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by Manos Angelakis
 Santa Cruz Plaza Hotel
Plaza de Armas 286
Santa Cruz, Chile
The town of Santa Cruz is located in Colchagua Valley and is surrounded by vineyards producing some of the best Chilean wines.
The Santa Cruz Plaza Hotel, in the center of the town, is a new colonial styled Chilean 5 star hotel (equivalent rating would be US 4 Star). The hotel is built around the Colchagua museum, and if you look down a circular skylight in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor corridors leading to the rooms, you can see one of the museum’s dioramas - a scene of primitive men hunting a mastodon. From my room’s balcony I was looking right down the museum’s exterior courtyard that contained Colchagua’s train station and early steam engines.
The hotel boasts an interesting collection of local wines from the best area vineyards that are available for purchase and, of course, you can have them in the dinning room with your meals. The restaurant, Los Varietales, on the second floor of a separate building overlooking the pool, is good, offering typical Chilean dishes. The breakfast buffet was ample but the coffee was not particularly good. I have the feeling that the kitchen is using Nescafé instead of real brewed coffee. We found out that in Chile, if you wish to have a decent cup of coffee you have to ask for café-café or espresso, otherwise you will be served instant coffee. Once that was understood and we started asking for café-café, our coffee became much more drinkable. But the fresh fruit platters, chirimoya and cherries, pineapple, melon and watermelon made up for the poor coffee and no-one seemed to complain. The chirimoya (also known as cherimoya or custard apple) is a mouthwateringly delicious, sweet, creamy, subtropical fruit grown on both sides of the Andes, combining the exotic flavors of pineapple, passion fruit, banana, mango, and lemon into one luscious, very delightful mouthful.
During diner, the selection of appetizers in the dinning room was very good with dishes that would appeal to both Chilean and American palates, like the Quail Salad with Carrots and Beetroot vinegar or the Beef Carpaccio, or the Scallop Ceviche with Lime and Passionfruit sauce. But others like the Locos (Abalone) with Green Sauce and Mayonnaise or the Boiled Veal’s Feet in a Paprika and Onion sauce with Avocado Purée, would take some getting used to.
There was an incredibly tasty, spicy seafood soup called Levántate Lázaro (Lazarus, get up). I don’t know what the exact Biblical connection is but it could certainly have been a great pick-me-up for a just resurrected biblical character.
The main courses are divided into Platos Tipicos Criollos (Typical Spanish Dishes), Platos de Fondo (Main Courses), Pastas, and Pescados y Mariscos (Fish and Seafood).
In the typical offerings, Pulmay o Curanto en olla, a stew with seafood and different types of sausage and meat, and Filete de Res a lo Pobre, a steak-and-eggs dish smothered with onions, are very tasty, classic Chilean dishes. And so  was the Congrio Frito con Ensalada Chilena - battered Conger Eel with skinless tomatoes and shaved onion. On the main courses, the Pernil de Cerdo con Suave Salsa de Merquén y Papas Corahilas, Pork with a smooth sun-dried chili sauce, and the Riñones al Chardonnay con Puré, Veal Kidneys in a Chardonnay Sauce with Mashed Potatoes, and Cibié de Conejo con pastas frescas, Rabbit with fresh pasta, looked very good.
The wine store and cellar have, as I mentioned before, outstanding samples from Chilean wineries. Some are iconic bottles not easily found outside Chile and if the restrictions of carrying liquids on-board during a flight had not been so stringent, I would have purchased numerous bottles that were in stock. Unfortunately, all I could do was admire from a distance and hope that we would be able to sample these wines at the wineries or during our meals.
The rooms were good sized, but not particularly fancy. The service was spotty, as one day the room was not made up.
But, minor complaints aside, the hotel was the best available in the area with the exception of the casitas at Clos Apalta, and very convenient to the wineries we visited, and after all, close proximity to the wineries was the prime purpose of the visit.
© December 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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