La Paz

Travelers' Takes

Rates and Deals

La Terraza

More Photos
SeenThat
SeenThat
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
4
Photos
Editor Pick

La Terraza

  • February 16, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by SeenThat from Tel Aviv, Israel
La Terraza

La Terraza is a European café in an Asian-looking city oddly placed in South America. You can spend hours solving the world’s problems, writing your next book or just having a good cup of coffee there; in fact you can perform those three activities together for the same price while the crowds fight for a standing place on the nearby avenue.

Branches

The main branch of the classiest coffee-shop in La Paz is conveniently located in El Prado; La Terraza has other branches in La Paz, in the Sopocachi and Calacoto neighborhoods; however the one in El Prado is the most attractive and easy to find.

Euro-bricks

The grey and green stylish building was constructed in 1916; it was styled in a nineteenth century European fashion as many of the La Paz buildings constructed in that period.

Despite facing La Paz’ main avenue, its interior rooms are pleasantly silent since the structure was smartly isolated from the street, offering thus a merciful break from the outer noise.

Décor

The branch in El Prado includes four interconnected small rooms, which provides a rather pleasant ambience. The inner one includes a cables television set.

La Terraza’s interior walls are decorated in soft pastel colors and with posters related to coffee’s production and consumption. The rooms are filled up with metallic chairs and tables whose upper side is made of clear glass appropriately covering a layer of coffee beans.

In spite of their beauty, the small tables were designed for holding just a cup of coffee; if it is accompanied by a piece of cake or by one of the meals offered, then simply there is not enough space on the table for everything.

Fire

During Altiplano cold nights, La Terraza is one of the few places in town offering a real fire.

Music

From time to time the background music can be a soft jazz, but unluckily, the staff is capable of suddenly changing it to unsuitable local rhythms without any warning.

Smoke

As all other similar establishments in South America, smoking inside La Terraza is neither forbidden nor limited to specific areas. Actually, it seems the local population cannot swallow a coffee without a cigarette hanging at their mouth corner; leaving the establishment with smelly clothes is inevitable.

Menu

Drinks

The coffees served are good for as long as you stick to the mainstream variations. Their prices begin at seventy-five cents of a dollar for a short espresso, one and a quarter for a double one and can just reach the two dollars line for a double cappuccino.

The several teas available cost around one dollar and include several local varieties called mates.

Meals

La Terraza serves several breakfasts as well as salads and other basic meals for lunch and dinner, always in generous quantities, though the final renderings show signs of a very active imagination and little knowledge of how the originals look.

A local breakfast combo – the cheapest - costs just $1.3, while the Light Breakfast – the most expensive one – reaches $3.5. For example, priced almost as the Light Breakfast is the American one; it includes an espresso or a coffee, orange – or other fruits - juice, ham or bacon, two toasts, butter and ham. A Mexican Combo and a rather basic pizza are also served.

The coffee served with the combos can be doubled just by adding less than fifty cents of a dollar. Croissants can be added by the unit for just above half a dollar.

Cakes

The cheese cake (2$) is surprisingly good though the added fruits are of the canned (peaches) or dry-up (strawberries) varieties despite Bolivia offering an awesome variety of fruits.

La Terraza has an in-house bakery and serves several typical Bolivian pastries. Cuñapes – tasty pastries prepared out of manioc flour and cheese cost about half a dollar. Turnovers and crepes are available as well.

Tips

Leaving tips in Bolivian restaurants is not accustomed. Once – while eating with a local – I attempted doing so and was heavily reprimanded: "This is not America," she said while picking up the change and handing it back to me.

From journal La Paz Bites

Compare La Paz Rates

1. Enter travel information

City

2. Select websites to compare rates

Each selected website will open a new window.

La Paz Travel Deals