Santiago’s Best Restaurants: 10 Culinary Hotspots You Simply Can’t Miss!

The Art of Getting Lost in the Mapocho Mist

I didn’t come to Santiago to see the Costanera Center or take photos of the Plaza de Armas. I came because I heard that if you sit in a café in Barrio Italia long enough, the city stops feeling like a South American capital and starts feeling like a village that happens to have six million people. I’ve been here six months now. My skin has adapted to the smog of the cuenca, my ears have tuned into the rapid-fire “po” that punctuates every sentence, and I’ve learned that the best way to eat in this city isn’t to follow a Michelin guide, but to follow the scent of charred garlic and the sound of clinking glasses behind nondescript steel doors.

Santiago is a city of layers. There is the “Sanhattan” layer of glass and steel, the colonial layer of crumbling stone, and then there is the layer where we live—the digital nomads, the wanderers, and the locals who know that the real soul of the city is found in a bowl of porotos con riendas or a perfectly balanced pisco sour in a neighborhood the tour buses avoid. If you want to disappear here, you have to stop acting like a visitor and start acting like a neighbor. That means knowing where the laundry gets done, where the Wi-Fi actually stays connected during a thunderstorm, and which “picada” serves the best lunch for five dollars.

1. Barrio Yungay: The Rebel’s Refectory

Most travelers think Yungay is “dangerous” because it looks lived-in. To me, it’s the most honest neighborhood in the city. This is where the President lives, but it’s also where you’ll see street art that actually says something. The streets are a grid of high-ceilinged mansions that have seen better days, now housing artists and underground bars.

The Culinary Hotspot: Peluquería Francesa (Boulevard Lavaud)

You’ll hear about this place because it’s a barbershop-turned-restaurant. It’s crowded on weekends, but if you go on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s a temple of stillness. I once spent four hours here pretending to work on a screenplay just to watch the light move across the antique perfume bottles.
The Order: Get the Congrio Rosa. It’s a local fish that tastes like the Pacific Ocean’s best kept secret.
The Vibe: Museum-chic. You are surrounded by 19th-century chairs and dusty memorabilia.