Tip is included in most Chilean restaurants, and on Easter Island you’ll see a 10% surcharge automatically added at the bottom of your bill. Of course tossing a few extra coins on top is always accepted, and if you crank your tip up to 20% a huge, glowing surprised smile will fly across your servers face.

Kona Nehe Nehe

A cute little shack on the ocean in Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui. The menu has a selection of pizza, pastas, chicken, beef and seafood. The service is friendly with the kindly woman running the restaurant sitting on laps for photos and laughing along with her customers. When discovering she was out of beer, she sent her chef speeding out the lot to wrangle up a couple more cases which her family quickly returned with the stock the fridges.

Our party ordered up some ceviche, salad, carpaccio, lasagna, chicken and steaks. The ceviche was huge and delicious. Some places simply toss the fish in a dressing, this was more like a marinated ceviche with a light fresh flavour. The lasagna was, well, interesting. Chips of beef, a mild sauce and some noodles in a bowl made up the dish. Not recommended. The steaks and chicken were great, again if mildly flavoured. “Pollo/Lomo Kona Nehe Nehe”, the house method of cooking simply means a white sauce and cheese on top of the meat – a sort of white gravied poutine presentation. “Pollo/Lomo al Pobre” will get you your meat grilled and topped with 2 fried eggs.

Our table’s bill worked out to CP$104,000 (about C$210) for 8 people.

Cafe Tahai

Great place, if you like to wait. For a simple lunch of pizza, salad and tacos, we waited nearly an hour for our food. With only one other table of 2 in the place. Things happen on “island time” here. No one’s in a rush, after all – where do you need to be? Rapa Nui is the most remote inhabited island on the planet. Put your feet up and relax. You’ll need to put your feet up too, as hundreds of dogs wander the streets of Hanga Roa and will often curl up at your feet on any restaurant patio.

An hour later, after many amusing minutes watching the waitress try to wrangle her 2 year old son to stay near the restaurant and not wander into traffic, we were served the pizza salad special and a plate of taco fixins. Fresh, clean and tasty all was worth the wait.

Our bill for two was CP$20 000 (about C$40)

Kaimana Inn

There are two restaurants with traditional dances and meals, they’re live on alternating nights. We chose Kaimana . Tickets for the performance are CP$10 000, while the dinner option is either a la carte from the menu, or CP$18 000 to have traditional Curanto food.

These feasts are made by burying lava rocks in a pit, placing meat on the stones, covering them in banana leaves, and then covering them all again in dirt. It’s left to steam in this oven for 3 hours. Fish, chicken, pork and sweet potatoes are all part of this feast. The pit is cracked as the audience gathers, and the meal is served buffet style.

Most of our table sent the chicken back to be cooked a little longer. It was collected on a communal plate, reheated and returned, for us to determine whose half eaten breast was whose. Not the best experience.

The a la carte option offered a smoother selection of dishes with some back tracking on their curanto food and opting instead for a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce.

The show, however, was energetic, colourful and fun. A 5 piece band banged, strummed and sang, while 5 dancers shook their hips so fast Beyonce would cry. There was audience participation, laughs and fun.

There were some in our group that attended the other performance option and raved that it was much slicker, starred a larger band and a more professional feel to it. Matato’a also serves dinner, but has a just a show option for CP$10 000.

At Kaimana Inn, is dinner and a show worth CP$28 000 (C$56)? Nope. But despite the reviews of the other performance, I thought the show was worth the CP$10 000.

All in our tour group raved about what is widely considered to be one of the best restaurants in Hanga Roa. Huge plates of sashimi were devoured, seconds ordered and many were looking forward to having a second meal there as was planned for our Team Diabetes Marathon victory dinner.

However the issue of allergies was one that could not be fully communicated to the restaurant. With several shellfish, nut and other allergies in our group of nearly 4 dozen, assurances that safe meals would be served could not be achieved.

Instead, to the dismay of those who ate at Kaimana Inn the night before, plans were moved to that restaurant. Ammends were made. The meals were prompt, tasty, fresh and well prepared. Unlike cooking in a pit, the chef at Kaimana Inn could work a stove.

Kite Mate vs Carrito Moeto

At the town square in Hanga Roa, there are dueling snack shacks across the street from each other.

Kite Mate’s menu is simple: empanadas. Tasty, simple stuffed pastries with chicken, meat, cheese or mushrooms. Ready in seconds and a reasonable CP$2 000 a pop on average.

While Kite Mate is bathed in green, on the other side of the road is Carrito Moeto, a red shack that serves up a distinctive twist on American classics. You think Japadog is creative? How about a dog with guacamole, mustard, ketchup and mayo? That’s what this place is all about. The kitchen is crammed into a corner of the hut, and a burger and fries take a little longer than the hot dogs, but for CP$3 500, you can’t complain about this cheap and cheerful lunch option.

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Tags: food