Peruvian cuisine is having its moment. The nation’s Mistura food festival held in Lima every September is the largest food festival in Latin America, where every chef in the know wants to be. And across this country, restaurants like Pio Pio and Jora in New York, Andina in Portland, Ore., and Limon Rotisserie in San Francisco are giving people a taste of the Andean cuisine.

Limon just opened its fifth location, in Hawaii, its first outside of the Bay Area since brothers Antonio, Eduardo and Martin Castillo opened their original restaurant in 2002. They started with a cevicheria devoted to the Peruvian classic of raw fish cured with limon (that’s lemon in Spanish but refers to lime in Peru).

The brothers remain hands-on with their business, and all were in town for the restaurant’s opening in Ka Makana Ali‘i in Kapolei last month. You may still see them around, possibly through the holi­days, with Martin in the kitchen and Eduardo and Antonio humbly running dishes out to tables.

In order to grow, they knew they had to add more to their repertoire, and it was el pollo a la braza that became their claim to fame. After all, what’s not to love about the open-flame, slow-cooked rotisserie chicken served with addictive aji amarillo sauce. It’s a combination many of us grew to love when Carlos Jimenez set up his Rico Rico chicken shop on King Street near University Avenue a few years ago. Rico Rico may be gone, but I never forgot that wonderful yellow pepper sauce.

Well, the magic is back.

Tender free-range chicken is the star of Limon’s menu. A whole chicken chopped into eight pieces is $28.95, half is $18.95. Order the whole if you’re sharing. I could eat the half all by myself.

Many have been comparing the chicken to Maui Mike’s when eaten plain, but the addition of aji amarillo sauce opens the heavens and causes angels to sing. Well, for me at least. Use of huacatay, or Peruvian black mint, in the sauce gives it an herbal complexity similar to tarragon. It’s a sauce that works well with pretty much everything it touches, including beef, fish, and the french fries and yuca fries on the menu.

The chicken comes with a choice of two sides from a list that includes sweet potato and french fries, yuca fries, rice with beans, plain rice or Chifa (Chinese) wok-fried green beans (each $4.95 a la carte). I loved the garlicky green beans.

For $2 each, you could also try the restaurant’s other sauces, chimichurri and rocoto molido, with your chicken. The former, an Argentinian herb-and-olive oil sauce, is always a favorite of mine; the latter is a red hot sauce made with the Peruvian rocoto pepper. As good as they are, I would still choose the aji amarillo first. If you like spice, a dash of the rocoto over the aji amarillo also works.

The sauces bring a touch of excitement to an otherwise mild-mannered cuisine that originally comprised corn, potatoes, quinoa and beans.

Today’s Peruvian cuisine is fused with Spanish influences plus the familiarity of Asian cuisine. Peru’s plantation history is similar to Hawaii’s, with Chinese laborers arriving in the mid-1800s to work its rice fields, followed by a wave of Japanese laborers.

Familiarity can be a comfort to some, as with the Peruvian classic lomo saltado ($19.95), a wok stir-fry of beef tenderloin, onions, tomatoes and french fries with a ginger-soy sauce. Save for the addition of fries, it was as exciting as beef teriyaki, meaning I would prefer ordering something more interesting. But people who love soy sauce-based dishes will likely love this stir-fry, which is accompanied by a mound of jasmine rice.

To get the full Peruvian experience, you must start with ceviche. Limon offers catch of the day, shrimp, or various combinations of fish, shrimp, octopus, calamari and catch of the day for $16.95 to $17.95. Those can be prepared four ways, whether in the classic marinade of lime, garlic, onions and chilies; or enhanced with aji amarillo cream, rocoto pimiento or passion fruit. For $22.95, you can get a trio sampler of classic fish leche de tigre (tiger milk, the milky liquid that forms from the blend of marinade and fish juices), octopus aji amarillo style, or shrimp with the spicy pimiento. Served with the ceviche are choclo, a softened large-kernel Andean corn, and cancha, crunchy skillet-toasted chulpe corn.

What stood out most was the dominant lime, with a sourness loved in Peru but overpowering here, where we prefer a little more salty, sweet and savory notes with our raw fish. The best ceviche I’ve had was at A Cevicheria in Portugal, where less leche de tigre and sweet daubs of mashed beans and tomato cream softened the sour notes. Time will tell whether locals will take to the sourness or whether Limon needs to take it down a notch.

Carne empanadas ($8.95) were a pleasant surprise with a flavorful center of sirloin stewed with eggs and olives, sweetened with raisins and sauteed onions. There are also empanadas filled with rotisserie chicken, queso (Oaxaca cheese) and veggies (mushroom and spinach with Oaxaca cheese).

Signature plates beyond the lomo saltado include a juicy 12-ounce, pan-roasted pork chop ($21.95) served over a bed of bacon, potato and cabbage hash. The pork chop was perfect, but the hash overly salted, which was also the fate of arroz con mariscos ($21.95), a Peruvian paella of saffron rice with chardonnay aji amarillo pimiento sauce. The paella was also mushier than expected.

Redemption came with seco de Costillas ($18.95), braised short ribs in a huacatay-cilantro broth, served with jasmine rice, potatoes and carrots.

Before leaving, this is the place to try a Pisco sour, Peru’s signature cocktail, as well as lychee sour ($12 each). If you’re not a drinker, try an aqua fresca of water and fruit purees that differ every day. One day it might be pineapple, another mango. Dashes of cinnamon and other spices hint of the holidays, as does a spiced sangria.

I’m hoping Limon does well enough to consider Honolulu for a sixth location.