2 Best Restaurants in Arica, El Norte Grande

Wicker furniture enhances the cool South Pacific atmosphere of this pleasant, open-air restaurant that literally sits above the water on stilts. The seafood, lauded by locals, is always fresh; ask the waiter what the fishing boats brought in that day. House specialties include octopus grilled in lemon and olive oil, and sea bass in the pineapple-flavored salsa amazonia.

Locals love this seafood restaurant, and for good reason. The corvina con salsa margarita (sea bass in a seafood-based sauce) is a winner, as is the paila marina, a hearty soup stocked with all manner of fish. The dreary fluorescent lights and faux-wood paneling give this restaurant on the second story of a concrete-block building an undeserved down-at-the-heels air.