Yum Cha — Restaurant in Providencia

An incredible meal, one of the best dining experiences I've had anywhere. Familiar flavors and ingredients are found in totally unexpected but successful combinations. The chef's deep knowledge of multiple Asian cuisines plus his masterful use of Chilean ingredients made me smile for the entire 2+ hours of the experience.

Cold noodles with scallop and zucchini noodles? Amazing. Chinkiang (I think) vinegar on Mont Blanc cake, made to look just like what I'd find in a Tokyo bakery? A combo which has inspired me to start pouring black vinegar on everything.

Every dish was great and made 100x better with the 10 course TEA pairing, which featured truly special teas you'd be hard pressed to find in a set of ten anywhere. Particularly memorable were the pairings of a hybrid Taiwanese sinensis and assam tea with sumptuous sour pickled cabbage fish (a dish I honestly never thought I'd see outside a hardcore chinese restaurant), puer with char siu SEA BASS and a beautiful, high grade dong fang meiren with a pineapple dessert that made me feel like I was eating a pineapple cake with tea at Sunny Hills in Taipei. IYKYK. I could go on and on - every dish and every tea was special.

The entrance is on what appears to be a residential street - buzz in for admission. The staff are exceptionally knowledgeable, passionate and welcoming.

I can't recommend this more highly. I will definitely make a stop here again the next time I am...

My most common thought whilst dining at Yum Cha was it seemed that China didn't know it was invited to dinner. Having travelled to most countries in Asia and being from Australia where there is incredible Asian/Chinese cuisine myself and my friend left the evening quite disappointed and our wallets empty. Having lived in Chile for 2 years, I'm aware the Chilean palate is less developed for Asian flavours but having read reviews from Westerners I had assumed we'd be ok.

Unfortunately, we found only 1 dish of the ten really had punchy Asian flavours. The rest seemed like they wanted to incorporate Asian ingredients without knowing how to make them shine/complement each other. Two desserts had cucumber, which was odd but also the flavour overpowered any other aspect of the dishes.

My friend got the tea tasting menu (20 Lucas) and the servings of each tea were miniscule, no more than 2-3 sips, whilst I went for the wine/tea mix (40 Lucas). The service was good, and the waiters could speak both Spanish and English. Overall, we both came away feeling that our most expensive meal in Chile certainly didn't match the price and we wouldn't go again. Having spoken to another Australian living in Chile, she also felt the same way about Yum Cha. Perhaps for the local palate it's a great spot, but for anyone wanting punchy Asian flavours,...

After searching places to eat for my 20hr stop over in Santiago I found Yum Cha and even in my tiredness I’m so Grateful that I made it to dinner. I loved sitting at the bar and watching the kitchen. I had 10 courses which were all around seafood and tea. (I don’t like fishy seafood taste) so I was a little worried about the mussel dish but that ended up being one of my top favs.

Please note this is, I think a converted house in a quiet dark street so don’t be alarmed like I was when the taxi dropped me off, there’s a sign and you just ring the door bell and you are let in with your reservation.

I liked every single dish (except I didn’t eat all the seaweed on one!) ☺️

I had the tea pairings as I wasn’t drinking and that did not disappoint, I really enjoyed having every dish explained in details not only what it was but what flavours to expect.

Highly recommend getting in to try this, note it’s only a small place so book in advance.

I added a few photos not everything as you may want to have a few surprises when you arrive.

I hope that when I’m back end of Sept I can visit again.

Thanks to all the wonderful staff who connected with me beforehand via what’s app to answer any questions I had. And everyone on the night. Much...