Café Journal is a relaxed neighbourhood cafe in the centre of Viña del Mar, the kind of place that fills in the morning with people reading newspapers and in the afternoon with those who are not quite ready to go back to the beach. The coffee is good by Chilean standards and the empanadas and pastries are made on the premises. It has the worn, comfortable feel of a place that has been here a while and intends to stay.
In the evenings it transitions toward a bar, with pisco sours and local beers added to the menu. The atmosphere is sociable without being noisy. If you are spending more than a day in Viña, this is the sort of place you end up returning to without planning to — a neighbourhood institution that earns repeat visits by being consistently decent rather than occasionally spectacular.