Bo Hotel de encanto

Eating

The delicious chilled Torrontes (Salta’s crisp white wine), served with nibbles and fresh guacamole on arrival, lets you know you’ve entered a gastronomic haven.

Guests eat in the hotel's elegant Restaurant Cocina Bo, with traditional 19th-century chairs and a bright pink chiminea, or on the patio overlooking the garden, lit with candles in the evening.

Breakfast is a real feast - and no dulce de leche in sight. Tony and Roxana once owned an award-winning bakery in Toulouse and they really know how to cook. Goodies include fresh juices, fruit salads, homemade yoghurt with nuts and raisins, sweet pumpkin cookies, homemade breads, local honey and jams (we had tomato!), eggs cooked to order, and pastrami. The leaf teas are from Argentine company Disfrutarte, and the coffee is the best - freshly ground Argentine El Bohio coffee. There’s hot chocolate too, made from chocolate bars.

Other meals are à la carte. Lunch is a light affair, perhaps a salad. If you're going on a trip you can ask for a picnic - tabouleh, fresh juice, guacamole, sandwiches with homemade bread, fresh fruit, mineral water and chocolate. Tea is served from 4-7pm, and not to be missed - Disfrutarte teas, homemade scones with jams, and freshly made cakes.

Dinner is served from 7.30pm. It's a constantly changing and eclectic menu cooked by Tony and Roxana, perhaps Peruvian-style chicken with fragranced rice, boeuf bourguignon made with veal, bife de lomo (grilled fillet steak), and wok-fried vegetables. We started with a delicate cauliflower and cheese soup, followed by trout with Peruvian causa (a puree of beetroot, mashed potato with lemon juice, avocado and pumpkin). Puddings vary: ours was a dense and delicious chocolate soufflé. There’s a small but well chosen wine list, mostly local Salta wines. We had a delicious organic Nanni cabernet sauvignon Rosato.

You can wander out at night to sample local eateries, if you can bear to forgo the gastronomic delights of Roxana's cooking; Tony can suggest a couple.