Top 5
your favourite restaurants
We receive hundreds of restaurant recommendations from clients who have just returned from Latin America, which we in turn pass on to new clients wanting to know the very best places to eat in their chosen destinations. Now, for the first time, we're sharing that knowledge right here. All the restaurants in our list have been the subject of dozens of recommendations and rave reviews - not from us, but from you!
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1. Zig Zag, Arequipa (Peru)
Arequipa's Zig Zag tops your restaurant list, with an astonishing 24 separate recommendations from recent clients. Specialising in meats and fish cooked and served on volcanic stone, the restaurant has won enormous praise for the succulent flavours of its dishes and the warm manner of its staff. The dramatic setting, offset by an authentic Gustave Eiffel staircase, adds to the ambience of an evening spent sampling the unique cuisine that makes Zig Zag your number one.
2. Cabaña Las Lilas, Buenos Aires
As expected, there was a strong showing from Argentina, spearheaded by Cabaña Las Lilas in at second place. The Buenos Aires restaurant specialises in beef, and the company's absolute dedication to rearing cattle under the very best conditions tangibly comes through in the taste of Las Lilas's melt-in-the-mouth steak. According to DH of Berkshire, it was "excellent in every way."
3. Inka Grill, Cusco
Located right at the heart of the city's main square, Cusco's Inka Grill offers a taste of Peru's colourful culture as well as its cuisine. Live Andean music and rustic decorations, from weavings to displays of ingredients, surround you as you tuck into a delicious fusion of traditional Peruvian and European gastronomy.
4. La Guarida, Havana
Homely La Guarida is a paladar, a uniquely Cuban type of eatery. Paladares are small restaurants, almost always set in family homes, and bound by tight restrictions (including, technically, a limitation to only 12 seats) and extremely high taxes. They are typically rather hard to find since they are unadvertised and often don't even have a sign.
Given the challenges, then, it's remarkable that there should be a Cuban entry in your top five, but La Guarida's food is so good and its atmosphere so charming that it comes in at a very respectable number four. The restaurant was also the setting for scenes in the Cuban film Fresa y chocolate, and according to one client, EB of Teddington, is the perfect place to get a "real flavour of Havana".
5. Theatrum, Quito
Theatrum is in at number five but beats the rest hands down for location, occupying the second floor of Ecuadorian capital Quito's grand National Theatre. Its first-class Mediterranean menu propels it to the vanguard of Ecuadorian gastronomy, while it puts its success down to head chef Julio Avedaño. One client who recommended the restaurant was JC of Essex, who said "Theatrum was superb with excellent service. Steaks were the best and so cheap!"
Comments
Last year while I was in Buenos Aires we took a group of friends to eat at "Siga la Vaca".
Now I can really recomend this place. I know quite a few people that have enjoyed it very much.
Very good price. And specially good for people with a big stomach!
You pay one price and then eat all you want with abundant drinks too.
You can see all the meat being cooked and ask for whatever you want, but they also provide so many different saldas and interesting cold things to eat that you never get to try everything. Definetly a place to go if you can eat lots and love beef!
liliana Geering
over a year ago
I have been to Buenos Aires five times and have always enjoyed a meal at La Estancia. Good steaks, not expensive and you can see the meat roasting in front of a fire in the window area. It is situated on Lavalle close to the junction with 9 de Julio.
Probably my best ever meal in S America was a few years ago at the Merlin Restaurant in Puerto Varas in Chile. Brilliant.
Douglas Buchanan
over a year ago