6 Best Restaurants in Easter Island, Chile

If you stay any length of time on Easter Island, you may find yourself returning to this inviting blue and wood restaurant on the waterfront with an expansive ocean view. The portions of fish, meat, and pasta are generous, and the service is efficient. Try any of the ceviches or on a cool evening the Thai fish soup, which is a meal in itself. The restaurant specializes more in mixed drinks and beer than wine, which is sold only by the bottle.

This Belgian-Polynesian restaurant serves some of Easter Island's best food from the fish- and meat-based menu. Try the seared tuna with Tahitian vanilla sauce and one of the many chocolate-based desserts. There are no longer dance performances at the restaurant, but the owner sends patrons to her brothers-in-law's show with Grupo Maori Tupuna at Vai Te Mihi events center next door.

This airy, colorful café serves the island's best homemade cakes, including a fantastic cheesecake and fruit pie. The coffee is also better than most on the island, with beans sourced from major international roasters. You can refresh yourself with their range of fresh juices and smoothies. They also stock a few staple products such as boxes of tea and cereals.

This restaurant draws in patrons with its unbeatable, secluded views from the point of Caleta Hanga Roa, seen from the deck by the breaking waves. Seafood dishes can include prawn curry, warm fish salad, and the grilled catch of the day. You might prefer to linger over a drink at sunset rather than having a full meal here if you're trying to keep costs down.

This coffee shop with outdoor seating down on the jetty does swift business with hungry divers coming off the boats, locals needing coffee, and kids in search of after-school ice cream for 1,500 pesos. Those ice-cream flavors include strawberry and cream, the unusual pepino (a melonlike fruit), and occasionally, island-specific flavors like tipanie (a flower). Guava, which grows wild in summer, is another tasty ice-cream option.

At Hanga Piko, the next bay south from Hanga Roa, this delicious, all-fish restaurant is worth the 15-minute walk. At 6,000 pesos, the set main course at lunchtime is a good value, but the large portions of ceviche to share are even more popular. The bay, where most of Easter Island's supplies are brought ashore, is not exactly pristine—it's the most industrial area on the island—but it's a prime place for spotting turtles on your way in or out of the restaurant.  The view from the restaurant is spectacular over the ocean, but can be breezy.