Food

 


Restaurant

Much of the pleasure one gets of life is the enjoyment of good food. This is specially true when on vacation. There is always the difficulty of knowing where to go to suit ones taste, the kind are elaborate and modest places, prices ranging from a hamburger plate to steak. You can eat well and with great enjoyment in Quito. 

Quito has a massive variety of restaurants. The best restaurants in Quito are located outside of the tourist area. However, the tourist area around Amazona sand Colon has increasingly started to offer quality food, especially lunches, at very reasonable prices. The city also has all the well known fast food chains including Mc Donald's, Burger King, Arby´s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Domino´s pizza,  etc. You can even go to a TGI Friday´s in one of the local shopping malls.

The top restaurants in Quito are located about a 10 to15 minute walk from the La Mariscal area and offer international food at reasonable prices. My favorite restaurants in Quito include; the Japanese restaurants Sake (Paul Rivet y Whimper), and Tanoshii (in hotel Oro Verde) , the excellent La Viña (Isabela La Catolica and Cordero) with Mediterranean food, the traditional French restaurant Rincón de Francia (Roca and 9 de Octubre), Italian restaurants Spaghetti (Cinemark or Portugal and Eloy Alfaro), Pavarotti (12 de Octubre and Salazar) or Portofino (hotel Colon), Chinese restaurant Magico Oriental at 18 de Septiembre and 9 de Octubre, sea food restaurant Barlovento at 12 de octubre and Orellana, San Telmo at Portugal and 6 de Diciembre for excellent beef and La Choza at 12 de Octubre for great Ecuadorian food. Many of the top hotels also have very good restaurants.

For those of you on a lower budget try out the restaurants in the Mariscal area like Grain de Café, the well known Magic Bean for great coffees and deserts, the ever popular Cafecito and Super Papa.

Ice-Cream: For good ice-cream try Crepes and Waffles (Orellana and Rabida), the famous Corfu (Portugal and Shyris), Italian ice cream at Mazzocca (Rep. Del Salvador y Naciones Unidas) or Baskin Robins (Orellana and Diego del Almagro or at Eloy Alfaro). 

Coffee: There are several nice places to have a good cup of coffee. The Magic Bean, Cafécito, Café Cultura, Grain de Café in the Mariscal area. You could also try the Café Ceuce in the Mall de Jardin.