South America - Where to eat in Santiago Chile?

Foody here. I will be in Santiago for 4 days this august and could really use some restaurant suggestions. I would like a mix of high end and everything else. That is, I will gladly go off the beaten path and/or pay up for the good stuff. I need one great romantic spot, but beyond that we really just want to catch the local culinary scene as best as possible.

We will also be in Valle Nevado if anyone has any suggestions for dinning there.

Thanks in advance!

Santiago is not a great place for fine dining, but here are some suggestions:

- Agua, in Vitacura. Upscale, trendy place with interesting menu featuring decent seafood (which is suprisingly hard to come by in Stgo).
- Rivoli, in Providencia, in a pedestrian mall just off Lyon between Av. Providencia and the river. Italian place with excellent pastas and pizza (another hard-to-find item).
- Happening, in Las Condes (El Bosque Norte) on Apoquindo. Argentine steak house, best steaks in town and really good salads too.
- El Mesón, WAY out of town on the scruffy main drag of Lo Barnechea. A Patagonian restaurant, house specialty is Patagonian lamb roasted over an open fire. Great place and well worth the long taxi ride.

Enjoy!

Azul Profundo in Bellavista

Astrid y Gaston, Peruvian food. very expensive, stuck up wait staff but delicious food.

Zully, in an old renovated house, never eaten there but it's supposed to be good.

My favorite is Restaurant Eladio (the one in Las Condes, not the one in Providencia). Wonderful atmosphere with Argentine-style grilled meats, breads and delicious desserts. It's the kind of place that local families go to for a long, leisurely, enjoyable lunch on Saturday or Sunday.

My favorite is Restaurant Eladio (the one in Las Condes, not the one in Providencia). Wonderful atmosphere with Argentine-style grilled meats, breads and delicious desserts. It's the kind of place that local families go to for a long, leisurely, enjoyable lunch on Saturday or Sunday.


I will have to add Restaurant Eladio to my own list

We had very good meals both at Puerto Foy and Astrid y Gaston on a Feb Chile visit.

We dined at Astrid Y Gaston last was on Valentines Day and that was the third such visit to this restaurant in the last three or so years and had excellent attentive service on all three ocasions. Food was comparble to the Lima place which we ate at four days later.

Of the two Puerto Foy was deemed by my wife to be "more romantic" ;)

mike

Donde Augusto in El Mercado Central for centolla (king crab) - sizes range from a small crab that feeds 2-3 (about $100) to large ones for $200. They serve the centolla with hot garlic olive oil, but you can ask for butter to add to the oil. They also prepare the crab so that it's very easy to eat.

Note: The centolla is different from the Alaskan king crab in that you can eat 90% of the centolla, whereas you only eat the claws of the Alaskan one.

We were glad that we chose to eat upstairs. There were many signs posted in the restaurant with warnings of thieves. We (and our belongings) felt much more secure upstairs where there is little traffic.