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Dating back to 1976, Inti Raymi is undoubtedly one of New York’s first Peruvian restaurants, and it’s still a fine introduction to this now-familiar cuisine. With its decently spaced wooden tables and stucco walls hung with winsome paint-by-numbers canvases of village scenes, Inti Raymi’s single narrow dining room has atmosphere aplenty for numerous daters, Spanish-speaking and not. Its vast menu covers Peru’s Pacific waterfront and Andean highlands, with nods to Iberia and Asia. Meals often begin with blamelessly fresh seviche, which originated in Peru and Ecuador; here it’s served in clamshells, not martini glasses. You’ll also find engagingly spiced fish soups and nicely fried seafood; numerous permutations of potato and yucca root; Hispanic-style minute steaks atop white rice; and earthy lamb, chicken, and seafood stews. Credit the noodle and fried-rice dishes to Peru’s Chinese settlers. (One national dish mercifully absent is cuy, skewered guinea pig.) With cooking that’s solid if not quite brilliant—understandable in a 30-year-old kitchen with a sizable nonnative following—the flavor quotient ratchets up with a drizzle of rocoto, a fiery chile sauce, and a pitcher of chicha morada, cinnamon-laced purple corn punch. — Karen Tina Harrison

Inti Raymi, the Inca Festival of the Sun, occurs on June 24, the southern hemisphere’s winter solstice. It is centered in Cuzco, the gateway to the Andes and Machu Picchu. The festival, along with fasting and sacrifices, was banned by the Spanish viceroy in 1572. But it merely went underground, and today Inti Raymi sizzles with concerts, street fairs, and round-the-clock feasts.

Papa relleña, $5.95; seviche, $11.95-$14; seco de cabrito, $13.68; alfajores cookie, $2.17