The best restaurants Otavalo

Despite the rather cold frontage and location a little removed from the hustle and bustle, the interior of this friendly restaurant within the Hotel Doña Esther boasts a lovely, warm decor. A varied menu of wood-fired pizzas! Pasta, French, Mediterranean and Ecuadorian specialties(fritada, quinua). A small folk orchestra often plays on weekends. Breakfast service. You can also eat on the patio. Attentive staff. Dinner starts with a canelazo: succulent!

This is a very popular restaurant where you can enjoy good local food. The menu offers a wide selection of dishes: meat, fish (trout, corvina...), pasta and house specialties. Nice decoration with Andean colours and live music some evenings. Johanna is very friendly and will perhaps make you discover dishes for which she alone has the recipe, do not hesitate to ask her. The chimney is a real advantage on rainy days, take one of the nearby tables and your clothes will dry during the meal!

La Taberna is a Tex-Mex restaurant that has been open for about ten years. Run by a young Ecuadorian who speaks French (he lived in Paris for several years). Warm welcome and good small cooked dishes. We recommend the hamburgers! For more intimacy, go upstairs. One of the favorite places of travelers in the evening. Note that the parchita cheesecake, a passion fruit cheesecake is homemade and particularly tasty. Since the pandemic, it is possible to have it delivered to your hotel in less than 30 minutes.

Below, this cosy restaurant serves delicious food. The owner concocts good dishes, and we recommend the pizzas or the lasagne (also vegetarian), accompanied by garlic bread. The service is a bit slow, but there is time... Take the opportunity to order a good natural fruit juice, made on demand. The decoration could use some freshening up, but the dishes served make up for it! If you prefer to stay at your hotel, don't hesitate to have it delivered, Blue Rose has been offering this service since 2020.

In a simple yet authentic setting, you'll eat a good almuerzo of traditional dishes for a modest sum. The food is unsurprising (we tried the chicken with coke and the trout on a plank), but quite decent. The fruit and vegetables are local and often organic, like the excellent arbol tomatoes we tried in syrup - a real treat! The menu is different every day, and the day's menu is published on the restaurant's Facebook page. Smiling, attentive welcome.

Located on the first floor of a pretty colonial house, we recommend this restaurant mainly for the view it offers of the Plaza de los Ponchos from the balcony. It serves hearty breakfasts and decent local cuisine at low prices. You can also enjoy a very good canelazo, the traditional hot drink made with spices and often with added alcohol. As its name suggests, this restaurant has a lovely little terrace from which you can watch the artisans setting up or getting busy on market days.

Salinerito is a small and charming fast-food restaurant where they serve very good sandwiches and pizzas cooked on the spot, in front of your eyes. Ideal for the small munchies. Salinerito Otavalo is a cafeteria with comfortable and warm facilities where you can spend pleasant moments with family or friends. You will find a wide variety of pizzas, delicious sandwiches and snacks, as well as cappuccinos, mocacchinos, chocolates, coffees, etc. In the morning you can enjoy a delicious breakfast. Interesting address.

Facing the square of the Cloaks, this vegetarian restaurant offers you a cosy atmosphere. Very frequented by tourists.

This restaurant is located in a family house that has been carrying on the tradition for generations. Around the garden, the gallery shelters some tables where typical dishes are served in a friendly atmosphere, especially during the Yamor festival, celebrated at the beginning of September and during which the natives thank Mother Earth for all that she gives them. A typical drink, made of 7 types of corn, is prepared and you can taste it here if you are in Otavalo between the first and the eighth of September.

A must-see in this pie shop that sells the best fresh fruit pies in town (blueberry, strawberry, passion fruit, mango, etc.), and maybe even in the country! For over 25 years, the owner has been a self-taught pastry expert. Juices, breakfasts and snacks too. If you can, we suggest you try all the pies! These can also be accompanied by a scoop of homemade ice cream on request. This small coffee shop is really worth the detour for the gourmets passing through Otavalo.