Chile is synonymous with adventure—where you can journey from the Mars-like Atacama Desert to the icy wilderness of Patagonia in a single 2,670-mile stretch. But the adventure doesn't stop at its landscapes; it extends to its culinary scene, and nowhere is this more evident than at Borago restaurant in Santiago.
Every course from Chilean chef-owner Rodolfo Guzman's kitchen tells the story of its diverse ecosystems. Borago sources ingredients from over 200 small producers across the country, bringing the wilds of Chile to your plate.
The opportunity to dine at Borago arose as Kel and I planned a two-week vacation to Chile in South America, the first half of which would be spent exploring Easter Island. Upon our return to Santiago from our stay at Nayara Hangaroa, we'd celebrate our anniversary with the 18-course tasting menu, Endemica.
Borago is a regular on the World's 50 Best Restaurants lists. In 2023, it was ranked the 9th-best restaurant in Latin America and the 29th-best worldwide. In 2021, Borago was awarded the Flor de Caña Sustainable Restaurant Award. Now, please sit back, relax, and let's journey through Chilean cuisine as only Rodolfo Guzman can imagine it.
Table of Contents
The Dining Room
Getting to Borago restaurant in the upscale Santiago suburb of Vitacura was a breeze—a quick 10-minute Uber ride from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where we spent the final nights of our trip. Although we arrived a few minutes late for our 5:30 p.m. reservation, we were still among the first guests to enter the spacious dining room that evening.
One side of the room had a wall of windows, offering views of Manquehuito Mountain in the fading light. At the front of the dining room, which seats 54, glass separates diners from the kitchen. The sleek design reminded Kel of "The Menu," the fine-dining thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy.
The host led us to our table by a window near the kitchen, where we could see a Patagonian lamb cooking slowly off indirect heat from coals.
I encountered this traditional method (cordero al palo) while traveling through Chilean Patagonia in 2012. It was a real treat to have a close-up view of the lamb cooking and the kitchen, whose staff always appeared calm and focused whenever I glanced at them.
The Endemica Menu
Once we'd settled into our seats, we unfolded a card depicting the many Chilean territories from which Borago sources its ingredients. These include the spectacular Atacama Desert (the driest nonpolar desert in the world) in the north of Chile, native forests, the Andes, and Patagonia in the south. I've read ingredients are sometimes sourced from as far away as Rapa Nui (Easter Island), too.
Not all the Chilean products on your plate at Borago come from far away. In line with their sustainability and zero-mile cooking commitment, chef Guzman and his team also grow vegetables at a farm just 30 minutes from the restaurant. They also produce their milk, which is aged naturally.
The Endemica menu is priced at 179,000 pesos (about $194) and promises 12 to 18 courses. This reflects a 24,000 peso ($26) increase from our visit in May 2024. Still, it's in line with other top Latin American restaurants, such as Central in Lima and Leo in Bogota.
The timing of our trip to Chile in May marked the end of summer and the start of autumn. Borago's seasonal menu switched from summer to fall the week after we dined there.
A wine pairing with five to six pours is available for an additional 96,000 pesos (about $104) per person, or you can do a non-alcoholic juice pairing for 40,000 pesos ($43).
I began the meal with a glass of white wine; Osorno, a Southern Chilean wine by Ribera Pellin, was suggested. Besides that, Kel and I were content to sip on still water sourced from Patagonia. Once we'd confirmed our drink preferences, we were off to the races.
Courses 1 to 6
Our first course at Borago restaurant in Santiago was a colorful pink tomato pebre with granado beans placed atop a drink of pink tomato "Chancho en Piedra." Pebre and chancho en piedra are two common Chilean salsas. Here, we picked up the star-shaped snack made with a sesame seed shell and ate it in one bite before sipping the tomato juice through the large bamboo straw.
The next course was even more fanciful. A bee made of Chilean alfalfa and truffle was presented on a wire as if buzzing around above the flowers below. It was served with a small bowl of almond milk-based sauce for dipping.
I loved the creativity so far, and we were just getting started. The timing of the courses continued to be consistent, which isn't always the case when there are more than a dozen to be delivered over several hours.
Seafood
Our third course was a striking sea urchin from Quintay, served with a vibrant beach malva green sauce. We were instructed to wrap the green mallow leaves around the sea urchins and eat them like tacos.
A crunchy base beneath the velvety urchin added a satisfying contrast in texture. Quintay, a small beach town on the Pacific Coast, lies just south of Valparaiso, about 90 miles west of Borago restaurant.
Our journey off the coast of Chile continued with a rock shrimp crudo served with seaweed extract. The crudo was presented atop a rock on a white plate covered in bright blue algae extract.
The process here was to sprinkle the seaweed extract over the crudo before taking a bite and using the green leaves to wipe up some of the algae.
Flower Power
Course number six was a trio of summer poppies made with luma, loyo, and nalca. Each flower had a crunchy stem, making it all the more fun to eat.
Luma, also known as Chilean Myrtle, is an evergreen tree native to Central and Southern Chile. It produces a small, edible blue or black berry. Loyo is a giant Chilean mushroom. Nalca is a Chilean rhubarb native to Southern Chile.
It'd only been thirty minutes since we sat in Borago's dining room, and we were already one-third of the way through the Endemica menu. The innovative approach to sharing indigenous Chilean ingredients continued.
Courses 7 to 13
Our seventh course at Borago, the best restaurant in Santiago, was a striking red copihue flower with seafood, which arrived on ice. A summer cherry and pink tomato granita was used to prop up the flower in the ice bowl. We first ate the seafood-filled flower with our hands before scooping out the granita with a spoon.
The copihue, also called the Chilean bellflower, is native to the Valdivian temperate forests along the coast of Southern Chile. The overlogging of the forests threatened this once plentiful flower. In 1977, the copihue was named the national flower of Chile to give it legal protection.
According to one of chef Guzman's Instagram posts, while it's still illegal to harvest these flowers from native forests, he sourced those used in Borago from a first-of-its-kind domestication program.
A hardshell crab covering a bowl was placed before us, and I wasn't sure what to think until it was flipped upside down to reveal two dishes in one. The bowl contained mini luga (seaweed) empanadas and Kollof roots broth. In a story for The Guardian, chef Guzman discussed the months-long process of learning how to make luga palatable.
Inside the shell were lemon crab and magnolia flowers. We were instructed to pour broth served in a seashell into the crab shell and then go to town. The mixture proved spicy.
A fuzzy bowl was brought out with milcao, a traditional Chilean potato pancake resembling the Colombian arepas I became accustomed to living in Medellin. They were served hot with pajarito butter. This source served as a segue into several larger, savory courses.
The Borago team sent out courses 11, 12, and 13 simultaneously, with plenty to unpack. In front of us was their take on caldillo de congrio, a traditional Chilean fish soup made with conger eel.
Larger Plates
The dish was a favorite of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, whose homes in Santiago and Valparaiso I'd toured on my previous trip to Chile. "Summer flowers wilted in the embers" adorned the gray plate.
The soup was served alongside grilled Maule pink tomato with lime vinaigrette. This was the third time the pink Chilean produce had been incorporated into a dish. The remaining plate held a giant seaweed bladder used to cook lobster, which Kel and I found pretty tender and juicy.
Courses 14 to 18
The savory portion of the Endémica tasting menu concluded with two standout dishes. The first, a vegetable and flower creation, was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, which he painted in Arles in 1889.
Ingredients included white asparagus, zucchini, edible flowers, and pumpkin seeds. As an art history student in college and a long-time Van Gogh fan, it was thrilling to see his iconic work reimagined through food.
After watching the Patagonian lamb slowly cook outside, a few yards from our table, we finally had the opportunity to try it. The crispy skin offered a delightful crunch and contrast with the juicy meat. Next, our attention turned to the sweet side of Borago.
Dessert
The first of three dessert courses was a mini-magnum of loyo, an edible fungus that appeared earlier on the menu with the summer poppies course. Here, it's used to make ice cream that fills the cap of the faux mushroom. The stem had a filling of berries and dulce de leche. It was a two—or three-bite dessert with varied flavors and textures.
The penultimate course, inspired by the Chilean coast, was a seaweed pie with caramelized luche (seaweed) and piure (sea squirt). It was unlike any dessert I've encountered.
At first glance, you saw only a giant barnacle stuffed with seaweed in a bowl of rocks and sand. As our server explained the dessert course, he opened the barnacle to reveal what appeared to be a foam lining inside its walls. Thankfully, we would not be eating foam but a multi-layered, sweet, creamy filling made in part with lemon-flavored ice cream and algae.
Scraping the interior walls of the barnacle, not entirely sure of what we were eating, caused a bit of trepidation. Still, we'd come this far in Borago's inventive menu, so why stop at the dessert? The sand was edible, so you could scrape the filling and then dip your spoon into the base to add some crunchiness.
The last dessert, "Cold Glacier," was a bite-size piece of merengue frozen with liquid nitrogen to channel a bit of Patagonia's cold weather to Borago restaurant in Santiago.
Impressions
Dining at Borago restaurant in Santiago felt like an adventure, like exploring Chile's vast and diverse landscapes. Chef Rodolfo Guzman and his team celebrated the country’s natural wonders with every course, using ingredients sourced from hundreds of local producers across Chile.
Endemica is one of the most imaginative tasting menus I've experienced. It brought the flavors and culinary traditions of the desert, forests, Patagonia, and the Pacific Ocean to life, each dish telling the story of Chile's unique ecosystems. From the creative presentations to the deep connection with native ingredients, dining at Borago was an unforgettable culinary journey I'm happy to recommend.
Visit Borago Restaurant in Santiago
Address: Av. San Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer 5970, Region Metropolitana, Chile.
Reservations: Reservations are required and can be made through Borago's website. A credit card is required, and there's a $100 cancellation fee per person if you don't provide more than 24 hours' advance notice of cancellation. Tables are held for 30 minutes.
Dress code: As far as I know, there's no stated dress code; however, as this is a fine dining experience, I'd recommend smart casual at a minimum.