Cuenca Restaurants

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El Jordán restaurante is one of Cuenca - Ecuador’s most wonderful and elegant restaurants. El Jordán, is between the City's Historic Center and Tomebamba River. El Jordán restaurant is a restored old house with three different rooms, all walls have big museum-like hand pictures. The first and second have a French style that seem like a European palace. The third room is near the river, has a beautiful view of the modern city and has been recently restored with an Arabic style.
Excellent service, crisp white tablecloths and comfortable wooden chairs make El Jordán the perfect place to enjoy Arabic or international dishes, typical Ecuadorian gourmet food, and good wine. Visit the website to see this really beautiful restaurant and the dishes offered.

Favorite Dish: Moussaka Mashi

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Food was good, but the terms of paying was completely ununderstable. I have never before seen the menu where there were the prices, but later the waitress told that they will add 12% taxes and still 10% tip money!!! But what to do when you are hungry, and there is no place (I mean real restaurant, not a street seller, or McDonalds) open at Sunday evening???

The best was the advertismets of Olympic Games on the wall, specially the Helsinki one.

Favorite Dish: The beef, 10,95$.

We did manage to escape La Cigale for lunch one day and went for Mexican food in El Pedregal Azteca. Not the best Mexican I have ever eaten in but for a quick lunch it did the trick. Portions were small and we were lucky to get a lunch offer for $5 because looking at the evening menu the place looked very pricey for what you are getting. Wouldn’t have been happy paying evening prices for the mediocre and small enchiladas we got for lunch. Back to La Cigale for dinner!

Although we stayed here and should have ventured further afield a bit more, when it can to grabbing something to eat, we failed to look past La Cigale. The food here was so good and such good value we couldn’t justify eating anywhere else.
For between $3 and $5 you could eat a really well prepared and tasty meal here. Our favourite was the chicken cordon bleu although the honey mustard chicken was also very tasty. The burgers were another winner here and like the entire menu, very good value for money. The only let down on this menu was the cheesecake which while actually quiet wasn’t actually cheesecake! It was more of a fruit mousse...with no base. Would have been nice if they had just called it a fruit mousse on the menu and we expected it! Only fault I could find on an otherwise impressive menu.

I found this new place that is fun and wonderful to eat at. The decorations are beautiful and they have a upstairs for larger parties or just a cozy spot.

Favorite Dish: I like the NAN. I am a big bread eater so this is always great for me. They serve 3 or 4 different sauces with it so I can really nibble. I had something else that was spinich and cheese but do not remember the name. It was yummy.

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If your appetite feels lazy and unadventurous while in Cuenca, I recommend La Fornace. It is a small chain of spit-spot clean pizzerias that also serve superb ice cream. The pizza is not generic or bland. The spinach pizza I ordered had quite a personality, with no tomato sauce at all, and a good punch of garlic.

Another German-owned haunt overlooking the river. A mellow place to have a few drinks, snacks and a meal. They offer inexpensive sandwiches in two sizes, make really nice mojitos and had a fantastic pepper steak for about $7.

This place has all-day breakfast as well as international and German specials for lunch or dinner. Also is a mellow place to get some drinks and they have 2 for 1 specials each day of the business week.

Good service and large, warm interior with lots of windows, magazines and papers (in Spanish and German). Real coffee in different forms (tinto, con leche, eiskaffe - iced coffee with vanilla ice cream), hearty banana pancakes, great homemade bread and jam etc.