Pinpilinpausha — Restaurant in Las Condes

2023 Dec./Jan: We had one of our best meals in Chile at Pinpilinpausha. The calamari friti were very good, nicely breaded, crispy, with perfectly cooked rings. The camarones al pil pil were outstanding. The shrimp were hot, sizzling in the black clay greda. Still tender, not overcooked. The pil pil oil was super flavourful, I would have guzzled it, but I dunked bread in it instead. All in all, an excellent meal with service to match. Thursday, January 23, 2025 We were here ~2 weeks ago and had a great meal then, in the 'train car' next to the outside smoking section. Today, my wife and her niece ordered the filete with shallot sauce and papas duquesas, and I ordered the lamb rack riblets blue, a la Inglesa. The lamb came out first, rare as I had requested. The filetes came out soon there after. My wife's filete was rare as requested, as was Javi's, but Javi had requested medium to 3/4 done. Javi sent her filete back to be re-fired, and it came back medium rare, which she deemed close enough to get going on the meal. The filetes were of good quality and texture, easily cut and chewed, with good umami flavour, enhanced by the dark shallot gravy. The bolitas of papas duquesas were tasty in their own right, like deluxe flavoured mashed potatoes with their own fried breaded texturization encasement. (I know because my wife let me have one bolita off her plate.) Both ladies thoroughly enjoyed their filetes with papas duquesas, each cooked to their desired doneness. I love lamb, and I love rare lamb even more. To be honest, these lamb riblets were basically raw. But unafraid, I ate them anyway, the garbanzo puree really stepping up flavourwise to enhance the lamb flavours. Though raw, the lamb was super tender, except near the bone. The great drawback of raw lamb is the unyielding elastic nature of uncooked tendons and connective tissue. The risk of launching a riblet across the table or across the room while doing battle with a recalcitrant riblet tendon was too great - so a good chunk of the meat of each riblet ended up in the reject bone pile. (At home I'd have made lamb bone soup.) At my table, requested second only to Lourenco Marques Prawns (LM prawns / Prawns Piri Piri) is Rack of lamb Fiji roast goat style. My wife cleans and de-silver skins the rack, and I then liberally shower the rack with Fiji lamb spice, a spice blend I developed based heavily on Fiji goat curry spice. I then sear the whole rack, starting with the heavy meaty end, rendering off the surrounding excess fat. I then sear the rib bone end of the rack, upper and lower sides, This renders off the fat and softens and makes edible the tendons and connective tissue along the rib. A few more minutes on the concave rib end meat and the rack comes off the fire. I separate the riblets, carefully threading the knife between the vertebra, and arrange the separated rib 'lollopops' on a platter. I dust more Fiji lamb spice on the newly exposed face of the lollipop. Flipping the lollipops over and dusting again with Fiji lamb spice ensures that the top and bottom of each lollipop is well spiced. The lollipops go back onto the fire to flash sear each lollipo top and then bottom. This drives flavour into each lollipop of lamb, but leaves it still rare. More than a handful of self-proclaimed lamb haters have been converted by Fiji rack of lamb. I think the lamb riblets I was served today would have been greatly enhanced by some of the techniques discussed above, and precluded the serving of raw lamb. But this is a Spanish/Basque restaurant, not some Fiji joint, and they are fully entitled to cook the lamb in their Basque ancestors' way. Would I order Pinpilinpausha's chuletitas de cordero again? In a heartbeat! But I'd order it medium or medium-rare to avoid the spectre of raw lamb. After the main courses, the ladies shared a postre of torta de merengue lucuma. I had a coffee cortado. Ambience- 4, a little dated decor, but cozy. Food - 4, great beef, but flawed lamb. Service - 4, great until our waitress vanished Pinpilinpausha...

Great place! Nice decor! great meal. Pleasant friendly staff. A great find after a terrible experience trying to make a reservation at another restaurant called El Quintocoño.

I thank all of the staff at Pinpilinpausha restaurant. We had calamari, paella, and passion fruit cheesecake. 98,000Pesos well spent. We rarely drink alcohol so I cannot comment on their wines and cocktails.

The only thing we didn't like was a red/orange coloured sauce served with the bread. I asked the young man serving for butter "manteca" he just dismissed my request, pointed to the sauce and walked away. Absolutely very rude. I'm not a beggar on the street asking for a handout. I'm a paying customer.... someone remind bread-boy with the bad attitude of this.

But apart from this, at the end of our meal we left the restaurant feeling very very happy with the entire experience.

Santiago was just a stopover for us on our way to Easter island the next day. We didn't have a lot of time and wanted to have a nice relaxing meal somewhere.

For sure when next we are in Santiago we will avoid "El Quintocoño" and go directly to "Pinpilpausha" for another great meal. Thank...

I went there with 3 colleagues of different nationalities, food preferences, restrictions and allergies. And had a great dinner. The food was super nice, the portions were correct, the prices were decent, but where this place really made the difference was the service.

We were lucky enough to have Stefany take care of us and she was absolutely amazing. Great attitude, funny, smart, she knew how to present and recommend the dishes, knew when to ask and when to listen, all smiles (although I am sure it’s not easy at all), a million dollar reaction when she realised she had brought us the wrong beer…

Giving 4 stars for food and atmosphere just to highlight the 5-star service that Stefany provided.

I could go there and just have mineral water and enjoy the experience.

So definitely a place to...