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By Manos Angelakis
Santiago de Chile
 Culinary Chile has finally joined the 21st century and, even though the main ingredients in the diet are still seafood, fish and beef, there are now restaurants that can rival the establishments of any major world city.
Europeo, Alonso de Cordova 2417, Vitacura, (56 2) 208-3603, is located in one of Santiago’s fashionable new suburbs (most of Vitacura had farmhouses and a few villas only 15 years ago), right next to Concha y Toro’s Santiago winery store. It is open for lunch and dinner and, on the day we had lunch there, the main dinning  room was full to capacity. Excellent appetizers and main courses, mostly meat and fish-based . Outstanding wine list.
Patagonia Alma del Sur, J.V. Lastarria 92, Cerro Santa Lucia, (02)664-3830. Centrally located in one of Santiago’s old Bohemian neighborhoods that has seen a recent resurgence, Patagonia serves exceptional Patagonian lamb and farm-fresh vegetables. Their fish and seafood dishes are not shabby either. Excellent sauces accompany the meat dishes but I still prefer the charcoal-grilled, succulent lamb with just some salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
Anakena Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Santiago, Kennedy Avenue 4601, Santiago, Chile. Located in the hotel’s verdant garden, the restaurant offers very tasty, fish, seafood and meat dishes served either in traditional Chilean style or Thai style. Their ceviche was excellent and so was the seafood medley that consisted of sea-fresh mussels and clams topped with chopped onion and cilantro in a citric sauce, large steamed shrimps on a bed of greens and a bowl of shredded star-crab meat and pickled pink razor clam meat, all on a bed of coarse sea-salt.
Amorio Restaurant, Constitución 183, in the heart of Barrio Bellavista in Santiago, another reborn central neighborhood. A new venture of Benjamín Vicuña and Gonzalo Valenzuela. Nice continental food paired beautifully with the wines our hosts had provided. We were all tired from the overnight flight and decided on an early, for Santiago,  dinner. By the time we were ready to return to the hotel the restaurant was buzzing with young, upscale locals.
El Parron Restaurant in Providencia. This is a traditional meat restaurant (churrascaria) that was closed for a number of years but reopened a year or so ago. It is now being franchised, and a number of clones have opened in other locations around Santiago, but the original Providencia restaurant is still the best. Famous for its Gran Parillada. They bring a charcoal grill next to the table and a variety of raw beef cuts and organ meats, and you grill them to your taste. Not for the squeamish; you have to handle the raw meat and beef organs. Grass fed beef is a little tougher than grain fed - not as much fat in the muscle, but much more flavorful. Add a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon or a good Carmenère/Merlot blend and you have an excellent meal.
© December 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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