la picada interacional (coleta de coquimbo)

(or maybe a little more)

solid, traditional chilean seafood, with a great view over the harbour. pauli had palometa a la plancha con ensalada surtida and i had albacora (swordfish) con papas salteadas. the swordfish was tasty - everything was good, but simple. with a coke, pisco sour and half a bottle of (inexpensive - undurraga rhin - nicely cold) wine, the price was a little high, at 13.200. cheaper would have won 3 stars; if you don't mind the money (this is cheap in gringo terms) and want good traditional chilean food in pleasant, unpretentious surroundings (with good service), you can't go wrong here.

afroson (balmaceda, la serena)

i think this is fairly new - a cafe/bar restaurant just behind the fire station. we've not eaten here, yet, but had drinks and a plate of cheese, olives, pepinillos, and salty biscuits. the drinks were the usual high chilean prices, but tasted good all the same. the menu looked reasonable. don't trust those three stars until we eat there, but a place like this - young, "intellectual", with live music (too late for old gringos like us) - is a real breath of fresh air for la serena. a cultural oasis in this god-fosaken town. please let this place survive! and, best of all, we bought a painting from the display on the wall at a good price (thank-you, fernando pizarro araya).

open wed-sat evenings (live music fri, sat, i think) and mon-sat at lunchtime.

hotel francisco de aguirre (pp muñoz con cordovez, la serena)

this hotel is one block down from my flat. which is pretty good news for me. the restaurant has food that's a bit more fancy than the norm, in elegant surroundings. the service attentive and courteous, and the price less than we expected. just the place for a special meal (just the place for any kind of meal, really - i'm hoping to make this a regular haunt).

i had turkey (a tad dry) with a mustard sauce (and a little pile of tasty veg and those fancy mashed potatoes in a heap that are golden on the outside); pauli had a white fish (merluza?) with a wine/tomato sauce ("tasty") and tagliatelle (an odd combination that met with approval).

we didn't order starters, but received a little plate of cheese empanadas as well as the usual bread. the price, with pisco sour and a coke, but no wine, was just over 11.000 for the two of us.

donde gladys (peñuelas, la serena)

i can't remember the price here, but it seemed good value at the time. this is one of a bunch of restaurants at the end of "la avenida del mar", after the roundabout near the casino. i had a traditional dish - white fish cooked with potatoes and carrots and tomatoes. filling and tasty. service was friendly and knowledgeable, the ambience pretty basic (a picada, i guess). pauli had a "really tasty and filling" caldillo de mariscos (seafood stew). good company too (thanks, rafael and claudia).

way prefereable to the comparatively expensive restaurants on the main beach stretch. we aim to eat here again.

el grifo (av del mar, la serena)

(or a bit more)

this is a minimarket place on the main beach road. but round the back it serves completos and fresh fruit juices. real fresh (not frozen syrups, but a shelf full of fruit). two completos with two naranja platanos came to something just over 3.000. great for a snack.

bakulic (av del mar, la serena)

this is a regular haunt for the people at work. reliable food, cheaper than tololo beach. but when we chose the menu of the day we were offered sauce which almost doubled the price. ok, so the sauce is listed on the menu and this is a pretty standard practice in chilean restaurants, but it still seemed like a cheap trick when people are ordering the menu of the day.

i can't pin down what bugs me about this place. service is never that good, i guess. above all, it's boring.

el mundial (balmaceda, la serena)

a picada. fried fish and chips. filling and tasty. double your fat intake overnight. and cheap. first went here years ago. doesn't seem to have changed much. thank goodness.

opposite the deca superarket

don coffe (balmaceda and brazil, la serena)

a little cafe opposite the church and petrol station. we stopped here one lunchtime (it's just near our flat) and pauli had the colación (fixed menu lunch) which was homemade soup and a tasty fish roll (with salad or rice).

i had a completo, which was fine, and a cup of decent black coffee. that and a diet coke came to $4.050 before tip.

hacienda los andes (between vicuña and ovalle)

previous latest addition

disclaimer: this review is based on my parents' comments (they stayed here for 4 nights) and the rating is based on the evening meal only. the accomodation was fine (although dusty), breakfast was good (with the only fresh coffee of the day) and the lunches were ok (a selection of simple plates at the hacienda or a large, if somewhat unappealing - see comments on bread below - packed lunch), and mum really enjoyed the horse riding.

the main evening meal was about $8.000 (14 USD) a head, and consisted of three courses. bread was on the table, a roll each, but was homemade (the brown bread was solid as a rock - perhaps reflecting the german owners - and the white was similar, but incompletely cooked). no drinks were included, and prices for drinks were steeper than you might expect. a carafe of the local (house) wine was $6.000 (there was cheaper, ok wine for $4.800), pisco sour (way too bitter) was $1.800, soft drinks around $700 (not so bad, but this was the price you paid all day, every day - no shop here).

first course was either a small plate of mixed salad or soup (that's not a choice, but whichever was on the menu). the main dish was a piece of meat and potatoes/rice. again, this was fixed - even to the point where you were not asked how you wanted your meat cooked (remember, you're paying 50% more than pauli and i spent at the fancisco de aguirre). one night was more adventurous - stuffed peppers and polenta - but the peppers were horribly soggy and the polenta too dry. dessert was typically a jelly/milk pudding (once unidentifiable, despite discussion amongst the international mix of guests). since my dad's not that keen on that, he asked for cheese but (despite cheese being available at the excellent breakfast) sorry, no.

compared to similar priced meals in la serena - where there's a choice of places to eat - this was, frankly, crap. the rest of the holiday sounded ok, so if you go, smuggle in some sandwiches and avoid the evening meal. and my parents - who are hardly heavy drinkers (middle class english, no beer, two bottles of the cheapest wine over 4 days) paid $30.000 for their drinks alone. so smuggle in some drinks too. as they said later - when you look at the prices on the web page, they seem ok, but when you see what comparable prices are in chile, it's way too expensive.

(and a word of warning - don't book the 4wd ride ahead of time if possible, as they won't let you cancel (this happened to another guest there, not my parents; my dad was also under the impression that it was shorter than advertised, but perhaps that's because, being unable to cancel, the person with the upset stomach was ill, forcing an early return...). and check the water availability, because that river they advertise as good for swimming in wasn't, and the jacuzzi was closed. my parents stayed for 4 days; 2 would have been more sensible.)