La Zaina Restaurant - El Calafate

La Zaina was recommended by my hotel and the restaurant did not disappoint. The ribeye steak that I had was exceptional and at a cost a third of what you would pay at a high end US steakhouse. The service was equally good. Bottom line if you 're in El Calafate, make a reservation for dinner one night at La Zaina.

La Zaina is a great restaurant in Calafate. It is located on a side street and has few seats. Therefore, you should definitely make a reservation. It has a very nice interior. The food was very tasty. Especially the appetizers tasted very good to us. The main courses were large and very good. The quality is kept very high here. Price-wise, we are on a slightly higher level. It is still okay but in contrast to other, equally good, restaurants a bit too expensive. The service was unfortunately not good. Therefore, there is also a star deduction. Very inattentive, little at the table. Also, the table was not cleaned after everywhere bread crumbs lay. It was brought the wrong appetizer, etc.. Unfortunately not up to par for such a great restaurant. Nevertheless, it is definetly worth a visit to Calafate.

We were looking for a restaurant near our AirBnb with local comfort food and a cozy atmosphere. La Zina was perfect! We enjoyed a pumpkin soup of the day, delicious empanadas (many tasty meat in a THIN chest empanada hard to find) and cure a beef and trout. The lavender flan was a very nice end to our meal. Our waiter was very attentive and it was warm and cozy in a cool evening.

The interior is very charming and reservations were easy. Unfortunately the service was poor and disinterested to the point of it being a bit absurd. We felt like we had to ask for every item including desserts and the server was not at all friendly. And please note we don’t speak very good Spanish, but we had many great experiences with servers who didn’t have a lick of English so it wasn’t that. Hostess was also coughing directly into her hands and going onto the floor/serving desserts.. a number of times. The food was fine, for the price we had much better meals elsewhere in Patagonia for a lower price. A highlight was the dessert, very interesting flavours.

Did a walk-in here at around 9pm What a lovely little restaurant! So appealing and welcoming. Fantastic food and wine, a must visit in El Calafate. We’ve been in SA for three weeks already and this place sets a high bar. Relaxed yet professional with a superb cooked to order menu with extensive red (Malbec) wine list. Good VFM!