Santiago for foodies

Best restaurants

Santiago eats on its own terms. The city sprawls from the old center around the Alameda out to the leafier grid of Providencia and the hill neighborhoods behind Bellavista, and its restaurant map follows that geography: Thai and Mediterranean rooms in the Huerfanos and Amanda Labarca blocks, Basque and Peruvian tables in Bellas Artes and the streets behind Compañía de Jesús, workers' pizzerias and empanaderias along the San Diego and Bandera axes, sushi counters in the residential quarters south of the Alameda, and a small but real cluster of Chinese kitchens across the river toward Bascuñán Guerrero. This list is not a ranking of the fanciest tables; it is twelve addresses that pay for the trip across town, chosen for cooks who have decided what they are doing and stuck with it. Hours are honest, the phones ring, and the addresses are the ones on the door. Read the operating hours before you go. Santiago restaurants keep Chilean lunch-service hours, which means many close between comidas, and Sundays are quieter than a visitor expects. Bring cash for the smaller counters and call ahead on Friday and Saturday nights.