Lo Nuestro Cafe Av. Estrada 903 | Higueras, Guayaquil 00000, Ecuador
Even though everyone on our tour told us to be careful and to not really leave the hotel, I was determined to have my last dinner in Ecuador at a local restaurant instead of at the hotel bar again. To be honest, I never felt in danger or not safe - as long as you catch a cab from the hotel and tell them to either wait for you or come back to pick you up, you'll be fine. Everyone we had talked mentioned that the best place in the city was Lo Nuestro and Allison had actually been there on her last trip to the Galapagos, so off we went! I was in love with from the moment I saw it. The outside exterior had this beautiful old school South American feel with a lovely running fountain. Even though I was there with Allison, it had this cute romantic feel.
The inside is just as adorable. I've never been to Cuba but this is exactly how I envision Cuba to be - a bit stuck in time but with a lot of old school character. The menu here is very authentic and local and extremely seafood centric - love it! Even though they had an English menu, it didn't really help too much in describing the dishes so we just winged it. We split the ceviche lo nesutro ($11.88) and the parrillada de marisco ($29.17) with a vague idea of what each one was.
The ceviche lo neustro turned out to essentially be a mixed seafood ceviche. It was gorgeously presented - split into two portions on these huge sea/clam shells and then filled with a variety of yummy seafood. It was super acidic and filled with red onion and cilantro. Amazing. There were chunks of shrimp, squid, octopus and fish fish. Everything was incredibly fresh and clean tasting. It's amazing that something as simple as cooking seafood in lime juice could taste so good. This was a total steal at less than $12.
Next we got the parrillada de marisco which essentially translates into grilled mixed seafood - so basically exactly what we had in the ceviche but in grilled form.
There was about every form of seafood you could imagine on this plate. There was jumbo shrimp, regular sized shrimp, grilled clams, squid, octopus, salmon and white fish and there was TONS of it. It could easily feed 3 people. All the seafood was grilled and charred nicely - it had this almost burned, smokey flavor to it but it wasn't burned at all. I tried my best to clean the plate since it was so good but even with my monster appetite couldn't finish it. Even though it's hard to get super full on seafood, I was uncomfortably full by the end of it.
I left the restaurant devastated knowing that it was the end of a life-changing vacation but I was so happy and grateful to had this experience. I am now totally having a massive love affair with South America. The restaurant was the perfect cap to the end of my trip and I'm so glad that I took the "risk" of leaving the hotel to explore some place local and delicious. Until next time Ecuador. Total bill: $55 for 2 with tax and tip
Cafe Colon Francisco de Orellana | Hotel Hilton Colón, Guayaquil, Ecuador
I wasn't sure if I was going to review this place since it's just the restaurant inside the Hilton but I figured what the heck, it was pretty decent. This is a bit of a mis-mosh of a review since Allison and I ate there as a pool side snack, dinner and for breakfast. Of all of those meals, breakfast on Sunday was the best - mostly because they have a huge unlimited vat of delicious, sour and tart ceviches. I know, eating fish for breakfast sounds kind of gross but I really enjoyed their ceviche and couldn't get enough of it - it had a lot of acid and they give you tons of lime on the side for you to really amp up the acidity if you want. I pretty much ate my weight in ceviche and enjoyed every minute of it. The rest of the breakfast was actually pretty good with a variety of smoked fishes, fresh fruit, eggs, bacon and carving station. You can really fill up for the day there. I'm not sure how much it cost since it was included in our hotel package but I think I read somewhere that it was $25 - which is definitely steep but if you want good quality food and have a huge appetite, you can probably cram in 2 meals into one here.
Dinner was a similar menu (although they do also have a non-buffet menu you can order from) but definitely leans more toward your standard hotel food with some Ecuadorian local dishes. I had a local chicken stew with yellow rice and fried plantains. There was a LOT of chicken in it which was nice but many pieces were over cooked and more on the dry side, even though the meat was served on the bone which usually lends to more moist meat. The stew was a fantastic red tomato base that was paired well with the yellow rice. What I love about the food in Ecuador was that everything was served with tons of avocado and it was no exception here. The avocado was a great addition to the stew and added a nice creamy texture.
All in all, given the lack of nearby walkable options, if you find yourself here for just the night before heading to the Galapagos Island, the hotel restaurant really isn't a terrible option - especially if you like ceviche.
Photo Credit: Hilton.com
El Cafe de Tere Av. Hno. Miguel Solar, Guayaquil, Ecuador
This is my first international post of 2014 and it's coming to you from Ecuador! I spent a quick 24 hours in the old port city of Guayaquil before I boarded my boat to the Galapagos Islands. I was staying at the Hilton in town and while the hotel itself is very nice, it's not located in the most convenient of locations - there is really nothing nearby and if you even try to ask about walking somewhere, they all look at you like you are crazy. So you have to take cabs everywhere. Since breakfast wasn't included in our early morning check-in, Allison and I decided to be adventurous and have breakfast outside of the hotel. Apparently there is only one local option nearby which is El Cafe de Tere. I was game to try whatever, so we piled into a cab which took us literally 5 blocks away to this super cute, giant outdoor cafe. Now, mind you it was 11AM on a Friday morning and it was completely packed with people - we were surprised at how many people were leisurely eating breakfast at a restaurant during a work day, but I guess this is South America.
Since this isn't a real tourist based city, not that many people speak English and I have a very very rudimentary knowledge of Spanish - so ordering posed to somewhat of a challenge. There was lots of pointing and Spanglish going on. Usually I am a pretty adventurous eater, but I had just come off a red-eye and gotten no sleep, so I was just really hungry and sadly ordered a ham and cheese omelet ($3.07) and a side of empandas ($1.60). Allison got an omelet too and we also split fried plantains. And yes, those are the correct prices in USD. Apparently what I should have gotten if I wanted to eat like a local was the bolon de verde, which is a ball of mashed and fried plantain mixed with cheese and/or pork, or the tigrillo con chicharron, which is plantain puree with cheese and/or pork. I totally regret not getting something more local/authentic because I can always get a ham and cheese omelet anywhere but not sure how many places in the world would have these giant balls of plantains. Oh well. The omelet itself was totally fine albeit a bit on the thin and dry side. It's not like an omelet in the American sense where it's enormous and stuffed to the gills with ingredients, it was literally some ham and cheese in a thin layer of egg. The empanadas were nice and gooey with cheese - I was a huge fan of it. The fried plantains were also delicious (although we most definitely had our fill of plantains after this trip) but what made it even more delicious was this amazing and spicy orange sauce that they served with it. It was tangy, oniony and spicy as heck.
Overall, the place was really cute, authentic, and full of locals - which is always a great sign. While I wouldn't say the food is mind-blowing, it does seem to be where the locals eat and given the crowds, very popular with them. Total bill with a papaya juice: $6.93
Photo Credit: Tripadivsor
