Pucon · Food

The municipal market building holds craft stalls and a few small cocinerias doing cheap set lunches — the town's own tourism directory lists eating places at Ansorena 445 inside it. A midday option only; it does not run into the evening.

Nearly every restaurant in town is on O'Higgins or one block off it, and prices climb steadily from the plaza toward the lake end. In January the menus are written for visitors, so look for the places still doing a fixed-price menú del día at lunch.

Kitchen on O'Higgins in the centre, open 25 years, cooking with local and organic produce — native grains, river fish and its own bread rather than the strip's pizza. Reservations go through its own site.

Merkén, the smoked ground chilli of Mapuche cooking, turns up on bread, meat and fish; piñones from the araucaria and lamb appear in season, and the German settler legacy is why every café sells kuchen. Craft beer is the local drink and it is brewed in the region.