Fasano Las Piedras

Fasano Restaurant at Las Piedras is the flagship dining room of Hotel Fasano Las Piedras — the Brazilian Fasano group's Uruguayan luxury resort, opened in 2010 in a converted countryside estate fifteen kilometres inland from the Punta del Este coast — and is the most polished resort dining experience in Uruguay. The dining room is built into a series of rustic-cabin-inspired stone-and-timber pavilions with a 270-degree view of the surrounding Uruguayan countryside.

The cuisine is contemporary Italian-Uruguayan — drawing on the Fasano group's Italian heritage and the Uruguayan beef-and-seafood larder. Signatures include the famous 'fettuccine Fasano' with white truffle; a slow-grilled Uruguayan ribeye over wood; a hand-rolled tagliolino with Cetara colatura; a wood-fired Atlantic-Uruguayan dentex; a Uruguayan Tannat-poached pear with salt-caramel.

The wine list runs to 700 references with deep Uruguayan Tannat coverage and a respectable Italian-national section. The pairing programme runs heavily Italian and Uruguayan.

The dining room and outdoor terrace together hold ninety-six covers; the kitchen times the dessert course with the sunset. Service is Fasano-grade — uniformed captains, choreographed plate-arrival, exact pacing.

Fasano Las Piedras is the impress-the-client room in Punta del Este — the Fasano pedigree settles the institutional question, the rustic-cabin countryside setting is the conversation, and the dinner-and-stay format means the trip is easy to arrange. Book the south-terrace four-top.