DB Eats: La Mar, Santiago, Chile

Sanitago de Chile’s equivalent to Rodeo Drive is Nueva Costanera. On this shiny, glossy strip of retail and fine dining splendour is La Mar, a modern, glass-fronted restaurant which specialises in one of Peru’s most celebrated cuisines – cebiche.

On the night I arrive every single table was occupied. It was a Tuesday night. Tuesday! This is either testament to the quality of the restaurant or it suggests the recession hasn’t hit the Chilean capital yet.

My guess would be the former, not because the recession is global, but because this is a pescophile’s heaven, the atmosphere is relaxed and the wine list is great.

The wine list may be Chile, Chile, Chile but for once I don’t mind a focus on one country. All too often I am confronted with wine lists that are exclusively French and/or Italian with perhaps a smattering of Napa, so La Mar’s list makes a welcome change.

Plus, a Chile-exclusive list (excluding Champagne, of course) practically guarantees whatever I choose will be great, and, such are the differences in flavour profile of wines from Chile’s numerous valleys and regions, choosing one of the 42 Sauvignon Blancs, 29 Chardonnays, 12 Pinot Noirs, 10 Chilean sparklers, five Malbecs or six Syrahs (and that’s not evening touching on Sauvignon Gris or Gewurztraminer), I might as well have been presented with a list covering every wine-producing country from South Africa to Switzerland.

As good as the wine list may be, a good Chilean meal should never start without a Pisco sour, which La Mar does perfectly. Then onto the famous cebiche using both fish and shellfish, all of which are fantastically fresh and vibrant no matter which of the numerous leche di tigre (lime juice and pepper-based sauce) is used.

The restaurant also does tiraditor, the Peruvian version of carpaccio or sashimi, again in a variety of fishes and coatings. And let’s not forget this is South American food, so the restaurant has plenty of Peruvian salads, its own take on empanadas and a variety of beef cuts available on the vast menu too.

Thankfully there are five other La Mar Cebucherias around the world, in São Paulo, Panamá, Lima, Mexico City and San Francisco, so don’t think Chile is the only option, and I can only presume that the food and wine in every La Mar is as tantalising for the taste buds as this one in Santiago de Chile.

La Mar Cebucherias,
Nueva Costanera 3922, Vitacura
Santiago de Chile
Tel: +56 2206 7839
reservaschile@lamarcebicheria.cl
www.lamarcebicheria.com

Jane Parkinson, 11.08.09