The Top 18 Places to Eat Near The Vines Resort & Spa
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The gravity winemaking system at DiamAndes, where juice flows by physics alone, sets the tone for what comes out of the kitchen above it. This winery restaurant sits on the first floor with the Andes on one side and vineyards on the other, and the chef matches the view with creative tasting menus that fold in a cellar tour. The Michelin Guide lists it, and the property ranks among the World's 50 Best Vineyards.
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Rank 2. Cal
Organic New American
The open kitchen lets you feel the fire from your seat on the covered terrace, which sets the tone for what follows. Cal is a tasting menu restaurant on a working organic estate southwest of Mendoza, where vegetables, meat, and wine all come from the land around you. The seven courses are organized around the landscape itself, from the kitchen garden to the Andes. It holds a Michelin star.
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A terrace over a carp-filled lake in Valle de Uco, about an hour from Mendoza, sets the scene for this winery restaurant at Alfa Crux. The Irish chef runs a six-course tasting menu built around fire and local product, with meat doing most of the heavy lifting. The Mendoza landscape and a tour of the cellar with three pours come folded into the experience, which makes the drive feel less like a commitment and more like the point.
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The dining room sits inside the Catena Zapata winery, a building shaped like a Mayan pyramid, and the kitchen takes the concept one step further: every dish is designed around wine, not paired with it after the fact. It's a Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurant where the two chefs cook through the flavors of Mendoza, and the meal begins with a walk through the winery and a vermouth in the distillery, which is a hard opening act to follow.
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Rank 5. Riccitelli Bistró
New American
Repurposed shipping containers set among old vines in Luján de Cuyo, which is either the most on-brand thing Mendoza has ever done or just a great idea. This Michelin-starred fine dining room, from the Riccitelli winery, sends chef Juan Ventureyra's tasting menus through Mendoza's culinary roots, with the kitchen's own gardens doing most of the heavy lifting. Vegetables lead, protein follows, and a winery tour comes with the meal.
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Rank 6. Awasi Mendoza
Argentine Barbecue
Candlelight flickers over a single tasting menu built around the Tradicional Asado Argentino, a format that commits the kitchen to Argentine and regional cooking and nothing else. The chef trained at Awasi Iguazú and leans on a kitchen garden to keep things honest. Vineyards run to the window and the Andes fill the rest of it. A vegetarian version is available for anyone who'd like the view without the ribeye.
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Zonda sits inside the Lagarde winery in Luján de Cuyo, and what's on your plate was likely growing in the estate's organic gardens that morning. It holds a Michelin star for cooking that starts with that kind of simplicity and ends somewhere more refined, the regional Argentine pantry rendered through careful technique and delicate presentation. The dining room has that rustic-elegant winery feel, and the terrace looks out over the vines.
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Rank 8. Brindillas
Modern New American
In a corner of the Luján de Cuyo wine country that nobody would photograph on purpose, this intimate tasting-menu restaurant holds a Michelin star. The chef trained under Carme Ruscalleda and brings that precision to Mendoza's local larder, running two menus, short and long. The room is small enough that service feels like attention rather than performance.
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A winery restaurant on a sprawling Agrelo estate, with the Andes sitting there across the vines like they're on the menu too. The name comes from a Mapuche legend about women who had to look away from a handsome god, which sets a certain tone. A multi-course tasting menu moves through the seasons without getting precious about it, and staff will happily park you at an outdoor table with empanadas and a glass before things get going.
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A glass floor in the dining room looks straight down onto wine barrels aging below, which sets the tone for a bistro that exists as much to extend the winery experience as to feed you. The drive in via a dirt track through the vineyards, past a duck pond, earns you a single three-course menu built around seasonal Mendoza producers. It's a long way from the city, but the kind of lunch that makes the dirt road feel like part of the point.
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Lunch at a winery restaurant with the Andes sitting just behind the vines tends to put you in a good mood before the food arrives. This tasting-menu spot on the Norton wine estate leans into Mendoza's pantry, cured trout, river crab, goat's cheese, and marinated pork built into menus that pair each course with wines from the cellar below. A post-lunch visit to that cellar, reportedly the largest underground one in South America, is not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
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Tucked into the Lamadrid Estate Wines bodega in Las Compuertas, this winery restaurant takes its name from bocce players, a nod to its mission of reviving Mendoza's culinary traditions. Picture windows frame a landscaped garden, and the menu leans into charcoal-grilled meats and regional classics. Chef Lucas Olcese also runs a tasting menu, four or seven courses with estate wine pairings, for when you're in no hurry to leave.
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A glass cube with a thatched roof, ringed by vineyards at a family winery, gives you a decent sense of what 5 Suelos is going for. This tasting-menu restaurant is run by two brothers who made their names in wine, and the cooking leans deep into the farm around it. Menus run from a concise three-course to a full fourteen-course paired progression. The house-made vermouths that open the meal set the unhurried tone early.
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A lakeside terrace looks out at a Tuscan-inspired stone tower and the Andes beyond, which sets the tone for a meal that feels more like an itinerary than a lunch. This winery restaurant at Renacer bodega in Luján de Cuyo moves guests through the fermentation tanks and barrel room before seating them for a set menu of two, three, or five courses. Picnics and informal cheese-and-ham spreads round out the options for anyone not ready to commit.
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A family of foxes wanders the garden, which tells you something about the mood here. Set inside a wine hotel in Luján de Cuyo, this contemporary restaurant looks out over vineyards and the Andes, and a cavernous room draped in greenery is where guests leave handwritten notes on the walls. The kitchen leans into Mendoza's larder across both à la carte and set menus, with a chef who takes the local landscape personally rather than decoratively.
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Rank 16. Fogón Cocina de Viñedo
Argentine Barbecue
The grill is the center of gravity at this winery restaurant inside Lagarde's estate in Luján de Cuyo, a half-hour outside Mendoza. Ribeye, tri-tip, and T-bone anchor the à la carte, though tasting menus with estate wine pairings are available for those who prefer the full production. High ceilings, an open kitchen, and the option of lunch outdoors among the vines make it hard to rush. Basically a convincing argument for skipping Mendoza proper.
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A tree-lined track through an Alta Vista vineyard leads to this winery restaurant where French ownership and Argentine terroir have been folded into a single philosophy. Two dining spaces divide the experience: one leans creative and tasting-menu formal, the other is built around a parrilla grill. Surprise tasting menus come with optional wine pairings, and the kitchen describes its cooking as "from the Argentinian soil and French sky," which about sums it up.
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The conservatory-style dining room sits inside a winery but keeps its eyes on the garden through picture windows, which sets the mood immediately. Chef Javier Quinteros runs a modern tasting-menu restaurant where the cooking pulls from Italian, French, and Japanese impulses without making a fuss about it, letting bright seasonal plates do the convincing. The wine list, naturally, runs deep.