Gustu is on Calle 10 in Calacoto, in the lower, wealthier part of La Paz, a neighbourhood of embassies and apartment buildings quite different from the dense commercial centre above. The restaurant occupies a converted house with a serious open kitchen and a wine list that focuses on South American producers. The food is Bolivian in ingredients and reference points — fresh cheese from the altiplano, river fish from the Amazon basin, the extraordinary range of Andean potatoes, native grains that most non-Bolivians have never heard of — prepared with the technical discipline that the Noma heritage implies.
The more interesting part of Gustu's story is the training school attached to it. Claus Meyer's foundation recruits young Bolivians from poor backgrounds to train as professional cooks and front-of-house staff; many of the people serving you and cooking your food are graduates of that program. The restaurant is genuinely expensive by Bolivian standards and moderately expensive by international ones — a tasting menu costs around $60–80 USD, which would be a bargain in Copenhagen but represents a significant sum in La Paz. Book ahead; the dining room is small and fills up, particularly at weekends.