The Best Restaurants Near Diam's, by the Record
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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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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.