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Santiago, Chile


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  • 2 weeks later...

Check out the Great Chefs section on the Discovery Channel fan site. Look under chef profiles and discover the mother lode of chefs featured on the show. There are some in santiago. I was not yet working for the show when they shot the segment but Coco is supposedly a great guy and a great chef. http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/greatchefs/profiles.html

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My dad, step mom and brother just got back from a trip to Chile, and spent some time in Santiago.  These are my dad's recommendations for Santiago:

Regarding the restaurants: Most of our dinners out were finished between 10:30 and 11:30PM, so be prepared for late night dining. The nicest place we ate was Coco or Aqui Esta Coco in Providencia, La Conception 236. It was about 6 blocks from our Hotel Orly [Which we would highly

recommend, about $85 for a nice room in a small, well managed and maintained 'continental' type hotel.]  Dick may decide to stay there sometimes on some of his business trips. He treated us to dinner at Coco.  It's easy to order too much food, and my dinner was not appreciated as much because the starters and fish soup were more than I needed before my entree was served.  Margo and Dick enjoyed theirs more.

The decorations and various rooms are worth a visit. (we had Congria Thermador and it was fantastic)

We didn't connect for lunch at the Central Market, but we did visit there and thought 'Donde Augustos' would be fun and have good food.

Pastel de Choclo and Curanto are two Chilean dishes that they must try.  (I fixed the Choclo dish tonight and it's made of chicken, hamburger, choclo-corn, onions and like a tamale pie, and the curanto is like a clam/mussel bake with sausage, ham and chicken) The homitas can be skipped. They are like tamales without the good stuff.

The places on Suecia Street in Providencia are worth a visit.   It's several streets of wild American/Irish type pubs,

restuarants,bars, and later, Discos: with lots of people walking around looking for action. (I thought they were too American but it's definitely the place to be seen, also a bit more expensive for pisco sours which they must sample since it's the Chilean drink of drinks).  Some of our most relaxing times were spent on the sidewalk veranda of our Hotel Orly, where we could enjoy a Pisco Sour, beer, light lunch, or early dinner that fit our mood of the evening.

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  • 6 months later...

Here I am sitting at the Business center of my hotel in Santiago fews hours before flight back home :smile:

Santiago is expensive - That said, (Damn these keyboard have most symbols all overthe map) Outside of .JP, I have yet to see so many different kinds of seafood offered in any typical chilean seafood place.

Sea Snails, Sea Urchin, small shrimp like fish ( I used to remember similar kind sold in Mumbai ), lobsters, sea bass, king crabs, and host of others whose names I wrote down but promptly lost :wink:

A great small non-descript place "casa de Cena" had the most delicious appetisers - I had a cocktail of shrimp,crabs in fresh lemon and tomato sauce+salsa.

For main entrees I could not let the opportunity of having King Crabs in lemon sauce.

Another fairly good restaurant called Loco Coco or somesuch,had freshest salmon steak and lemon cream.

It helps to have local folks escorting you to unheard of small eateries that offer excellent value. Needless to say, Chilean wines are very good. Many places have good house wines - Just like in Italy :smile:

The empanadas (both meat as well as cheese&vege) were offered by cart vendors near the University - I had a few while watching a protest rally by the students againt globalization blah blah blah...

More later

anil

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  • 2 months later...

I lived in Santiago for a year so I'll add my 2 cents. It's not much of a restaurant culture in the way that Argentina is (used to be?), but there are some good treats. Don't miss Bravisimo's -- Italian style ice cream. I highly recomend mousse de manjar (in Chile, dulce de leche is called manjar...it's on everything!) and mousse de chocolate........ There are at least 2 locations, one is in Las Condes and the other in Providencia-- anyone can tell you where to find it. There are also some good wine stores in Providencia, though I'm afraid I don't remember there names. It's also fun to have lunch at the Mercado Central in downtown Santiago -- you can get good seafood there and the atmosphere is fun. You should also have empanadas and pisco sours.... there's nothing more Chilean. And, make sure you try something w/ lucuma -- I've never seen it anywhere else and I've never seen it fresh. It's used in desserts (ice cream, cake fillings, etc.) and is sort of similar to a chestnut flavor......... not to be missed!

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  • 8 months later...

I lived in Santiago a couple of years ago and found the restaurant scene a little bleak (granted I was poor). The food buying scene, however, is incedible. Figs, favas, avacados, tomatoes, artichokes, shellfish, among the best Ive ever seen. The one memorable meal i had out was at Mercado Central. After staying out all night my group went there, pre-dawn. Many Chileans do the same. Half-drunks eating sea urchins, stews, oysters, and "pico roco" (a crustecean unique to chile whose name, "beak rock", sums it up) at 5:00 am!

BTW, most Chileans believe that Peruvian food is the pinnacle of haute cuisine in Santiago, and they may have a point.

Edited by schaem (log)
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Today,Sunday I woke up early (before the light of the dawn) and decided take a walk, avoiding a buffet breakfast at the hotel which was about an hour plus away. I planned to take a stroll along the Ave. Higgins and grab a light chilean fare and some coffee. With all stores and restaurants closed, I finally found one that was open. It had diner-style seating -- No aqua, no coffee -- It served booze and heavy steaks and chicken sin arrozo and a lomita solo. So I ordered the lomita.

Seedy as the place looked, it did´nt bother moi, after all I´d been in stranger places at all odd hours from HKG to GIG to Berlin, and not to talk about good ól New York. Two minutes later, two cops enter, and the whole place becomes silent. In this crowded place all heads were down....

Finally their gaze lock on me; having recently seen a BBC piece on the Pinochet era Santiago,I was a bit unnerved. Avoiding their gaze I looked out the window ....... the light ofthe dawn was cracking out from the snow covered andes mountains... With my passport locked in the hotel safe, I had no ID. Two nights ago, at a restaurtant I was asked to write down my passport no:/ID on my charge card, which I had refuse to do so,much to the chargin of the manager.

One of the securitida guys walked up to me, said something in rapido spanish. Not comprehending half of what he said, I reluctantly got up and followed him outside. Theother guy asked me why I was in this place ? I explained in English interspread with spanish words that I was looking to have a breakfast ands ome coffee and wanted to try out some local fare.....

´´delequiente´´ ´´problemas´´ were some of the words they used. A cruiser pulls overand they ask me to come along. I refuse (by this time I am quaking in my boots so to speak.) Another cop-type gets out andsays that I should not be in that dangerous place. Offering to drop me back to my hotel. I politely decline.

I gave athumbs-up tothe guys in the cruiser and I began to walk back with two cops a step behind me as few early morning buses and cars wizzed past. Assoon as I turned into my hotel entrance I exhaled a sigh of relief. The guard and bellboy came over,and after a few minutes of rapido conversation they shake hands andIwalkintothe lobby.

More conversation between the front desk staff and the bellboy andthe story unveils-

As I had stepped out a pair of cops outside the hotel had radioed that I was a hotel guest walking out and had to be watched, few blocks off the two cops hadspotted me enter this place,which was a notorious hangout od undesirables and shady dealings went on in this diner, suspecting that I wasnot aware ofwhere I was, and concerned of my well being, they pulled it out before someone in there began to hassle me.....

Oh ! Well ................. None of t he locals inSCLhad warned me thelast two days, Hey it could not be that bad .... Couldit ? :smile:

{This being keyed in from an unfamiliar keyboard and broken spacebar}

anil

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I don't know how much has changed in chile since i was there (they do have a Socialist resident now). But, before when someone in uniform talked of "dangerous" and "undesirable" they meant "communist" or anti-Pinochet.

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Foot of Andes Mt. few miles off SCL

We stopped on our way back from a day trip to the mountains ( Lots of skiers from the U.S and Canada here as it is winder down-under ) The roadside restaurants/shacks/bars serve to satiate the hunger of travellers, not many creature comforts - basic longish tables - no table cloth etc.....

The dish that I had was titled in English as chicken-wings , which it wasn't. There were dozen pieces of meat on the bone (where the bone is about 2-1/2" of which 1"+ of the bone definitely looks BBQed and used for a handle) All the the dozen pieces, the bones were sticking over, just like a tray of candied apples with the stick pointing up....

Even though the bone looks charred, the meat was absolutely tender and melted in one's mouth without the after-taste of the charcoal on whoch it was probably grilled. The sauce in the dozen pieces were soaked in was'nt that great (or to my taste-buds) -- very similar to el-cheapo BBQ sauces served in the streetfairs of NYC during summer :wink: The herbs in the sauce were simple oregano and basil...

The dozen small pieces of some bird (maybe partridge...) legs were deceptively light. But by the time I had finished ten of those I felt so stuffed (guzzling beer with it did'nt help either..) that it was wise on the part of the locals not to order anything else for the guests like me :biggrin:

Edited by anil (log)

anil

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  • 6 months later...

In Santiago, there are many lots of good restaurants, but also lots of bad ones. For really excellent food, I like Astrid & Gaston in Providencia (the original A&G is in Lima and is great too). Try the cocktail made with Peruvian Pisco and Tomalillo? - it's a high Andean fruit kind of like a tomato, but looks a bit like a huge red caperberry. Also in Santiago, the vegetarian restaurant El Huerto (next to it's sister restaurant La Huerta - Orrego Luco 954 Tel: 233 26 90

both great. Just around the corner is the Hotel Orly (corner of Providencia & Pedro de Valdivia), that has a great cafe called Caffetto. The best selection for is buying Chilean wines is at Mundo del Vino, there's great Sushi at across from the Intercontinental (can't remember the name). All seafood is good, although I find Chilean cuisine to be generally lacking flavor - a shame with the raw materials there. If you like to explore, there is a LOT of interesting food to be found . . .

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  • 1 month later...

i lived in santiago for awhile and agree with most posters - not a huge retaurant city. i would, though, have to disagree with the above advice to head to ave. suecia. its fun to bar hop there every so often, but the food is an overpriced attempt at foreign/anglo food (irish, american, etc). i lived right off of bosque norte in las condes where many of the fancier reastaurants are located (coco loco, etc, mentioned above) and found them a bit overpriced and not that interesting, although the fish was amazingly fresh. that said, if you're going to go to santiago for food, you MUST go to the mercado central. nowhere will you find fresher, tastier, more affordable seafood of every type. frito, a la parilla, whatever your preference, its excellent. i did find abalone over cooked once, but besides that, this place is heaven. plus its such an awesome space.

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.......  i lived right off of bosque norte in las condes where many of the fancier reastaurants are located (coco loco, etc, mentioned above) and found them a bit overpriced and not that interesting, although the fish was amazingly fresh.  that said, if you're going to go to santiago for food, you MUST go to the mercado central

Are you sure Coco Loco is in Las Condes ? When in SCL, I alternate between Marriott/Hyatt which are in the Las Condes neighbourhood and San Francisco or Crown Plaza; nearer to downtown. I agree with you about mercado - also there are hidden jewels near the University Catholica, small restaurantes with delicious seafood and excellent house wines :wink:

anil

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Not only I lived in Santiago for over three years, I also went to culinary school and worked in restaurants there, so I can possibly talk a little about the restaurants in the area:

Gastronomy and culinary appreciation are booming in Chile, particularly in Santiago, so there are many new restaurants opening every day, and a lot of them are rising the quality of food. There are also several old school chefs who have been serving great food for several years, including Guillermo Rodriguez, Executive Chef of the Hotel San Francisco and Joseph Gander, Executive Chef of El Cid at Sheraton Santiago

I do agree that generally speaking, Chilean food lacks flavor, and they have been unable to maximize the amazing products available to them. However, a new bunch of highly educated professionals are slowly changing the way Chileans eat. Therefore, chefs like Cristopher Carpentier (Agua) and Carlo Von Muhlenbrock (Osadia) have become the new breed of celebrities: young, good looking, cocky, daring and amazing cooks.

Santiago also has a high Peruvian colony, and fortunately they have opened many restaurants, sharing their flavorful cuisine. So much that one of the high-end restaurants of Lima, as stated in a couple of links, opened in Santiago: Astrid y Gaston. Certainly, Peru is not the only international influence affecting Chilean gastronomy. Japanese cuisine is as big there as it might be anywhere else in the world, and the Classical European (yes, I capitalized Classical out of respect) cuisine is still strong, although some Chefs are familiar with the new trends and offer more marketable choices: the best examples of these are Carlos Meyer's El Europeo and Mezzo, the modern creation of Chef Claudio Marras, a CIA graduate. For amazing Japanese cooking, try Shogun

I can't recommend places to eat in Santiago and not mention the best places to find traditional Chilean cuisine. Indeed, the Mercado Central is possibly the best place to go, not only for the food (which can sometimes lack quality) but also for the ambiance. Other options are Isla Negra and Dona Tina

I hope this information proves helpful during future visits to Santiago.

Follow me @chefcgarcia

Fábula, my restaurant in Santiago, Chile

My Blog, en Español

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Are you sure Coco Loco is in Las Condes ?

bosque norte is technically considered las condes, but most people consider it n. providencia, i think. our address was las condes, but really we weren't in what most people think of when they think of that area.

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  • 2 months later...
Gastronomy and culinary appreciation are booming in Chile, particularly in Santiago, so there are many new restaurants opening every day, and a lot of them are rising the quality of food...

I asked my husband where he'd like to go for his 60th birthday next year - and he said Chile. I have no idea why (neither of us knows anything about the country - but we speak Spanish - and he's heard that it's a relatively safe stable country in South America which is doing ok). Apart from Santiago - can you recommend any other areas of the country which might be interesting from a food or other point of view? Robyn

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  • 2 months later...

Robyn, I hope it's not too late to reply to this message!. I know you posted it a few months ago. Sorry, I've been really busy and never checked the Santiago section of e-gullet. In fact, this is the first time I check the new design! As for your question, it really depends on when are you going to be in Chile. If you're going from November or December on, then I recommend going south. There are beautiful little towns there, but they can be fully enjoyed only during those months (it's summer there, you know?) Frutillar and Pucon would be the places to go, but the whole south of shile is full of gorgeous forests. On the other hand, if you like dry, sunny weather, then go to the north. San Pedro de Atacama is a popular destination. Sort of a hippy-ish town in the middle of the dessert. La Serena has a nice beach, althoug, in myh opinion, the water is too cold to go in. Around Santiago, you can visit the many vinyards that surround the city, and Valparaiso is only about 1 and a half hours away. It also has a few beaches, and it's a pintoresque town. Well worth a visit. You can aslo go to Maipo valley and have a meal there or to Laguna de Aculeo, just to relax. I hope this message didn't come too late!

Follow me @chefcgarcia

Fábula, my restaurant in Santiago, Chile

My Blog, en Español

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  • 2 months later...

Not exactly a restauarant suggestion but if you like hot dogs you could try the chilean version, "completo".

I have eaten them in many, many places in Chile and my preference is for the completos served in Dominó (Agustinas 1016, downtown Santiago). The space there is limited and you have to eat standing at "la barra", shoulder to shoulder, but it's worth it. Their completos con palta (with avocado) are delicious.

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  • 1 month later...

Just returned from Chile and wanted to add a quick list of recommendations for Santiago, La Serena, and near Vina

Santiago:

Osadia - in Providencia. Upscale, Peruvian-influenced. Loved the ceviche, filete de congrio, and pasta with scallops. The paella was so-so, and the ravioli with mushroom sauce were not great. Try the desserts - their pastry chef loves presentation.

Hildegard near the Apumanque feria de artesanias for sandwiches and kuchen.

Restaurants at Borderio restaurant complex. There are a host of restuarants, and if I recall the name correctly there is a gorgeous seafood restaurant named Bio. There is also a Spanish spot that seemed popular.

Crepes and Waffles - not Chilean (it is a Colombian chain), but yummy desserts and some good savory crepes. Try anything with spinach, like the Napolitano - very good. There are several locations around town.

For good coffees (try a cortado), cafe helado (vanilla ice cream in a coffee sauce with whipped cream), as well as your basic sandwich offerings, try Mokka cafes. I love their Torta de Almendras.

I agree with the previous poster about the Bravissimo gelato and the fish restaurants at the Mercado Central.

The restuarnat at the Hotel Kennedy near Parque Arauco is excellent, and once a week they offer a wine tasting menu with something like 5 national wines and top-notch gourmet food.

La Serena:

Jardin de Sabores on the Costanera. Excellent fried empanadas de pino and a ceviche sampler dish called Jardin de mariscos with something like 6 types of ceviche presented beautifully on scallop shells. They also offer the fish of the day in a sauce with whiskey and parmasean cheese - truly good and original.

On the way to La Serena on the Panamericana:

Los Vilos - There is an area by the beach with "Modulos Gastronomicos", which offer standard fish fare overlooking the water. We stopped at one called Las Delicias and loved the fresh paila marina and empanadas de machas. The offered us fresh clams on the half shell, on the house.

Pichidangui - There is a restaurant on the beach (there are lots of stands, but this is the only closed spot with ac and a deck) where we had excellent machas a la parmesana and pastel de jaiba.

Near Vina - Renaca and Con Con

Here are some restaurants north of Vina that offer the standard Chilean seafood options, but with excellent service, incredible views, and wonderful food.

Edelweiss

Del Pacifico

El Tirol :wub: - off the beaten path. The food was not as perfect as in past occasions (new owners), but you will not receive better service or enjoy the view more than at this spot on a hill over Con Con. Ask for the waiter Don Horacio - he is a gem.

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