Mid Range Restaurants in Cuenca

From top: fine dining at the Villa Rosa, roast pig at the Gualaceo market, tasty guinea pigs before and after dinnertime. Photos by Crit Minster and a waiter at the Villa Rosa.

By Christopher Minster

Minster

Cuenca is a great place to eat.  The restaurants in the city center are diverse and appeal to every taste and budget.  The best restaurants are often associated with hotels, like the Santa Lucía or the Hotel Crespo, but they’re still quite reasonably priced, with main dishes going for an average of about $8.50 or so.  Not bad for a steak in one of Cuenca’s finest restaurants!  As in all of Ecuador, portions are generally huge.

There are also any number of smaller cafes and ice cream joints for a lighter meal.  One very popular hangout is the Angelus café, also known as “tutto fredo,” on the main square to the right of the massive Inmaculada Cathedral. 

Regional food in Cuenca is similar to that of northern Ecuador: a lot of pork, corn, potatoes and rice. Cuenca is also a good place to sample cuy (guinea pig!), and if you look as you drive around town, you’ll see women cooking cuyes on sticks over open grills.  The San Joaquín neighborhood is known for having very good barbecued meat. 

If you’re feeling very adventurous, head to the market for a meal.  There, you’ll see dozens of roasted pigs all lined up: for a couple of bucks, you’ll get a steaming plate of pork with tasty yellow mashed potatoes known as llapingachos.  If you wander up and down the market, one of the ladies may offer you a piece of crunchy pork skin, considered the tastiest part by the locals.  She’s hoping to make a sale: the prices of a plate of pork are all about the same, so the vendors try to out-do each other with flavor. Go ahead and try, if you’ve got a strong stomach: recent arrivals in country and those prone to digestive problems will want to take a pass.   

Don’t forget that in Cuenca as in all of Ecuador, 10% service and 12% taxes will be added to the cost of your meal.