What to Eat and Drink in Santiago: A Chilean Food Guide
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Chilean food doesn’t shout for attention the way some Latin American cuisines do — it wins you over quietly, one flaky empanada and one glass of red at a time. Santiago is the best place to sample it all, from market-hall seafood to hearty home cooking and a wine culture that punches well above its weight. Here’s what to order.
Empanadas de Pino
Start here. The classic Chilean empanada is baked, not fried, and filled with pino: minced or chopped beef slow-cooked with plenty of onion, then tucked in with a black olive, a slice of hard-boiled egg and often a raisin or two. The sweet–savory mix surprises some visitors, and converts most of them.
You’ll also find fried versions, often filled with cheese or seafood. Empanadas are a fixture of the September national holidays, but they’re easy to find year-round.
Pastel de Choclo and Home-Style Classics
Pastel de choclo is Chilean comfort food at its finest: a base of pino, chicken, olives and egg, topped with a thick layer of ground sweet corn and baked until golden — traditionally in a clay dish. It’s a summer favorite, when fresh corn is in season, and it’s often finished with a sprinkle of sugar on top.
Keep an eye out for cazuela, a brothy stew with meat, potato, squash and corn, and porotos granados, a summery bean dish with corn and basil.
Street Food: Completos and Sopaipillas
Chile takes its hot dogs seriously. The completo is a generously loaded version, and the most famous style — the italiano — is named for its colors: tomato, mashed avocado and mayonnaise piled high on the bun. Expect a knife-and-fork level of toppings.
Sopaipillas are round, fried rounds of dough, often made with pumpkin. Street vendors serve them topped with pebre, a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, cilantro and chili. On cold, rainy days, look for sopaipillas pasadas, soaked in a warm syrup made from chancaca, an unrefined cane sugar.
Seafood at the Mercado Central
With a long Pacific coastline, Chile has seafood that deserves its reputation. Santiago’s Mercado Central, an ornate iron-framed market hall near the historic center, is the classic place to try it, with fish stalls and simple eateries crowded together under one roof.
- Caldillo de congrio — a comforting conger eel soup, famously celebrated by Pablo Neruda
- Paila marina — a rich seafood stew served bubbling in a clay bowl
- Machas a la parmesana — razor clams baked with Parmesan
- Ceviche — often with local fish and a bright citrus bite
Touts can be persistent at the entrance restaurants, so feel free to wander before you sit down.
Mote con Huesillo
On a hot afternoon, nothing is more Santiago than mote con huesillo. It’s a sweet, chilled drink of caramel-colored nectar with cooked husked wheat (mote) at the bottom and a whole rehydrated dried peach (huesillo) floating on top. You drink it and eat it at the same time. Look for it at street stands, especially near parks and hills like Cerro San Cristóbal.
Wine, Pisco Sours and Piscolas
Chile is one of the world’s major wine producers, and Santiago sits within easy reach of well-known valleys like Maipo, with Casablanca and Colchagua a bit farther out. The grape to know is Carménère, a variety from Bordeaux that was long mistaken for Merlot in Chilean vineyards before being identified in the 1990s. Today it’s something of a national signature — soft, spicy and deeply colored.
Then there’s pisco, the grape brandy both Chile and Peru claim. The Chilean pisco sour is typically made with lemon juice and sugar, often without the egg white common in the Peruvian version. For something more casual, order a piscola — pisco and cola — which is practically a national pastime.
Eating Well in Santiago: Practical Notes
Chileans tend to eat lunch as the main meal, and many restaurants offer a good-value set lunch on weekdays. Dinner starts later than in the US. Tap water in Santiago is generally considered safe, though many visitors prefer bottled. Tipping around 10 percent is customary at sit-down restaurants, and it’s often suggested on the bill.
To fit these flavors into your trip, see our Santiago guide and the three-day Santiago itinerary, which pairs sights with good places to stop for a bite.
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