Best Seafood Cities in South America

Last updated on December 23rd, 2020 at 02:35 pm

Have a hankering for halibut? A craving for ceviche? A fondness for flounder? A soft spot for red snapper? South America’s expansive coast make it prime real estate for pescado dishes, camarones of all kinds, and moqueca to make your mouth water. On your next South America culinary tour, make sure to splurge a little when you get to the coast, linger at a seaside restaurant, and soak in the salty ambiance of some of South America’s most-loved seafood restaurants.

Peruvian Seafood

Start your South America seafood quest in Peru, where fishing is a way of life for many coastal communities and fine seafood dining is profuse along the Costa Verde of Lima. Ceviche is one of Peru’s many delectable dishes. Made from raw fish marinated in lime juice, the dish is not complete without a topping of thinly-sliced purple onions, a lite dressing of leche del tigre, a handful of concha (dried corn kernels), and a side of cold sweet potato. La Rosa Nautica is perhaps the fanciest and most romantic of Lima’s coastal restaurants, as it sits on a pier off Miraflores, and you can dine late into the night while watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean and the tide swell under the pier.

Mistura, the annual Peruvian food festival held in Lima, is the perfect opportunity to taste all that Peruvian cuisine has to offer. For a few Peruvian soles, you can enter the food festival in the Parke de la Exposicion, and then you can choose from hundreds of restaurants and other vendors who show up to show off their culinary delights.

View our Peru Wine & Culinary Tour.

Chilean Seafood

Santiago de Chile cooks up a mean mariscal – a bowl ofchilled seafood soup – as well as a variety of pescado frito. And empanadas de mariscos are ubiquitous on street corners. Try the seafood restaurants tucked into the coastal town of Viña del Mar, and don’t forget to head over to the vineyards of Concha y Toro and others in the Santiago area. Chile isn’t shy about blending international cuisine styles, either: there’s an Osaka restaurant inside the W Hotel in Santiago that fuses Latin and Japanese cuisine. Much of the coastal areas of South America have received Japanese and Chinese immigrants over the years, and Asian dishes have had a big influence on Latin palates. View our Chile Wine & Gourmet Tour.

Brazilian Seafood

Head to Rio de Janeiro, Natal, Foreleza, Buzios, or just about any Brazilian beach town to get your fish fix in Brazil. Brazilians like to call their seafood “the fruit of the sea,” and its hard to argue that fish with a Caribbean flavor, heavy on the African influence, and grilled to perfection is nothing less than a delicious party in one’s mouth. Try the restaurant Satyricon in Rio, which boasts delicious mussels and seafood salads. A must-taste seafood dish is the moquecab, pictured above. Read about our South America Wine Tours. We would be happy to customize your wine tour to include seafood restaurants!

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