In addition to hotel restaurants, Villa la Angostura offers a diversity of dining options at moderate to upmarket prices.

La Buena Vida (Avenida Arrayanes 167, Local 4, tel. 02944/49-5200) is a small homey place that serves a fine risotto. La Camorra (Avenida Cerro Bayo 65, Local 3, tel. 02944/49-5554) offers a blend of Italian, Spanish, and criollo cuisine with dishes such as stews, pot roast, polenta, focaccia, and especially risotto.

Not necessarily the area’s best, but conceivably its best value, moderately priced La Encantada (Cerro Belvedere 69, tel. 02944/49-5515, US$10–15) serves exceptional ahumados (smoked appetizers), exquisite trout empanadas, and fine pizzas and pastas, with attentive service (including savvy wine recommendations).

In the same building, Tolomeo (Cerro Belvedere 69, tel. 02944/48-8083) gets enthusiastic recommendations from locals for its European-style cuisine and intimate bar.

Set on wooded grounds, Puerto Manzano’s
Waldhaus (Avenida Arrayanes 6431, tel. 02944/49-5123, www.saboresdelneuquen.com.ar) serves Continental-style dishes like carpaccio, fondue, goulash, and raclette with a Patagonian touch. With entrées well upwards of US$10, chef Leo Morsella’s restaurant is open for lunch and for dinner (when reservations are obligatory) and has a fine wine list.

Under the same ownership as Waldhaus, La Caballeriza (Avenida Arrayanes 44, tel. 02944/49-4248, www.lacaballeriza-argentina.com) is a parrilla that has several branches in Buenos Aires, but this is the first in Patagonia. It has kept the pastas and desserts of Morsella’s previous restaurant, La Macarena.

Reservations are critical at the star of the cuisine scene, the Tinto Bistro (Bulevar Nahuel Huapi 34, tel. 02944/49-4924). Run by brother-to-royalty Martín Zorreguieta (sister Máxima married Holland’s Crown Prince William in 2002), it offers Asian-Patagonian fusion food, with entrées in the US$8–11 range. Typical dishes include appetizers like Patagonian roll with lamb dipped in honey–soy sauce and Thai-flavored pastas with shrimp and crayfish (spicy by Argentine standards). Open for dinner only, it offers the area’s finest wine list (including very expensive vintages).

Tante Frida (Avenida Arrayanes 209) is a teahouse with fine ice cream. Still the best, though, is Eiscafé (Avenida Arrayanes 40, tel. 02944/49-5671), which carries a selection of premium ice cream flavors from El Bolsón’s Jauja.