The Best Restaurants Near Crux Cocina, by the Record
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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 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 3. 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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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.