Resto-Bar Huentelauquén
Av. del Mar 4500
Cuisines: Italian
About
This laid-back, ebullient restaurant has an extensive Italian menu served in a cozy and artistic setting. The dining area sits in a semicircular space built around several polished tree trunks and a central steel fireplace. Illuminated at night under conical lamps, most tables have windows facing the ocean, but you can also sit outside, either on top of the building itself or facing the sea. It's the imaginative varieties of oven-baked pizzas that draw the crowds, but the salads, which are composed of a bounty of fresh ingredients from the Elqui Valley, are as wholesome as they are delicious. The homemade pastas are decent, if rather rich. The restaurant gets its name from a unique cheese produced in the hamlet of Huentelauquén, about 200km (125 miles) to the south, and it's a great addition to all the Italian dishes. Huentelauquén is also very kid friendly; children will love to clamor on the playground wooden ship in between munching on pizza and tasty empanadas.
