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Where to eat South American food in La Serena: The Best Restaurants and Bars
Find out what South American restaurants to try in La Serena including Jack Fish, Lima Limon La Serena, Resto-Bar Huentelauquen, La Casita Del Chef, Pukhara RestoBar, Restorant Huentelauquen, Fuente de Soda Oriente - Centro, Fogon Del Mar, Caleta San Pedro, Restaurant Daniela
Things to do in La Serena
10. Restaurant Daniela
Overall Ratings
4 based on 40 reviews
Reviewed By Marc T
Also known as Daniela II.Excellent little restaurant. good food, good service, no frills. Went there for lunch one day and it was packed with locals on their lunch break - a sure sign of good quality, cheap food.Try the sizzling prawns - Gambas Pil Pil. Very tasty.
9. Caleta San Pedro
Overall Ratings
3 based on 215 reviews
Reviewed By lalyflores
If you want to eat fresh seafood this is the right place.It's not expensive and it's a place to enjoy with friends or family.
8. Fogon Del Mar
Overall Ratings
4 based on 121 reviews
We are a restaurant dedicated to delivering new added values and obtaining the best experience, we are not perfect, but we work every day for many better services and quality. We have Smoking Terrace, access for the disabled, bathrooms for the disabled, d
Reviewed By Ben B
My wife and I went here on a Sunday during a three-day weekend. It was the last day we had together before she had to leave for a work trip. It was a sunny day and we wanted to have a nice lunch by the ocean, and, feeling a little adventurous (as such things go), we decided to try a new restaurant, El Fogon Del Mar.With a nice terrace with views to the sea and an outside brick oven, it seemed a nice place to eat. But for some reason, things started to go astray immediately. It seemed difficult for them to decide who was our waiter. And then once we ordered, the waitress began telling us one of our dishes would take twenty minutes longer to prepare than the other so we asked if we could have one first and then the other when it arrived. We would share. This seemed to confuse her, so we waited a long time before we finally flagged down another waiter and explained what we wanted. Then our order mysteriously arrived almost immediately.Also, we had to ask several times for our bread and it came without pebre. We asked for some pebre, they said the chef was making it now. It would come out as soon as it was ready. We asked again fifteen minutes later when the first round of food arrived, and got the same response. We never got the pebre. I doubt very much anyone was making pebre. This isn't that big of a deal, except that it makes you wonder about the restaurant. The first thing one should have in Chile at a restaurant is bread and pebre. It should come to you while you're still thinking about what to eat. Even the cheapest restaurants have this figured out. And Fogon del Mar is not cheap. So not having pebre was disappointing and having the waiters lie to us about it was frustrating. If you don't have pebre, just admit it. Never lie to your customers. It's extremely irritating. Our first shared platter was a ceviche de Reineta, and it was without a doubt, the highlight of the meal. The purple onions were sliced paper thin, the reineta was fresh and delicious, and the lemon juice was seasoned wonderfully. Things were really looking up. I was especially looking forward to the next dish because I am a lover of chicken and was looking forward to some nice, well-cooked pollo.Unfortunately, our second dish sealed our bad opinion of El Fogon del Mar. We ordered their appetizer special El Fogon. It is exceedingly ill conceived and not worth the exorbitant amount of money it costs. It advertises chicken, meat, french fries, shrimp, and calamari for close to 12,000 pesos. Not cheap. But it sounded good. What came was a small bowl of french fries with a few shrimp and calamari on top. They were cooked and seasoned well, but for 12,000 pesos, I would expect more. There were three shrimp, I think, and the same amount of calamari. The small bowl of french fries was done very well, but again, the serving size was lamentable. The meat was another clay bowl filled with chopped steak and sauteed peppers and onions. This was good but strange to eat. Whereas french fries and fried shrimp are finger foods, this had to be eaten with a fork or spoon. Again, there was not much to it. If there was bread served with it, there would not have been enough to make a sandwich with it. But above all, the most ill conceived part of the meal was the chicken. The chicken consisted of little bits of breast meat suspended in what I assume was mushroom soup. There were also mushrooms in this. There was no bread to spoon it on. I guess you're supposed to eat it like chicken mushroom soup. The taste was even worse than the conception. It really is a bad dish. It tastes as bland as it sounds and I ended up draining the mushroom soup and just eating the chicken, which wasn't very good either. It was such an extremely embarrassing dish, it made us wonder who on earth thought that was a good idea AND that it was worth nearly 12,000 pesos? Someone ate a spoonful of chicken and mushroom soup and pondered for a second and said, yeah, put THAT on the most expensive appetizer dish we have. And put our name to it. It's THAT good. That put us in a crisis of confidence.Here's the bottom line. El Fogon del Mar is not a bad restaurant. Some of the dishes are good while others are painfully mediocre. The service is not horrible, but it's also not very good. (No pebre? In Chile? On a three day weekend?) I just don't think El Fogon knows its business, and while it tries very hard to be fine food, it struggles to achieve mediocrity. In other areas of La Serena, this might be forgivable, but the prices are just the same as some of the best restaurants in the region, some of which are literally just next door! If you're in the area of the Caleta, spend your money at Tio Coco's or at Pica Mar Adentro. There you get outstanding service, exceptional food, and a feeling of joy and relaxation, all at the same, if not lower, cost than El Fogon del Mar. If you must try it out, please, don't encourage them. Avoid the Fogon appetizer.
What to do and see in La Serena, Chile: The Best Places and Tips
7. Fuente de Soda Oriente - Centro
Overall Ratings
4 based on 91 reviews
Reviewed By magallard
This place is a local tradition, offering hotdogs and other local specialties since 1962. After being ignored at another supposedly top restaurant a few blocks off, it was refreshing to arrive a place where the waiter immediately comes over and takes your order, hotdogs are of course, not a gourmet dish, but hungry and with a cold Kunstmann beer, it tastes like heaven. I would recommend they offer a premium version of the "completos" (that have tomato, sauerkraut, avocado and lots of mayo on top) with a higher quality sausage, that would make the place a no-brainer on my list of places to eat.
La Serena Food Guide: 10 Must-Eat Restaurants & Street Food Stalls in La Serena
6. Restorant Huentelauquen
Overall Ratings
4 based on 105 reviews
Reviewed By ochassot
Huentelauquen is a large pizzeria with a beautiful setting and a nice mood. Usually packed, their pizzas and empanadas are good and fairly priced. They always have 4-5 local craft brews. Live music every night. Pizza are good but small and service is minimal.
5. Pukhara RestoBar
Reviewed By cordovamanzor
Una pequeña joya en el centro. Comida hecha con cariño y tremendos sabores. Un menú delicioso y acompañamientos de tremenda categorÃa. Probamos una crema de coliflor y tallarines de arroz salteados. Ricas las sopaipillas con lactonesa, que están de remolinche. Hubo posibilidad de pedir sobre el menú un sándwich para el hijo, quien quedó más que encantado. Una atención cuidada en un espacio muy lindo. Faltan sólo las cervezas para ser de lo mejor. Rico rico!
Most Popular Asian food in La Serena, Coquimbo Region, Chile
4. La Casita Del Chef
Overall Ratings
4 based on 100 reviews
Restaurant peruano en la serena, el mejor restaurant con la mejor comida peruana que haya podido de gustar.
Reviewed By Landrew L
There are many very nice places to eat in lovely La Serena Chile and La Casita Del Chef is one of the finest. Beautiful little restaurant, authentic Peruvian food served by friendly informed staff. The ceviche, suspiro a la Limena and Pisco Sours were to die for.Thank you La Casita Del Chef for a lovely quiet evening with friends : )
3. Resto-Bar Huentelauquen
Overall Ratings
4 based on 1192 reviews
Reviewed By J B
Restaurant Huentelauquen is located at the Avenida del Mar in La Serena. For chilly evenings the large wood-stove in the restaurant is a great plus. Service is adequate and fast.Huentelauquen offers a-la-carte Chilean food. We came on the day of the solar eclipse and the place was packed with tourists from Santiago. We thought that to be a good sign. What a mistake.We went for sirloin with home-made fries. The food was terrible. The sirloin so tough-meat that it was uneatable and the fries were cold. We told the waiter that the food was uneatable. He just said that the kitchen was overloaded. We got fresh fries. We ate some of the fries, paid and left the building.Restaurant Huentelauquen truly is a never-come-show.If you like to sit next to the stove, restaurant Huentelauquen is the place for you, but stay away from the bad food.
Most Popular Sushi food in La Serena, Coquimbo Region, Chile
2. Lima Limon La Serena
Overall Ratings
4 based on 281 reviews
Reviewed By Daniela_Enroth
One of our favorite restaurants in la Serena. We've tried other Peruvians in the area but this is by far the best one. Opens at 13:00, and offer great fish dishes and ceviches. Don't miss the trio de ceviches and a pisco sour. They also have some dishes that are not in the menu worth a try (salmon with passion fruit and spinach pure yum!). The service is also very good, they are friendly and welcoming. Don't miss it. You'll surely come back!
Where to eat Thai food in La Serena: The Best Restaurants and Bars
1. Jack Fish
Overall Ratings
4 based on 358 reviews
Reviewed By erniep8333
We found this restaurant on the recommendation of a waitress who lives in La Serena when she was serving us in a more touristic waterfront restaurant. The restaurant is a small "hole in the wall" with awesome fish and seafood. Daniel, the owner is a unique and fun guy. He clearly has pride in the food preparation and restaurant. His Ceviche was amazing as were the prawns we had. We both wished we were staying another day to come back and have 2 or three orders of his other Ceviche's or some of the other dishes as the food was hat good. The sushi we had was not to my taste, solely because the texture of the roll and rice was much firmer than I am used to and as such it dodn't wow me the same as the other two dishes. Specifically, the centre of the California Roll had (I believe) Abalone along with the crab, which is kind of firm, tasteless and rubbery which in my opinion didn't add to the roll and somewhat overpowered the texture. This is purely a personal taste issue as opposed to quality, but both of us thought the same thing.We had a great experieince also. Daniel's approach is somewhat unique, and perhaps not for absolutely everyone. He is playing hard rock, with no appologies or other options. He speaks English well which was appreciated as our Spanish was terrible and it made for great conversation and easier ordering choices. We recommend this restaurant for anyone that likes small out of the way places that locals know about that you wouldn't normally find on your own. We had an awesome evening and experience. I wouldn't recommend it if you are going to request any music other than rock and roll or heavy metal as Daniel will just show you the door, but we do recommend it if you like amazing and unique seafood and fish!
