[1][2] Unlike steak and eggs, lomo a lo pobre is eaten as a lunch or dinner.

There are variants that replace steak with other types of meat, such as beef tenderloin or fillet, chicken, or fish such as conger eel, salmon, or hake.

[3] There are several possible origins for the term a lo pobre ("poor man's style").

One is that it was named because of the irony of nineteenth-century Peruvian common folk eating similar dishes with an abundance of food and at a high price, despite their economic situation.

The term a lo pobre in Lima today may refer simply to the addition of a fried egg and is used in other dishes besides steak, such as grilled chicken breast (pechuga a lo pobre), rice (especially arroz chaufa), lomo saltado, salchipapas, or even hamburgers.