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Once a culinary backwater, Santiago is now awash with an impressive range of restaurants representing just about every cuisine style available. Whether it’s vegetarian, a meat feast or sophisticated international fare you’re after, Santiago’s restaurant scene has something for you. Chilean wines are excellent and generally a lot cheaper than European varieties. Price indicators give an idea of cost for a three-course meal, excluding wine.

The restaurants below have been classed into four different pricing categories:
$$$$ (over US$40)
$$$ (US$20 to US$40)
$$ (US$10 to US$20)
$ (up to US$10)

Gourmet

Como Água Para Chocolate
It’s not just the exquisitely prepared Mexican food that attracts diners here again and again - it’s the magic realism and romance of the dining experience. From the moment you walk into the terracotta-hued, earthy environs of the restaurant you know it is not going to be any run-of-the-mill meal out. That’s confirmed when your meal of choice is served onto a table shaped like a bed-frame. Shellfish dishes are particularly recommended.

Constitución 88
Tel: (02) 777 8740.
Price: $$$
Off the Record
This gourmet option in Bellavista is one of the in places of the moment. Understated yet refined, it quickly became popular as word of its fine cuisine and cultured ambience spread. Even President Michelle Bachelet has been seen sampling the dishes here. In fit with its cultivated image, the restaurant regularly hosts jazz and blues artists, as well as art displays.

Antonia López de Bello 0155
Tel: (02) 777 7710.
Website: www.offtherecord.cl
Price: $$$

Trendy

Etniko
This hip Japanese restaurant is impeccably furnished and attracts a young, wealthy crowd. The ambient music adds to the calm, relaxed atmosphere at Etniko, which serves ultra-fresh sushi and stir-fry dishes, with some international choices. This place is so cool that it doesn’t even need a sign above the door.

Constitución 172
Tel: (02) 732 0119.
Website: www.etniko.cl
Price: $$$
Galindo
With tables and chairs spilling onto the pavement, this goodtime Bellavista restaurant is a hangout of choice for the city’s media smart-set. On weekend nights, you’ll have to fight for your space and the service is occasionally more frosty than cool. The menu features traditional Chilean dishes at medium prices with generous portions.

Dardignac 098
Tel: (02) 777 0116.
Price: $$
Zanzibar
Make no mistake - global cuisine has arrived in Santiago, not least at this exotic restaurant. Decked out like a Bedouin tent, this is a fun place for friends to meet and eat before they head out to the bars and clubs. It’s located in Vitacura, a bit of a trek from the city center, but it’s worth it to witness the chef’s world food creations.  

Monseñor Escrivá de Balaguer 6400
Tel: (02) 218 0118.
Website: www.zanzibar.cl
Price: $$$

Budget

Café La Isla
An excellent value restaurant with plenty of organic options, this is located in the low-key suburban streets of Ñuñoa. It stretches on far further than you think possible when you go through the doors - more rooms just keep appearing. The cheap lunch specials are worth the trip as is the attractive garden during the summer months.

Irarrázaval 3465
Tel: (02) 341 5389.
Website: www.laislaorganica.cl
Price: $
Mercado Central
Choice is not a problem at this wrought-iron fish market and cheap restaurant enclave in central Santiago. You may well be overwhelmed by enthusiastic waiters hawking their particular seafood eatery. Either go for the atmosphere (and higher prices) at Donde Augusto under the high ceilings at the heart of the market,or barter a better deal at one of the smaller places around the periphery.

Mercado Central
Price: $
Venezia
The Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda used to frequent this place when he lived around the corner. Venezia is an old-fashioned family picada which serves traditional Chilean dishes at low prices - crowds are almost guaranteed. 

Pío Nono 200
Tel: (02) 737 0900.
Price: $

Personal Recommendations

El Huerto
El Huerto is generally regarded as the best vegetarian restaurant in Santiago. Its Providencia location means it is popular day and night with customers who are either committed vegetarians or just want a break from the relentless meat fest of the Chilean diet. Even dedicated carnivores are seduced by the menu here. There is also a cheaper adjoining cafe for a quick bite at lunchtime.

Orrego Luco 054
Tel: (02) 233 2690.
Web: www.elhuerto.cl
Price: $$
Liguria
You couldn’t possibly cram more bustle, bohemia and style into one restaurant - in fact, the owners have realised there is some left over as more branches of this superb, efficient Santiago eating institution keep cropping up around the city. This doesn’t seem to have eased the crowds, however - you’ll need to show early to be guaranteed a table.

Providencia 1373
Tel: (02) 235 7914.
Website: www.liguria.cl
Price: $$
Vacas Gordas
It’s difficult to pick out one single reason why this is one of Santiago’s most popular eating venues. But the good value, the throng of contented diners in the cavernous eating area, the excellent pisco sours (the nation’s favorite cocktail - a sweet, lemon-infused brandy) and the sizzle of fresh meat barbecued on the grill at the front all combine to make this one of the city’s most memorable meals out.

Cienfuegos 280
Tel: (02) 697 1066.
Price: $



Nightlife:

Most of Santiago’s popular after-hour venues are located outside the downtown area. The Bellavista district is regarded as the city’s artistic quarter and is home to many of the most buzzing bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Its main drag is Calle Pío Nono, a lively but sometimes tacky strip through the heart of the area. Less hectic and more comfortable bars can be found on Calle Constitución, the next street across. Bellavista is where the legendary Chilean poet Pablo Neruda used to spend his time when in Santiago - and pockets of the area are still infused with the same bohemian spirit, despite a creeping commercialization.

Less discovered but perhaps more genuine is the area around Barrio Brasil, an old part of town with turn-of-the-20th-century architecture and a lively student population. There are several bars, most with a laid-back, young vibe, and some fine restaurants clustered in the streets around leafy Plaza Brasil, the suburb’s centerpiece.

Meanwhile, the tidy middle-class district of Ñuñoa is gaining in popularity as a place for a night out among those disaffected by the kitsch of Bellavista. The best bars cluster around Plaza Ñuñoa. More upmarket venues but less interesting places (mostly US-style chains) are found in the El Bosque Norte and Las Condes areas of the city.

One area now best avoided is around Avenida Suecia. Once its US-style bars used to attract huge crowds of Chileans and foreigners but it has declined into a seedy shell of its former self.

Chile’s legal drinking age is 18 years. There are no licensing hours in operation. Most bars stay open until 0200 and nightclubs will see the dawn in until around 0700. Dress code is generally casual, although there are more exclusive places where smart shoes and shirts are a prerequisite.

Bars: Perhaps the biggest magnet for overseas visitors is Flannery’s Irish Geo Pub, Encomenderos 83, in the financial district of Las Condes, where sports coverage and proper pints of Guinness draw large crowds. For the most atmospheric tipple in Santiago, head to the central La Piojera, Aillavilú 1030, a traditional beer hall-style drinking den, where carousing and high spirits flow at most hours. The Phonebox Pub, Avenida Providencia 1652, attracts homesick Brits. You are never short of bar options in Bellavista, but one of the most welcoming options is Bar Dos Gardenias, Antonia López de Bello 199, which has regular salsa nights. Over in Barrio Brasil, Café del Teatro, Riquelme 226, is now the upmarket watering hole of choice.

Clubs: Nightclubs tend to lag behind European and American trends in Santiago, although fashions are just as notoriously fickle here as they are elsewhere. One thing you can be sure of is that most venues don’t start cranking up until around midnight. Most will go through to dawn especially on weekend nights. One club that is still going strong is Blondie, Avenida Bernardo O’Higgins (Alameda) 2879 (website: www.blondie.cl), in Barrio Brasil, an indie/goth favorite for many a year. In Bellavista, Havana Salsa, Dominica 142,  is one of the liveliest and most flamboyant of the many salsotecas in the neighborhood. Subterraneo, Paseo Orrego Luco 46 (website: www.subterraneo.cl), is a well-heeled club in Providencia featuring some reasonable DJs.

Live Music: Santiago has a thriving live music scene, running the gamut of sounds from stadium rock to more intimate Latin American bolero. Most big acts perform at the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium), Avenida Grecia 2001, or the Teatro Municipal, Calle Agustinas 794. Jazz fans should make the pilgrimage to the Santiago Jazz Club, Avenida José Pedro Alessandri 85 (website: www.clubdejazz.cl) in Ñuñoa and fans of up-and-coming indie bands would do well to head to the same area - La Batuta, Jorge Washington 52 (website: www.batuta.cl), has some of the best shows in the city. In Bellavista, there is live music practically at every turn - wander the streets to choose between flamenco, folk and many other types of music at your leisure. La Chiminea, Principe de Gales 90 (website: www.lachimenea.cl), is an atmospheric venue tucked down a quiet alley, which has a small stage with quality live acts most nights.

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