Restaurants for your Holy Week Holidays
Photographs: Jorge Vinueza
Where will you be eating fanesca this year? Fanesca is that Good Friday all-in-one potage that drives any good Quiteño crazy… mainly because he has to wait an entire year to have it again! Some actually say the best fanesca can only be concocted by one’s own mother, and for centuries, you could not find a single restaurant serving the dish (no Quiteño would dare venture outside of his or her home to find it). Of course, that changed and restaurants have gone out on a limb to prove you can actually eat delicious fanesca outside momma’s kitchen?
If there ever was a great fanesca (at least a close second), we’d have to veer you to Hilton Colón or Casa Gangotena. Systematically ranking among the top fanesca recipes every year at the annual best fanesca in Quito tournament, the experience and taste at these signature hotel restaurants have earned them great acclaim and also turned them into our personal favorites! We certify their authenticity, their rigor (yep, they peel every grain!), their exquisite flavor… truly excellent fanescas that won’t let you down!
Other special restaurant picks for the holidays
If, however, you’d rather take advantage of the days-off to flee the processions, and the downpours, here are our restaurant picks outside Quito…
Who would imagine that the best pizza in the country came from the jungle! La Mecha is truly a fantastic find for any rural village, but in the middle of cloudforest-laden Mindo, it’s paradise found!
Or why not Cotopaxi, coupled with a 12-course avant-guard El Bulli-style tasting menú? This is a to-die-for experience in the romantic páramo mountain refuge of Chilcabamba, with, yes, warm chimneys, cozy ambience and a full-frontal view of Cotopaxi…
Or head north to Otavalo, and make it up to the perfect viewpoint of Ecuador’s cherished Valle del Amanecer (Dawn’s Valley) overlooking spectacular San Pablo Lake with mystical Imbabura looming above… Enjoy the delicate and soul-appeasing flavors of Sacha Ji, a health-and-yoga retreat like no other!
