Dueling Steakhouses in Tarija, Bolivia!

Dan and I spent a few days in Tarija, Bolivia earlier this year. Located not far from the Argentinian border, Tarija has a “wine and steak” culture, similar to that in many parts of Argentina (and unlike much of Bolivia). Steakhouses are quite popular in Tarija, and Dan and I visited two, both of which seemed to be rated the highest on most “best of Tarija” lists: Casona dal Molino and Fogón del Gringo. I have no idea how accurate these lists are, but here is my review of both! If you find yourself in Tarija, I definitely recommend a meal at one of these steakhouses or something similar.

Dan and I at Aranjuez Vineyards in Tarija, Bolivia!

Before getting into the individual steakhouses, steakhouse restaurants are common in Tarija, and popular with both locals and tourists. The menus are almost always beef heavy, but we did see a couple beef alternatives, such as chicken.  The standard order at these types of restaurants is a cut of beef (from which there are many to choose), which usually includes unlimited visits to a buffet or “salad bar.” These buffets and salad bars vary by restaurant in terms of quality and options, but are usually largely vegetarian and include a number of cold dishes, such as traditional lettuce salad, olives, potato salad, and a hot bar with a few types of potatoes, rice and possibly even pasta! The buffets were refilled regularly on our visits and diners went back many, many times. Meals are also usually served with crusty garlic bread and an in-house sauce or two and wine, which is extra and ordered from a wine menu (most commonly by the bottle, but there are single-serving and half bottles for sale). Finally, while not so popular in the US, it is customary to order beef well done in Tarija! Who would have thought?! We still went rare (or “inglés”) and our steaks were always cooked perfectly.

A cheatsheet for ordering steak in Tarija. As English is not very common in Tarija, I suggest using this cheatsheet.

CASONA DEL MOLINO

Casona del Molino is one of the two most well-known steakhouses in Tarija, at least according to my internet research. The other being Fogón del Gringo (keep reading for my review on Fogón). We dined at Casona del Molino twice during our stay in Tarija, and the restaurant was excellent both visits. Casona Del Molino is located right in the heart of Tarija across from the Campilla de San Juan, which was still decorated for Easter during our visit. Casona del Molina itself is a large white building that looks like it has been around for many, many years, with a deck proudly flying the red and white Tarija flag. Inside Casona is some seating, the salad bar and the large grill room (where all the food is made), but the highlight of the restaurant is the back garden where most diners will have their meal. The garden is indeed lovely! I would strongly recommend the outside if the weather is nice.

Casona del Molino entrance.

The deck of Casona del Molino.

Campilla San Juan for reference.

Some interior seating. I loved the design.

The back garden. This was a beautiful spot for a meal.

The indoor grill room. Insanely large.

Moving on to the food, Casona del Molino has a large menu with many cuts of steak. I am not entirely sure what I ordered, but it was a HUGE steak, cooked perfectly rare on my request, that cost less than $15 USD. Crazy! Every steak at Casona del Molino is seved with a little Tarija flag, very cute! Casona del Molino also has a large wine menu, but we skipped wine as we were eating in the middle of a wine tour…

Our delicious steak.

Like at most steakhouses in Tarija, our Casona del Molino order came with unlimited visits to the salad bar, and Casona’s salad bar was something special. I have some pictures below, but they do not do it justice. On offer were an insane number of pickled things, olives, various types of cold salads, pasta, a bruschetta, and a hot bar with a really good rice/egg/vegetable dish and delicious french fries.  And that list is not at all exhaustive. Casona del Molino’s salad bar was the best that we saw, and everything was fresh and tasty.

The “pickled things area.”

More traditional salads.

Additional salads. The hot bar is in the covered portion at the end.

Like most steak restaurants, every meal also comes with crusty garlic bread and some dipping sauces (at least that is what I called them), at Casona del Molino we received an eggplant caponata, a green aioli type dressing, and my favorite Bolivia hot sauce, Llajua (found everywhere in Bolivia – made with watermelon and peppers!). These dipping sauces at Casona were particularly good!

Casona’s dipping sauces.

For reference, some of my carb heavy buffet visit. The fries were also particularly good.

After eating at Casona twice, I would certainly return to Casona del Molino and recommend it to others. The vibe is upscale, but we were fine dining in shorts and a nice top (shorts & polo for Dan). I would suggest making a reservation, especially if you want a nice table in the garden. Credit card was accepted and not many people spoke English (true in Tarija in general).

CHURRASQUERIA EL FOGÓN DEL GRINGO

Moving on to the other popular steakhouse in Tarija, Fogón del Gringo also has a great location, just across the street from Los Ceibos Hotel (where we conveniently stayed). Fogón is very well lit with the Tarija flag and colors flying strong. Fogón has a small outside area with tables and an insanely large open air grill, where you can watch your dinner being made, as well as ample interior seating, including a private room that looked for nice for a party. We were seated without a reservation on a Wednesday at 8 PM, although the place did fill up soon thereafter with locals.

Fogón del Gringo from the outside.

A small sample of the menu for reference.

Like at Casona del Molino, every meal at Fogón begins with crusty garlic bread and homemade sauces. The Llauja was particularly good at Fogón, and even more so on the garlic bread. As we ordered a huge steak for two – the Churrasco di Filete to be precise, it came with access to the salad bar and hot potato and pasta buffet for both of us. While not as photographable or large as those at Casona del Molino, the food was on the buffets was decent and replaced pretty frequently.

Fogón’s sauces and garlic bread.

Here is a small snippet of the buffet at Fogón. Its not as fancy as Casona but it was decent.

And not to forget our Churrasco di Filete, it was great! Perfectly cooked as we asked and humongous – a real steal for $24 USD. As it was Dan’s birthday, the staff brought a complimentary dessert with a candle. A very nice touch!

The Churrasco di Filete for two. This was more than enough for me and Dan.

Dan’s very sweet birthday dessert.

Like Casona, Fogón also has an extensive wine menu with a wide range of Bolivian bottles, include single glass bottles. As it was Dan’s birthday, we splurged for the Aranjuez Juan Cruz (around $50 USD), which is probably Tarija’s most famous wine. It was really great. I also had a single glass bottle of the Cabernet France from Aranjuez (where the photo of us above was taken).

The Juan Cruz Tannat. It literally won awards.

A single serving of Cabernet Franc. It’s common to serve glasses by the small “airplane bottle” like this.

All in, Fogón was also a good dinner. We again wore shorts and did not feel under dressed, although locals dressed up a bit more. Credit card was accepted and, like in Tarija generally, no one really spoke English. We still ordered and paid fine.

STEAL OUR TRIP

Casona del Molino: Loma de San Juan, Bolivar, Tarija, Bolivia. Open daily 12 – 3 and 7 – 12, except on Sunday when its only open for lunch. I suggest a reservation, even if it’s only calling earlier in the day. Casual (we wore shorts), but the locals tend to dress nicely. Credit card accepted.

Churrasqueria El Fogón del Gringo: La Madrid, Tarija, Bolivia. Open daily 12 – 3 and 6:30 – 11, except Sunday when the restaurant is only open for lunch (common in Bolivia). I suggest a reservation, even if it’s only calling earlier in the day.  Casual (we wore shorts), but the locals tend to dress nicely. Credit card accepted.

Hotel Review: Palacio de Sal, Uyuni, Bolivia.

Dan and I stayed a few nights at the Hotel Palacio de Sal in April 2023 on our trip through Bolivia.  We selected this hotel because it is super close to the Uyuni Salt Flats, looked luxurious online, and had a lovely looking pool. This article reviews the hotel and its amenities and food.

Hotel Palacio de Sal, located in the middle of nowhere.

HOTEL PALACIO DE SAL

Located just outside of the Uyuni Salt Flats in literally the middle of nowhere, Hotel Palacio de Sal self-identifies as the “first salt hotel” in the Uyuni Salt Flats. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but it is one of two hotels very close to the salt flats that I could find when booking our accommodation (the other being Hotel De Sal Luna Salada). We settled on Hotel Palacio de Sal for the sole reason that the pool looked nicer in photographs (and the pool did end up being one of my favorite parts of the hotel).

In any case, Hotel Palacio de Sal is located right on the edge of the Uyuni Salt Flats, near absolutely nothing else within an easy walk. Guests are pretty much “stuck” at the hotel unless they leave via car. This was fine, and we figured this going in. The hotel is also alleged “made of salt” from the salt flats. While it’s definitely not totally made of salt, some parts are made of salt, including the roof of our hotel room.  Salt is also featured prevalently throughout the hotel, kind of like sand often is at beach hotels. This was a cool feature!

Here is the hotel. It does indeed look outerspace-ish. The domes are all made of salt!

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A Tour Of Cape Point – A Must Do In Cape Town!

On Dan and my trip to South Africa last year, we ended our grand vacation with a day of activities on the Cape Peninsula. This was the second time that Dan and I have done a tour of this area and, in my opinion, its one of the very best things to do in greater Cape Town. The natural beauty is outstanding, and I feel like one would miss out if this area was not visited. A lot of people do this type of tour on their own with a car, which is certainly doable, but we liked having a guide and the biking portion. In any case, this is a review of what we did on our most recent trip.

PICK UP FROM HOTEL

Our morning started with a pick up at our hotel around 8:00 AM.  Our guide showed up on time in a white van with several heavy duty road bikes pulled behind. Very intense. Luckily, we had eaten breakfast at the hotel, as we would not have lunch for a looooong while (although this was the tour, not lack of food or restaurants en route).

Our trusty van for the day, along with our bicycles.

DRIVE DOWN THE CAPE PENINSULA

After pick up, we began the gorgeous drive down the Cape Peninsula, which runs along the coast and is absolutely stunning.  We did not stop for photographs due to time constraints, but I took some shots from the van. If you are doing this drive, Muizenberg is a good place to stop, very popular with surfers. Its also home to those adorable multi colored beach huts that you see in pictures! You can see surfers in the back ground of the second picture below if you look closely.

A gorgeous drive down to Cape Point.

Muizenberg Beach in the background. If you look closely, you can see SO MANY SURFERS (the little black dots).

BOULDERS BEACH AND SIMON’S TOWN TO SEE PENGUINS!

After about 40 minutes on the road, we reached Simon’s Town, South Africa. Simon’s Town is small town south of Cape Town proper on False Bay. Simon’s town is practically known as a prominent South African Naval base, but for tourists, its home to Boulders Beach! Boulders Beach is part of Table Mountain National Park, and its home to so many adorable African penguins. We parked our car in Simons Town and walked about 5 minutes (straight walk) to Boulders Beach. We paid the fee to enter (around $8.50 USD) and walked out to the beach to see the African Penguins! And we saw so many, including baby penguins that had not yet lost their brown fur! We also saw a few Dassies, or little brown mammals (similar size to a rabbit) that are close related to the elephant. Who knew?! We spent about 30 minutes at Boulders Beach watching the penguins. I would note that guests must stay on raised platforms and cannot touch, interact with or feed the penguins (they bite, and there is a fine involved if caught).

Simon’s Town – its very pretty. I would love to spend a weekend here.

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A Food Tour in Old Napoli (Naples, Italy)!

Since starting to travel to Italy over a decade ago, I had always been cautioned about visiting Naples (or, properly in Italian, Napoli). I’ve heard its dirty, rough around the edges, not pretty and at its worst, plain dangerous. I trusted that most of these stereotypes were overblown, but prior to 2022, I had only passed through the Naples train station en route to the Amalfi Coast. Well, I finally got a chance for a brief visit in May 2022, and I throughly enjoyed it. I stayed in the tourist center during this visit, but I found Naples to be beautiful, safe enough (for most tourists, a pick pocket or the crazy drivers are probably your biggest worry), and home to some absolutely delicious food. To hit some great spots, Dan and I signed up for a food tour with Eating Europe and that was a great way to eat our way through the tourist center.

Street side groceries.

We met the rest of our food tour, which was just one other family visiting from Germany, in the GORGEOUS Galleria Umberto I. Galleria Umberto I is a fabulous old shopping mall, which reminded me a lot of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milano (but with less luxury stores). I could not help but pick up a few souvenirs before our tour started… Regardless of tours or shopping, every visitor to Naples should pass though the Galleria Umberto I – its free to enter and not far from the train station and ferry port.

Entrance to Galleria Umberto I.

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