Restaurant La Casa De Doña María — Restaurant in Punta Arenas

We saw reviews and thought this would be a nice, reasonably short walk, for place for good local flavors and seafood. We were not disappointing. The term Quaint is used too often but fits. This is an old house converted and there are several small rooms with a few tables each so you feel cozy. The decore is bright and nice a good homey feel. Service is SLOW. Don't take this as a negative. Anyone that has has good Spanish based food knows that service is paced and deliberate. Food is not a contest of speed but an event of socializing. Sit down. Relax. Have a Beer or Win and actually talk to the people you are with. We had appetizer, entree and desert and we spent two hours. We saw other eat quicker but we were in no hurry at all so we enjoyed the pace. All three of us had various fish meals and enjoyed them. My photos will show what we had. This place is worth the trip...

Cozy spot with little rooms that were likely once part of an old house. We ordered the Marina paella and the king crab chowder. The chowder had a lot of crab in it and was very tasty, but very rich. Discovered some interesting critters in the paella, including piure, apparently some type of sponge-rock creature with a very distinctive labor. We had to ask the server what it was, and even though they don't speak any English, they were very accommodating and we eventually figured it out. It's on the pricey side, but portions are large and we could have easily shared either one...

I had salmon with seafood, the salmon was ok (missing some salt in my opinion, but this is up to personal taste) but it was covered with shrimps, mussels and squid rings that were clearly frozen (gummy, missing taste). The dish would have been better just with salmon and side vegetables. My boyfriend ordered an octopus and it looked great but was also very gummy and hard to chew. I was expecting more from this restaurant, since we are in a seaside city. The service was good and polite, the ambient...