Quito Restaurants

It pays to keep your eyes open even when riding on the bus. D was dying for a fruit salad before we left Ecuador and we hadn’t really seen a good one since we’d left Cuenca weeks earlier. I saw this place from the bus and made a mental note of where it was. It was just a little place across from the market but it looked promising and we were happy to find it very full of locals especially policemen enjoying their wares.

Favorite Dish: D had a nice big fruit salad for a dollar and I had a huge guanbanana batido (a fruit milk shake) for sixty cents. We went back the next day for the same thing! Now, we understood why snacking was so popular in Quito!

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Lonely Planet heralded this restaurant like it had stock in it but it was full of not only LP readers but also locals enjoying their admittedly good and fairly priced food. It was very big, modern and clean. It’s not exactly what you imagine when you envision a local South American restaurant but it is what more upscale locals seem to be looking for.

What we didn’t like were the people working there. I could maybe accept that since it was busy they didn’t have time to be overly friendly but they were generally rude and also often out of certain items unless you were the first to get in the door. Also, certain dishes were only available for very restricted hours.

Favorite Dish: At any rate, the food we had there was quite good and not much more than most places in town. The much raved about fruit salad was a bit sweet for us but the empanadas (90 cents) were amongst the best of the whole trip and we especially liked the chicken ones though it was tough to get there in time to get them. The locro a la papa (a potato stew with avocado for $1.50) was excellent as was their juices. We went there a few times on our first visit of Quito but when we returned it didn’t drive us back like the other more authentic (and friendly) places.

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We were in a cab on our way back from the airport coming into Quito for the second time. It was later than we had planned and most of our favorite places were already closed so we worried where we’d eat that night. We were ravenous. D spotted this little place and we managed to find it despite the winding streets we came in on. In fact, it was not far from our hotel and we were surprised we’d not noticed it before. It was a garish place with fluorescent lighting so it was no wonder we’d not been tempted. But it was jammed with locals and the rotisserie chicken in the window looked great. Romantic it wasn’t but authentic it couldn’t be more.

Favorite Dish: We opted for a steak ($3). It was only $3 but was massive and filled us well. We had ordered a beer but were told they didn’t have any or so we understood it that way. We noticed they also served seco de chivo and when our little place was out of it our last day we figured we’d give this place a try since our first meal was so good. We were glad we did as the stew was just as good and much bigger to boot. We ordered a beer again and this time it was better explained that since there was an election going on they were not allowed to serve beer, not even to us gringos who obviously couldn’t vote!

This is another Lonely Planet recommendation that you would certainly miss without some guidance. In fact, it’s not likely you would even notice this unassuming little place without having been told about it. We ate there twice and it seems not many other Lonely Planet readers were drawn in with the lure of tripe stew. It was busy with locals and it seemed out of town Ecuadorians there to try the specialty guatita.

Favorite Dish: They only have a few things on the menu and most come to eat guatita ($2.50), tripe and potato stew in a peanut based thick sauce. It is served with a nice whole grain roll and a half of a very ripe avocado. It’s funny as we ordered only one at first figuring we might not like it but once D tried it, we ordered a second bowl. I kept the first one and it had more potatoes then tripe but D was not so lucky garnering a bowl full of tripe! Obviously, the owner was rewarding us for liking it and I wound up eating some of her tripe as to not appear ungrateful. It is a very tasty and filling meal but unless you can stomach tripe it’s probably best to leave it to the locals. I enjoyed it myself and went back on a later visit to Quito.

This is interestingly a traditional Ecuadorean snack - ice-cream with the flavours mixed in a huge pan.

The ice-cream flavours are mainly fruity. You will see signs 'HELADO DE PAILA' everywhere. Try it!

Apparently, for the Ecuadoreans, their main meal is lunch, rather than dinner as in Western cultures. At times, it might be only main dish in their diet.

Do try 'seco de chivo'. You will find that lunch menus which are very economical and good, usually offer a few selections for the main dish and 'seco de chivo' is often an option.

While 'seco' means 'dry', this dish is actually a type of stew made from goat. Yum.

A typical Ecuadorean drink, my friend told me, is chocolate con queso (hot chocolate with cheese).

Imagine a tall glass of hot chocolate with melting cheese inside. But not just any cheese, I was told. As my cheese knowledge is very limited, I am not able to tell you how to prepare this drink yourself.

But there is a cafe in Palacio Arzobispal where my friend brought me to which served this. I assume many other cafes do the same.

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In Northern Ecuador, you find a unique sort of ice cream, Helado de Paila. Here's a short documentary on Youtube (not mine) where you can see how it's made. Basically, instead of being churned, the ice cream is prepared in a wide wok-like pan which the ice cream maker spins on a bed of ice. The helado is very compact and very rich, with little or no cream, like a punchy, intense sorbet. You must try the Mora (berry) flavor.

There is magnificent ice cream everywhere in Ecuador, but Helado de Paila is truly something. I had it many times, and it was always great.

Favorite Dish: Operating since 1858, Heladeria San Augustin feels completely European: an elegant "petit salon de thé" that could be in Paris. Except that in Paris, they wouldn't offer shrimp ceviche to the "vieilles dames." As in old fashioned French establishments, you pay your bill with a severe cashier.