Fuegia Bistro — Restaurant in El Chaltén

"Fuegia Bistro" is another high-end choice for eat in El Chálten, usually frequented by couples and groups of people. It has a classier menu and a bistro-like decoration, a cordial but slow service. We visited it on the end of last Spring season. The menu has several starter options among salads, carpaccio, quiche or ceviche, and the main dishes have some comfort and varied style of dishes, beside stews and some regional dishes, especially on the meat options, and 4 options of dessert. The wine list is very good, but as we were in El Chálten just for trekking we avoided drinking alcohol, and ordered 2 sodas.

We received an appetizer, free of charge, that consist of bread, butter and vinaigrette, and as a starter we ordered a Carpaccio and a Vegetable Soup that were both good. For mains we ordered Crepes with Spinach, Ricotta Cheese and Walnuts and a Patagonian Lamb with Grated Sweet Potatoes and Baked Vegetables. All the plates were tending to small portions, with a good presentation - all of them were lacking some seasoning (especially salt) but were good in taste otherwise.

For dessert we had an Apple Crumble and a Parfait with Patagonian Berries. The crumble was pretty usual, again tending to small portions, and not too much complex in flavors and the parfait was more an ice-cream that seemed to be just out of the freezer, for its core was frozen, solid as ice, and with a rather watery flavor.

The total value of the bill with service added was something around 45US$ - it was nice to try another place in El Chálten that had good reputation, but maybe we didn’t visited it on a nice day… the food was adequate, but nothing that stood out on the trip, plus it had the issues that I mentioned above. And the total price is a bit high to the city standards, but with nothing that really justify it. We hope to revisit it on the future and see if we get a better experience.

Reply to the Owner (11/05, 2019):

Thanks you for your reply! About the Carpaccio we can assure you that it was on the Menu - if you see the photos that I posted along with the review, we visited the restaurant on last Spring, on November 22, 2018 and among the photos I have some of the menu and of the dish in question (Carpaccio). We spent on the occasion a total of 1,870 Argentine Pesos, that was equivalent to 49.78US$ on that date. But as I said, maybe it was only a bad day - in the next year, in Autumn, we are planning to return to El Chálten and we will certainly visit your...

I have worked myself in european gastronomy over a longer time in the past years - and customer services should simply be the overall priority all to receive a feedback. However, as a customer, I had to experience a very inappropriate situation o in this establishment. I have spent the dinner with a friend there in January 2024. We both ordered - to keep the story short - we clearly ordered two medium rare steaks. However, it did not work out in kitchen obviously - mine was ok, for mine friend it was -noticable for a child - well done. We outlined the claim in a simple, clear and direct way in order to be corrected. The treatment by staff, especially the chef, was totally unacceptable. I even offered him to taste both steaks in front of me, which he refused. After a while and customer unfriendly discussions, he on his own agreed to correct his mistake. The exchanged course was brought to the table in an unacceptable attitude totally disrespecting the customer. As I am traveling a lot also with the interest to experience foreign cousine, I rarely have seen such a bad customer...

The worst experience in Argentina! First the tender did not have a clue about the wine menu. We ordered differents plates for all three of us and a bottle of wine amongst other drinks. . After a while, the tender came back to say that there was no longer trout ceviche. We waited a hell of a long time before we got our main courses. We had to claim it once after more then 50min of waiting. My piece of meat, which was ordered bloody came fully cooked with a plate of grill vegetables which we did not ordered!!! They cooked another piece of meat which took another 20min to do, certainly because it was frozen. Anyhow, when I finally got it, the taste was not good and the meat was as hard as a rock even though it was bloody, nothing like a proper Argentinian meat. We finally left the place with my meat on the plate, complaining to the guy behind the desk. He said comments are always welcome but did not seem to bother so much. And on top of that no discount…. To avoid absolutely! A...