Puerto Iguazu is known as a pretty desolate place when it comes to dining. Considering it is a fly-in/fly-out destination purely to see Iguaza falls for a day or two means that it is aimed largely at tourists. There wasn't much to find when reading up about places or things to eat. The main specialty seemed to be local riverfish, of which there are 3 types - the most commonly mentioned is surubi (looks similar to catfish), pacu and dorado.
I had written down to potentially try Aqvi or La Rueda but also that they were pricey and a little fancy. The only other things around on my list were El Quincho del Tio Querido (parrilla) or the feirinha market (which I had just looked at and seemed empty for lunch without much range). The Airbnb host had suggested either Aqvi or Charo (which are across the road from each other) for steak or fish. I didn't feel like a fancy lunch so we decided to try Charo. As you walk towards the place you can see (and smell) the smoke coming from the chimney out the back - it's very enticing.
The menu is large. Helpfully there's a picture of what each fish and each meat item looks like at the front entrance.
- Surubi with Roquefort sauce - the surubi was very well cooked and firm texture but still soft. It's an excellent fish. The blue cheese sauce was quite mild in terms of blue cheese but heavy and strong in terms of salt and flavour;
- French fries a la Provencal - minimally crisp outsides, soft insides cooked with herbs and garlic. Minimal salt was used so had to add some.
- Beef rib - it came sizzling on a hot plate with charcoal under it. The flavour was lovely and natural and mopping up an excess juices off the grill with bread was nice. There were pieces that were soft and tender and others that required much continuous chewing. It certainly wasn't the most tender I've had.
Overall the food was decent. It was good to see a restaurant cook fish decently (considering everything is probably cooked thoroughly). After leaving I walked across the road to look at Aqvi's menu - interestingly the prices there are similar, possibly a little cheaper and although less variety seem more interesting. I'd go there for fish and steak next time (although I doubt I'll ever be in Iguazu again this lifetime).