things were going well in Melbourne until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Everything went to hell—all the stores, brands, cafes and retail shops. I loved living there, but everything was bad economically.”
Melbourne’s lockdown was the longest in the world. The hospitality industry struggled during that time, and many workers lost their jobs.
This led Bellido to move to Perth. He had visited before to see his in-laws and saw an opportunity to start a business.
“In Melbourne and Sydney, there are a lot of Latin restaurants. In Perth, there are not that many, so I knew Perth needed something Latin with good Latin music and vibes. I knew the exact music that needed to play and how it had to look.”
According to the last census in 2021, there are only 795 Peruvians in Greater Perth. This is a small number compared with other groups. There are more than 58,000 people from India in the same area.
Lima Cantina is actually one of the only two Peruvian restaurants in all Western Australia. The other one is UMA, a gourmet restaurant in the CBD.
Bellido knew it would be a challenge to set up a restaurant in a place with a small Peruvian diaspora. In his words, everything was a challenge, from getting the right staff that could understand Peruvian cuisine to sourcing ingredients that are only native to Peru. He says Peruvian customers, who are familiar with the original taste, can sometimes be challenging to please.
“There’s no purple corn here, so what I did was get the concentrated purple corn powder, which I then boiled with cinnamon, cloves and pineapple skin. And that’s how we make the syrup for the chicha. It obviously doesn’t taste the same, and a lot of Peruvians can tell. They know it is not natural, but there’s not much I can do about it.”
However, he also recognises that this is not always the case.
“Despite this, we have had an amazing reception from the Peruvian community here. They are our biggest clientele.”
Peruvian food is world-renowned, with the Lima restaurant Central winning first place in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2023. For Bellido, Peruvian cuisine brings out a lot of sentiments.
“Peruvian food is those flavours we grew up with, the flavours we tasted when we were kids. It is melancholic to me in a way. It brings back memories of my childhood.”
Bellido grew up in San Borja, a district in Lima, during the 1980s and 1990s when the country was in an internal armed conflict and economic crisis.
“The nineties were rough. In San Borja during that time, all the houses had tape on their windows because of all the bombs. We needed to put tape on the windows so the glass would not explode. It was like a constant state of fear, but it was also normal for all of us.”
But he still had fun growing up—playing with the other kids from the barrio, drinking water from the hose, not wearing a helmet when riding a bike, climbing trees and, of course, playing soccer.
“I spent my childhood in the park, playing pichangas with my friends. Happy as hell.”
Aside from his devotion to Peruvian food, Bellido is also passionate about photography, a skill he learned when he was a teenager.
“When I was 15, my dad came home one day with a Canon camera. I had never seen a professional camera in my life, so I was enamoured with it. I started taking some pictures and soon became hooked on photography.”
On his last visit to Peru, he asked his father about that old camera.
“He said it wasn’t working, but it just needed new batteries. Now this camera is here with me in Australia.”
Bellido hopes to use the camera more when he has more time. At the moment, the restaurant is keeping him busy.
Lima Cantina turned one in August. To celebrate, the restaurant offered a special menu for one weekend. Bellido says that has been their most profitable weekend so far. He hopes Lima Cantina has more years of success and sees himself working in the hospitality industry in the foreseeable future.
“I love hospitality. There are long hours involved, and sometimes customers can be difficult, but the positive parts outweigh the bad. I always say food is a loyal reflection of the culture and history of a place—just look at Peru.”
