La Zaina Cocina Patagónica — Restaurant in El Calafate

This is a charming old school restaurant that I believe has been around since the 1950s and the interior speaks of a unique Patagonian character.

Our server was very sweet and helpful, and we enjoyed our dinner, although I had the salmon which was a little bit overcooked. My husband had the beef which he seem to enjoy quite a lot. There were some cute dogs from the street who were hanging around, hoping to catch some little bits of food that might fall to the floor. I would say that the prices are a little bit high, if you are coming from other parts of Argentina, especially to the north, like Buenos Aires.

Like many of the restaurants in this area, they cater to tour groups, and there was a large group from France having dinner while we ate. This can be unpleasant as the groups tend to be noisy and if you don’t get your order in before them, you’ll have to wait a while for your food. We did not have that problem as we arrived prior to the group.

We share the spinach croquettes with aïoli as a starter and we liked them very much. We skipped dessert so we could go back and get more ice cream at Acuarela as we did every night while we were...

La zaina - nice house Malbec - rolls are gluten free, so a little dry/hard, but great to be able to get GF menu. We arrived at 18.30 and were seated, but 4 people who came at 19.14 were turned away as no table available. Then another 4, then another couple. Get in early! Skirt steak was a large 3 cut plate and perfectly cooked, the baked potatoes and chargrilled eggplant and tomato were excellent. The Guanaco was exactly as I had heard described - like a cross between lamb and beef in flavour, but not at all dry, which I had also read as a potential downfall.

All in all, mains 9/10 - simple but perfectly executed.

A coach load of 14 arrived and took up a large table, which slowed our dessert service a little. When it arrived, it was an incredibly sweet confection with multiple elements, cream, dulce de lèche, a dense rich chocolate mousse containing dulce de lèche- also some meringue and berries in the mix. VERY sweet, and hard to finish, even between two of us.

Bill was 94,210 pesos - $126 Canadian at today’s exchange rate- not the cheapest meal we have had, but by no means the most expensive, and we both felt it was...

I visited this place for my last meal in El Calafate. I walked past once but it wasn't opened so I decided to try again before leaving El Calafate. I liked the interior decor of the restaurant, its very rustic. I heard about a dish to try here and I ordered the dish, Guanaco stew with Beer. Its actually an animal in the same family as alpaca. Firstly I have to say the bread was so good. I finished the bread and was so tempted to ask for another one but I decided to save the space to finish the main and order a dessert. I also asked if there was any dessert related to the calafate and he recommended me to try the calafate semifredo. I have to say I enjoyed the meal very much. The stew was so flavourful and delicious, portion was big I almost couldn't finish it. The surprise was also the Calafate semifredo, which tasted so good I could ask for more. Brought a good ending to my stay in El Calafate, definitely recommend this restaurant to dine. Hope by eating the semifredo I will definitely be back in El Calafate again and visit this...