Baco
Montevideo’s top wine restaurantOur selection of best Montevideo restaurants. Baco is a neighborhood French bistro with fine dining flair, featuring an extensive wine list and varied by-the-glass choices.
Baco’s original location is in Santiago, Chile, where the restaurant is one of the city’s most popular spots, attracting an average of 800 customers per day. Its first branch has–lucky for us–landed this past year in the Punta Carretas neighborhood of Montevideo. The menu is similar to the Santiago location, but adapted to local tastes and ingredients. It’s South American-meets-French and mediterranean cuisine that strives to showcase the quality of its products, using clean preparations that eschew anything artificial.
Favourites on a recent visit were: huevos meurette, a Burgundian dish of two poached eggs in a deeply flavorful, bacon-filled red wine sauce, served with a warm sourdough baguette (they make their bread onsite); and ensalada chèvre, a salad of warm goat cheese, greens and tomatoes.
Owners, Sophie Le Baux and Matías Fasolo, did their due diligence before launching the restaurant including stints at a number of Montevideo fine dining classics before opening Baco.
What you should know
Go for the wine. In addition to the fun wines by the glass list, the bottle list has around 150 options, almost all of which are South American. The emphasis is on boutique wines that can’t be found in the supermarket.
Open all day. You can get a meal at Baco any time of day or night, from noon till 1am.
Servers are readily available. There’s little lag time waiting to order or for items to be delivered, which isn’t so common even in the best Montevideo restaurants. Not many staff spoke English but we understand an English-language menu will be coming shortly.
Prices
Wines by the glass 160-360
Small plates 300-500 pesos
Contact
Baco Vino y Bistro, José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín 93, Punta Carretas, Montevideo
Open daily 12 noon-midnight
Reserve by calling +598 2716 0014 or WhatsApp +598 97 017 841
Visit the Baco Vino y Bistro website and find them on Facebook and Instagram
Photos: Courtesy of Baco Vino y Bistro
Thank you for the tip! I will try and secure a booking for tonight via my hostel; I can’t see an option to reserve online, and my Spanish is basically A1.1 level.
They don’t quote prices online, what would you suggest a typical meal costs there?
Hi Jasdev, you’re not going to regret it! I would say that reservations are not necessary unless you are planning to go on a weekend after 9.30pm. But I’ll ask Sophie, the owner of Baco, to respond so that you get the full information. Best, Karen