In Melbourne, the road to Peruvian food is paved with street art. The walls down AC-DC Lane are covered in the stuff, but for sheer colour and movement, Pastuso is hard to beat. This big, vibrant restaurant – part grill, part bar – throbs day and night with customers who are out for a good time, preferably with a pisco sour in one hand and a rib eye in the other.

Pastuso’s impressive parilla (charcoal grill) is front and centre and head chef Alejandro Saravia knows how to work its hoists and levers so your meat hits just the right heat. Our free-range pork scotch fillet was meltingly tender, while skewered knobs of beef and fish, on a bank of grilled vegetables, oozed juices. This being an Antipodean outpost of Peru, there is also plenty in the way of salsas and sauces, cassava chips and Peruvian chillies (aji).

Don’t overlook the ceviche bar (the miso-dressed hiramasa kingfish with crispy nori seaweed is a model of restraint) or the desserts list. No Pastuso visit is complete without a round of picarones – sweet potato and pumpkin doughnuts – drenched in raw sugar syrup. Another pisco sour? Bring it on.

Must eat dish: Hiramasa kingfish ceviche