Ecuadorian Food and Drink

There is no single Ecuadorian cuisine, and pretending otherwise is how a visitor ends up eating the same three dishes for a fortnight. What there is instead is a highland kitchen, a coastal kitchen and an Amazonian one, and they use almost entirely different ingredients.

The highlands

• Llapingachos. Fried potato cakes stuffed with cheese, served with peanut sauce, chorizo, avocado and a fried egg. The definitive highland plate.
• Hornado. Whole pork roasted slowly and carved to order at a market counter, served with mote, the large hominy maize that appears with almost everything in the south.
• Locro de papa. Potato and cheese soup with avocado. Ecuador has a startling number of potato varieties and this is where you taste them.
• Fritada. Pork simmered and then fried in its own fat, with maize, plantain and potato.
• Cuy. Roast guinea pig, eaten in the highlands since long before the Spanish arrived and still a dish for a celebration rather than a weekday.

The coast

• Ceviche. Ecuadorian ceviche is not Peruvian ceviche. It is served loose in its juice, often with tomato, and shrimp ceviche is usually cooked rather than raw. It is eaten with popcorn and plantain chips on the side, which sounds odd and is excellent.
• Encocado. Fish or shrimp in coconut milk, the signature dish of the northern coast and the clearest taste of Afro-Ecuadorian cooking.
• Encebollado. Tuna, yuca and pickled onion in a light broth. The national hangover cure and a breakfast in its own right.
• Patacones and bolon. Plantain, twice fried or mashed with cheese and pork.

The Amazon

River fish wrapped in leaves and grilled, yuca in many forms, heart of palm, and fruit you will not have seen before. Most visitors eat in a lodge, where the kitchen cooks a version of this for guests; ask for what the staff are eating and you will usually get something better.

Drinks

• Coffee. Ecuador grows good coffee and has historically exported all of it. That has changed and the cities now have serious cafes, but a rural restaurant may still serve you instant.
• Chocolate. Ecuadorian cacao is among the best in the world and the fine aroma varietals are a genuine reason to leave space in the bag.
• Canelazo. Hot sugarcane spirit with cinnamon and naranjilla. A highland evening drink and the correct answer to a cold night in Quito.
• Juices. Tree tomato, naranjilla, guanabana, maracuya. Ordered at any market.

Water, and the ordinary precautions

Drink bottled or properly treated water, and use it for brushing your teeth outside the better city hotels. Ice in an established restaurant in a city is generally made from treated water and ice at a roadside stall generally is not. Peel fruit you have not seen washed.

Market food is one of the best things about eating here and is worth doing rather than avoiding. Choose a stall with a queue of local customers and food that is visibly hot and freshly cooked, and you will be fine. Rehydration salts in the bag are a sensible precaution anywhere in the region.

For where the market days fall, see the festivals guide; for what things cost, the money guide.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Ecuador traveler health: yellow fever vaccine recommended for travelers aged nine months and over going below 2,300 m east of the Andes in Morona-Santiago, Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Sucumbios, Tungurahua and Zamora-Chinchipe, generally not recommended west of the Andes and not recommended above 2,300 m; malaria transmission below 1,500 m in Cotopaxi, Esmeraldas, Morona-Santiago, Orellana, Pastaza and Sucumbios with rare cases below 1,500 m elsewhere, no transmission in the cities of Guayaquil or Quito, and no transmission on the Galapagos Islands. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Ecuador health: the emergency medical number 911, the limited medical facilities in the Galapagos Islands, and the advice that travel insurance should include air ambulance evacuation. Accessed 17 September 2026.