Restaurant in Quito, Ecuador
Quito's serious food destination. Book ahead.
Ranked #51 in South America by Opinionated About Dining (2024), Zazu is the most consistently credible address for contemporary Ecuadorean cooking in Quito. Chef Wilson Alpala's kitchen draws on coastal, highland, and Amazonian ingredients, and the 8-metre wine cellar puts the drinks program ahead of most city competitors. Bookings are accessible — go.
Zazu earns its place on the shortlist for any serious food-focused trip to Quito. Ranked #51 on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in South America for 2024 (up from #48 in 2023), it holds a consistent position among the continent's more credible addresses for contemporary Ecuadorean cooking. The 8-metre-high cellar alone makes the room worth seeing, and the fact that bookings remain relatively accessible — no months-long waitlist, no allocation lottery — means you should go. The only real scarcity factor is Saturday dinner: lunch service runs Monday through Friday only, so your Saturday window is dinner or nothing.
The first thing that registers at Zazu is vertical scale. That 8-metre wine cellar anchors the space visually and signals what the kitchen takes seriously: both the plate and the glass. The address on Mariano Aguilera 331 places the restaurant in Quito's La Floresta neighbourhood, a district with enough cultural density to justify arriving early and exploring on foot before your reservation. The room reads as a serious dining destination rather than a casual neighbourhood spot , appropriate for occasions but not so formal that it becomes uncomfortable for a solo diner or a two-leading with no agenda beyond a good meal.
Chef Wilson Alpala leads the kitchen with a contemporary Ecuadorean approach, which in practice means the country's ingredient range , coastal, highland, and Amazonian , treated with enough technical ambition to justify the restaurant's South American ranking. A full vegetarian menu option is available, which removes the usual anxiety around plant-forward dining at a meat-forward regional cuisine.
The cellar's prominence is not decorative. At Zazu, the drinks program carries genuine weight in the overall experience. An 8-metre wine cellar in Quito at this price tier signals a depth of selection that most competitors in the city do not match. For visitors arriving from wine-focused travel contexts , say, after time at Pikaia Lodge in the Galapagos Islands or Ecoventura in San Cristóbal , Zazu offers a notably more considered wine list than the Quito average. If the drinks program matters as much as the food to your evening, this is the right call in the city. Pairing the tasting progression with selections from that cellar is the intended format here, not an afterthought.
Dinner is the core experience at Zazu. Saturday dinner is the only option that day, which concentrates demand , book that slot further ahead than you would a midweek lunch. For first-timers, a Thursday or Friday evening combines the full dinner service with the relaxed pacing of a city that hasn't fully unwound yet for the weekend. Midweek lunch (Monday through Friday, 12–3:30 pm) is the lower-pressure entry point: the room is quieter, the pace is unhurried, and if you are transiting Quito rather than basing there, it fits a tighter schedule. Sunday is closed entirely, so plan around that if Quito is a one-night stop.
See the full comparison below, and browse our full Quito restaurants guide for broader context. Also useful: our full Quito bars guide, our full Quito hotels guide, our full Quito wineries guide, and our full Quito experiences guide. For comparison across Ecuador, Casa Julián in Guayaquil and MoneyGram in Ruminahui are worth knowing about. Further afield, diners who appreciate this tier of ambitious regional cooking may also find value comparing notes with Lazy Bear in San Francisco or Atomix in New York City as reference points for what tasting-format contemporary cooking looks like at its ceiling.
Yes, solo diners can eat well here. The format — contemporary tasting-focused Ecuadorean from chef Wilson Alpala — suits a single guest at the table without the social pressure of a group format. The 8-metre wine cellar makes the room visually engaging enough that you won't feel like you need company to fill the space. Book a weekday lunch slot if you want a lower-key pace.
Zazu is Quito's strongest case for contemporary Ecuadorean cooking, ranked #51 on Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in South America in 2024. The kitchen runs both a full menu and a complete vegetarian option, so you're not locked into one format. Dinner is the more considered experience; Saturday is dinner-only, which means that slot books faster than midweek. Arrive knowing the wine program is a genuine part of the offer, not an afterthought — that 8-metre cellar exists to be used.
Yes, and it's one of the few restaurants in Quito with the credentials to carry the occasion. An OAD Top 51 South America ranking (2024) and Relais & Châteaux affiliation give it the kind of external validation that matters when you're spending on a milestone dinner. The vertical wine cellar anchors the room in a way that reads as occasion-appropriate without being stiff. Book Saturday dinner if the date allows, and check the venue's official channels at zazu@relaischateaux.com to flag the occasion in advance.
The venue data doesn't confirm a bar-seating option, so contact Zazu directly at zazu@relaischateaux.com or +593 22 543559 before assuming that format is available. Given the Relais & Châteaux positioning and the room's design around the wine cellar, the experience is built around the dining room rather than counter seating.
Dinner is the fuller experience, and Saturday is dinner-only, which signals where the kitchen's focus sits. Lunch runs Monday through Friday (12–3:30pm) and is a practical entry point if you want to assess the cooking before committing to a longer evening spend. For a first visit with flexibility, dinner on a weeknight gives you the complete program without the compressed Saturday demand.
Nuema is the closest direct comparison for serious contemporary Ecuadorean cooking and likely the first name to weigh against Zazu. URKO focuses on local sourcing and ingredient-led cooking if that angle matters more to you. Tributo and Clara are worth considering depending on your format preference. Casa Gangotena sits in a different category — hotel dining in a landmark building — better suited if atmosphere and location are driving the decision over kitchen ambition.
Yes — Zazu explicitly offers a full vegetarian menu option, which puts it ahead of most comparable restaurants in Quito for plant-based diners. For other dietary needs, contact the restaurant at zazu@relaischateaux.com ahead of your visit; at this level of restaurant, advance notice is the right approach rather than arriving and asking.
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