Restaurant Roadtrip: A restaurant experience in Chile

Why eat at the same restaurant in Valparaiso, Chile, three nights in a row?  Unheard of in our restaurant experience. Although not planned, La Concepcion, international with a Brazilian flair, became our dining room away from home.

Our first visit was at midnight after a gala affair to celebrate announcing the winners of Concours Mondial, a wine competition and food products show, which we judged.  The second visit, was at the respectable Chilean time of 10 p.m., to treat the competition organizer to an exotic meal in a cozy, relaxed atmosphere.  The third, on a Sunday night at a decent Latin time of 8 p.m. (they just opened!). We were really hungry and so tired that we needed comfortable, friendly, familiar surroundings.

In a Latin country there is never a worry to find a restaurant open late.  There is only a problem if you want to eat early.  That first visit we walked two blocks to the restaurant from our hotel, Gran Hotel Gervasoni, with four friends from Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Chile.  Even at midnight every table was occupied including the balcony-like terrace overlooking the bay.  The lights sparkled at a distance like jewels along the curve of the beach at Vina de la Mar, also lighting the waves of the ocean.

While the wine list was a mix of South American brands and varietals, the stars for us were from Chile. The menu offered everything from cerviche to ostrich, Ecuadorian shrimp with red curry and coconut milk, roast pumpkin soup, to vegetarian lasagna. That’s international!

A sauvignon blanc from Leyda region, Garces Silva Amayna, was less sharp in the mouth, but full of juicy flavors of kiwi and red grapefruit. Then we ordered Montes Alpha Chardonnay 2007 from Casa Blanca.  Because it is not over oaked and to the lean side of the spectrum, it was good with salad and cerviche.

Then we slipped into Chile’s signature red varietal, carmenere. San Pedro 1865 Single Vineyard 2007 Carmenere from Maule Valley was reasonably priced and juicy with fleshy fruit. For our group of six we ordered a second bottle of red, Casa Silva Quinta Generacion 2007, a blend of five varietals light enough to be versatile with food and perfectly balanced.

This was the night of desserts....café panna cotta and tiramisu. Yum....

The next night after raving about La Conception, we decided to take our ‘leader’ from Santiago and the judge from the Netherlands to our favorite haunt.  Exploration of the menu continued with arugula salad with black olive, goat cheese, and a slightly sweet mustard vinaigrette.

We again began the food and wine pairing with three styles of totally different cerviche —  salmon, sea trout, and sea bass — all different with sweet onion, sharper purple onion, or Peruvian style with more bitter onion and a bit of hot pepper to make each bite memorable.

Emiliana (Concho y Toro’s organic/biodynamic producer) Sauvignon Blanc 2009 was a perfect ‘sauce’ for the cerviche...like squeezing a few drops of lemon juice on a dish.  Squid chowder was amazing. The beautifully cooked, rosy beef tenderloin with a merken (hot pepper)demi glace gave us a chance to try Estampa Gold blend of syrah, cabernet sauvignon, merlot....a perfect weight and texture in the mouth.

Even our friendly Brazilian waiter, Miguel, was surprised to see us the third evening. We were seated at a table for two facing the sea next to a couple with two young children.  We watched the one-year old put his spoon into every dish brought to the table, while his four-year old sister softly sang a song about a butterfly in English.

It was an early family night.  We sipped another favorite varietal, syrah from Montes Alpha in the Colchagua Valley as we watched the children consume a flourless chocolate raspberry cake.  It looked too good....we had one before going back to the hotel to pack to go to Santiago.

La Concepcion

Papudo 541

Cerro Concepcion

Valparaiso, Chile

56-32-249-8192

rest_laconcepcion@yahoo.com