How to Find Fabulous Food in the Galapagos

We asked almost everyone we met - locals, guides, and fellow travelers, for food and restaurant recommendations. Here’s what we learned!

Santa Cruz

Royal Palm Restaurant

We stayed at the Royal Palm in the highlands of Santa Cruz for two nights, but only ate dinner there once. The menu didn’t have prices, which is always a little scary, but the people who came it after us just asked for the prices (we should have done that!) and they were pricey, but not outrageous (I think all inclusive cruises may include dinner here). The food was really good. I asked for my tuna to be prepared rare, and it was perfect. Actually rare. Bela loved her potato soup and the seafood pasta was similarly excellent. The service was great, and the water is free. Side note: usually water does not come with your meal. We got in the habit of bringing our refillable water bottles with us everywhere and just used those. No one seemed to mind, and it saves money and avoids plastic waste.

The breakfast was very good as well and is included with your stay. They have both American and Ecuadorian choices. Ceviche for breakfast? Yes please! The service for breakfast the first day was great, not so much the second day. Oh well - the food made up for it. There was plenty of food, which was nice since we had very active days. The girls drank a lot of hot chocolate and juice!

Dessert. I wouldn’t recommend the Royal Palm for dessert. We went after our dinner at Binford street because we were still a little hungry. The dessert was just okay, but quite expensive. We paid almost as much for dessert as we did for our meal the previous evening. The servings were huge, but I think the best place on the island for dessert that we tried was:

1835 Coffee Lab

This place is awesome. It is also tiny, but the atmosphere, food and coffee are spectacular. Isabela had a passionfruit cheesecake that was so good that I think she would go back to Santa Cruz Island just to have it again. They have a farm in the highlands that produces the coffee beans and they are all about organic, local and sustainable practices. Desserts and pastries are the only food that they offer, but if you are looking for a cool place to grab a snack and a fantastic coffee, this is the place. Highly recommended.

Sol Y Mar on Binford Street

Grilled octopus at Sol Y Mar - Binford street (Avenue of the Kiosks).

We had read all about the food kiosks along Binford Street and they are certainly fun. We tried Sol Y Mar the first night and I’m going to give it an “Eh”. We really like the blog “Practical Wanderlust” and they had recommended it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I don’t know if it was because we went too early, or what. Everyone in the Galapagos seems to eat much later. It is kind of funny, since when we are at home, we eat around seven most nights, and we’re fine with that. Here, we got hungry earlier and no one was open. When we arrived, there were vehicles driving down the street. At 6pm a bell rang and suddenly everyone was putting tables and chairs on the street. Apparently, this happens every night. One thing to be aware of – just because something lands on your table – for example salsa in a little bowl, or plantain chips, doesn’t mean that it didn’t come from another table. I put some salsa on my rice and was a little startled when we were leaving because they cleared our table and just moved the salsa bowl to another table. I am going give that a great big ick. We had fish and octopus, the plates were a little too small to share, but we didn’t order anything else. Instead we went back to the Royal Palm for dessert. See above.

Santa Cruz Brewery

The brewpub that the Santa Cruz Brewery operates in Puerto Ayora is great. They have breezy shaded rooftop seating that has a great view of the birds and tourists flocking around the fish market and the harbor. The beer is pretty good too. The first time we were there only two kinds of beer were available, a honey and a red ale. The honey tastes a lot like a mead, and the red ale was pretty standard. The second time, they had six beers available and brought us a tasting flight as soon as we sat down (they had us pegged by that point). We were impressed. The porter was smoky – really good. The Guayacan had a strong acid profile, almost citrusy. The brew-master was there, and we tried to ask what he used to get that flavor, but the language barrier was too strong. We did find out that it is very hard for them to import ingredients. There are a lot of regulations in place to protect the island, and the process is slow. We didn’t come across any island beers that are very hoppy at all and this (from what we could understand) is the reason. Side note: we never came across a hoppy beer in all of Ecuador – that didn’t stop us from trying! The Gringa surprised me, I didn’t expect to like it at all. It looked like a fairly light beer, and from the name, I guess I thought it would be a bit of a wimpy beer. I was wrong; it wasn’t full bodied at all, but it had a really nice dry finish. Great beer for hot weather. The Double IPA was good, but not super hoppy. It had a dry finish too. The girls tried mango juice there for the first time and absolutely loved it. From then on, they tried the mango juice almost everywhere they went - however they decided that Santa Cruz Brewery had the best. As for the food, we only ever had a snack there although they do offer a decent menu. We highly recommend it as a great place to hang out and get a beer and mango juice! Note regarding juice – only processed food can be brought to the islands, so if you order fruit juice, and it is not native to or currently farmed on the island, it is probably from concentrate, such as the mango juice we liked so much.

A beautiful view to enjoy a local craft beer.

Proinsular Supermarket

The supermarket has a little café above it that has a great view, and basic food. The tuna sandwiches that we got to go one day when we were on the run were quite good. We ate at the café another time and Isabela and I chose the vegetarian sandwich. The description on the menu sounded great – cream cheese and olives with avocado. In reality, it was mostly bread and olives with a small amount of guacamole and the suggestion that the olives had been near cream cheese at some point in the process– there was a semi white film on the olives at least. I would say stick with the tuna sandwiches. Basic but decent. We would go back for a quick lunch option, or to get sandwiches to go, but probably just the tuna.

We also purchased some supplies at the supermarket. There was an absolutely enormous bag (approaching gunny sack size!) of animal crackers there. I am not sure under what circumstances that would be useful? However, they did have excellent chocolate, charcuterie, local beer and some pretty good cheeses. We also bought some pastries (okay), bread with fruit in it (good), and yogurt for breakfasts. What else do you need? If we would have stayed in a place with a kitchen for more than two nights, I would probably have gotten some more staples like rice and pasta and tried to make supper. Overall on the islands, I never made supper. Too lazy I suppose. We made breakfast several times, eggs, yogurt, bread and fruit were all pretty easy. Lunches weren’t too hard either, but there were so many places to try eating out - it was too tempting!

Angermeyer Waterfront Restaurant

This restaurant is part of the Angermeyer Hotel, which is over in the Punta Estrada neighborhood. It is only accessible from Puerto Ayora by water taxi, there are no roads or even hiking trails that go over there. We probably wouldn’t have even tried it, but we were stayed in that neighborhood for one night and it was raining a lot - so taking a water taxi back to town didn’t have much appeal. It was very good food, not cheap, but very good. The view is great too, they have a deck that is right on the water. We had read that you can sometimes see sea turtles swimming by, but it was too dark and rainy. We would probably go back, but only as a treat, since it was pretty expensive, especially when you need to budget for a month of travel.

Restaurant TJ - Binford Street

Brujo, aka Scorpion fish, kind of ugly, but really tasty!

We decided to give Binford Street another try; we went quite a bit later in the evening. We asked for suggestions from our Airbnb host, but the one that she suggested was totally empty and the women that were there didn’t seem to care at all, and we realized the chef was out for the night, so they were just serving out of warming trays. It just wasn’t a great vibe. So, we walked up and down for a bit and ended up at Restaurant TJ. We ordered shrimp in garlic sauce with rice and a whole grilled Brujo fish. Yum. A lot of the kiosks have Brujo fish set out to try and tempt you in. Prices vary based on the size of the fish. We picked out a pretty big one, and along with the shrimp, it was plenty of food for the four of us. The shrimp weren’t anything that special, but the fish is very good. Brujo is also called scorpion fish and it is pretty ugly with bulging eyes and orange skin with black spots, but boy are they tasty. We had it prepared a number of different ways when we were on the island, and it was really good each time. We would go back. To be fair, the Sol y Mar kiosk didn’t have this fish out until we were leaving the restaurant, so it is possible that they prepare it very well too. I just don’t know.

The Rock

This is a fairly highly rated place on TripAdvisor (4/5) and is mentioned in both Lonely Planet and the Moon Galapagos Guide. I am going to give it an “Eh”. It was fine. I thought it was overpriced for what you get, the service was super slow, it’s so loud that it’s hard to carry on any conversation, and the food was decent, but not great. We wouldn’t go back. We had the calamari appetizer and split the grilled seafood platter and the grilled tuna. There aren’t any pictures of the food because by the time it came, we were so hungry that we inhaled it. They did have live music for a tour group that came in while we were there – it basically just added a bunch of noise to an already noisy restaurant. The other thing that I don’t like about this restaurant is that they seemed a little dishonest. We knew that lobster season had ended right before we arrived, but we thought that the langostino was still in season (it wasn’t). The Rock had a picture with lobster and langostino on it outside, so we asked about it. “Oh yes, we have lobster!” “Really??” “Yes! Yes!” “Okay.” Then our waiter recommended something with lobster in it and we ordered it, only to be told that they did not in fact have any lobster. It is out of season. Aargh. I feel like they just told us that they had it in order to get us in the door. I would say however, that our waiter did his best to be helpful. He steered us toward a combination of dishes that he felt would be our best option. I did feel like he was trying. I guess it just wasn’t our thing.

Rolls and Pops – Galapagos Artisan Ice Cream

Very good ice cream. The girls give this place two thumbs up. It is by far the best ice cream that we found on the Islands. As of this writing, we are in Banos and still haven’t found ice cream that compares. We’ll see. (We never found ice cream that was that good again).

Isabela Island

Shawarma Hot Restaurant

This was our favorite restaurant on Isabela Island. It has a fun atmosphere, with an open-air upper story that is fun for people watching. We ate there several times because they had great food and great prices. They had a great almuerzos as well. Almuerzos are set lunches. This term confused me for a while, but it basically means that they have set things already prepared for lunch, the only thing that really differs is the protein. No matter which protein you chose, everyone gets the same sides, juice and soup. I particularly liked the Octopus Ceviche on their regular menu. Many of the items are large enough to split – at least with a child or between two children. They also have good juices, smoothies and milkshakes. Bring cards or something else to do. Service in Ecuador is just slow – we played a lot of cards. Highly recommended.

Relaxing, open-air seating on the second level at Shawarma Hot Restaurant.

Endemic Turtle

Endemic Turtle was hit or miss. The first night we went we got the seafood pizza and the girls got the Crunchy Tuna with Creamy Risotto. The pizza was good, and the girls loved the Crunchy Tuna and Creamy Risotto. The second time we were there the girls were smart and got the same thing. I tried the sautéed shrimp. Not a great choice – small and rather insipid. Jake had a fish taco that was really small, so he ate part of my dinner as well. Also, both times the service wasn’t awesome, but the second time it was really, really slow. Plus, they had some tables reserved, so they stuck the four of us on a tiny three-foot table in a mostly empty restaurant. It felt really weird. A lot of the reserved tables hadn’t shown up by the time we left, so it was just an awkward situation. I know that this wasn’t really their fault, but it just seems like it could have maybe been handled differently. Anyway, I don’t think that we would go back. I like consistently good food and to feel like I am an important customer as well as those who have reservations.

BJ’ Beach Club Bar

Nothing a margarita near the beach on a hot afternoon!

This isn’t really a food place, but it was awesome for drinks on the beach. The service is great, the drinks are great, and we’ve heard the coffee is great too, but since their coffee machine was broken the entire time we were on Isla Isabela, we don’t have personal experience with their coffee. The girls had cold coconuts one day and when they were finished drinking them, they asked if he would split the coconuts for them so that they could try eating the meat – no problem! He split them with a machete – fun.

Coco Surf

Really good food. A little more expensive, but excellent. The chairs are cool looking, but not super comfortable, which makes enjoying the food a little more difficult, but still a great experience. Seared tuna with sesame seeds is highly recommended, as is the Carapachudo. Both really good. We would definitely go back.

The Booby Trap

This is a difficult one. It has a great location with a fabulous view of the beach from the upper story. It is also decorated very well, and what we had of the food was good. Now for the downside. We had been wandering down the beach for a while trying to figure out where to get a snack and a beer. Jake was off by himself taking pictures and the girls and I were meandering along. We paused in front of the Booby Trap restaurant when we were approached by a guy who looked like a fellow tourist. He told us that the food there was very good and that we should try it. He recommended the chef and told us what time it opened. Cool. We had heard other people say that they heard it was good too. Later we stopped back, and he was there. I thought he must just hang out there a lot. Then he brought over our menus. Turns out he owns the place - It felt disingenuous of him not to tell us his relationship with the restaurant. We had some small beers and an order of ceviche and left. If he would have been upfront with us, we may have eaten dinner there, but we all felt a little angry about being misled. Anyway, could be a great place to eat, but I wouldn’t go back.

San Cristobal

Midori

We tried to eat mostly Ecuadorian food, but sometimes you just feel like something different, so we opted for some sushi. It was fine. It has a great view from the upper story and a fun vibe. The flavors of the rolls that we got were fine. Not great. The crab rolls had imitation crab. It was a still an enjoyable evening, but if you like good sushi – skip it.

Muyu

Excellent restaurant! They have really gone the extra mile to bring out the flavors of the island and promote sustainable practices. They bill themselves as a “Farm, Forest and Sea to Table Restaurant”. The downside is that it is expensive, not terribly expensive, but enough. We were gone for a month, so we didn’t want to spend that much every night, but I think that it was definitely worth what they were asking. The presentation of the food is spectacular, and the service is excellent. The food itself is superb as well. Jake had the Pacific Spotted Scorpionfish (Brujo) and they prepare it three different ways on the plate, all of which were outstanding. I had the Seared Tuna, and the girls had the fish of the day – Brujo (are you sensing a theme?). For starters we had Ceviche and Artisanal Bread. Overall, a fantastic meal. I was so full that I asked for a to-go box. They are pretty serious about their commitment to the environment. I had to rent a Tupperware that I could return later to get my money back. I didn’t have a problem with this at all, but just be aware. The have breakfast and lunch menus that looked really good too and had good prices, but we didn’t try them. Highly recommended.

Calypso

This is an ice cream/coffee/dessert place. They have some food, but we didn’t try it. It is located right by the sea lion beach across from the San Cristobal sign. It is a cute little place, but the service is super slow. Service all over Ecuador is slow, but we almost left because we felt that she had forgotten about us. The place was nearly empty too. We were there twice and only tried the milkshakes, ice cream and chocolate cake. It was all pretty decent. It is a fun place to people watch. 

Nativo

This is a cute little place that is right on the beach. It is a little smelly from all of the sea lions – but that is true of most of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Having a marine iguana wander by several times defending his territory is worth a little stink. We just had juices there. They have food and other drinks, we just felt like taking a little break. The juice was very good. The service was very friendly, and the view is excellent. We’d probably go back.

Fresco Café

Wonderful place! They have great reviews on TripAdvisor, so in spite of being burned other times, we tried it out. I am so glad that we did! They are a vegetarian restaurant, which didn’t appeal to Jake or the girls at first, but it quickly became their favorite restaurant on San Cristobal. They have been open for two years (as of early 2019), and the woman who runs it with her husband is from Australia originally and married a local. We went there for breakfast twice and once for lunch. The coffee is excellent. The service is super friendly, and the food is fabulous. On Saturdays they have homemade waffles. The girls were disappointed when they didn’t have waffles on a Tuesday, but they were comforted when their dad told them they could have carrot cake for breakfast instead – the big softy. The avocado toast with eggs was the grownups choice and it was great. We also had lunch there once, and it was so, so good. She said that it was the first time she had made the quinoa salad, and she knocked it out of the park. It was so full of flavor – everything about it was perfect. I scarfed it down and wouldn’t share. I am craving it right now. Sooo yum. Highly recommended.

One of the best vegetarian meals I’ve ever had at Fresco Cafe. A lovely place to eat!

Sabor Cuencano

This bakery is apparently the place where everyone on the island gets their bread. It’s okay. We didn’t find much good bread in all of Ecuador. To be fair though, good bread isn’t that easy to find in the USA either. (There was a place in Quito that had good pizza that looked like they had good bread, but we didn’t try it.) The one thing that this place has going for it is that they have coffee and they open at 6am. This makes it pretty much the only place to grab a quick something for breakfast if you have an early tour. I would recommend buying fruit and yogurt the day before instead. The day-old bread they have available at six is pretty subpar. We tried it during the day too and got an assortment of breads and pastries to try. Eh.

El Descanso Marinero

Very touristy restaurant, very cheesy décor, etc. but very good food and lots of it. We went there twice. The first time we had a whole fried Brujo fish and their Seafood Rice. It was all excellent, and huge! We brought about half of the Seafood Rice back to our apartment. The second time we were just going to have a big Brujo fish for the four of us, but they were all out of the big ones, so we got two smaller ones. We managed to finish them, but just barely. The service was good and so were the prices. Highly recommended – in spite of the décor.

La Zayapa

Horrible. Really, really bad. The service and food were both awful. We paid $28 for breakfast and feel like we got robbed. The food took forever and when it finally came, the pancakes were raw inside, and the eggs were so salty that they were inedible. Tiny portions. Jake says don’t eat here even if you are starving. Terrible.

Mockingbird Café

This place has $5 almuerzos. I think that pretty much says it all. For $5, I think you get decent food. We all had the fish. It was just fine. Worth the $5. We were satisfied.

Pescado set lunch at Mockingbird Cafe - simple, inexpensive and good!

All in all there is a decent amount of choice on the islands for all different price ranges. I feel like I either really liked a place or was kind of hard on it, but as always – your mileage may vary. Good luck and happy eating! If you get to the Galapagos and have recommendations, or your own experience with these places to share – we would love to hear from you!