Santo Fuego — Restaurant in Puerto Varas

My friends and I found this restaurant thanks to Google. We wanted a place to eat at walking distance from our rented apartment. No need for reservation since we are used to eat at Canadian dinner hours (i.e. 6:30 pm). The Santa Fuego is fortunately opened at this time. So we went in and we were the very first customers. We were greeted by Natalia and her colleagues. Natalia speaks English good enough to bear with three tourists whom their Spanish is limited to “gracias”. The menu can be viewed on the phone after scanning the QR code located on the table. I asked for a paper version and was kindly handed one.

I ordered the grilled sweetbreads as starters and the grilled ribeye with french fries as the main course. I usually eat sweetbreads in a cognac-based creamy sauce. No sauce here. Santa Fuego’s sweetbreads were perfectly grilled and came only with two slices of lemon and some grilled veggies. They were salted at perfection. After the first bite I felt like in heaven. When I was done with the starter came the masterpiece: the grilled rib eye. As a meat lover I ordered the 500-g version 😄. At the first cut I could fully appreciate the quality of this piece of meat: thick, tender, juicy and tasty. I like my steaks rare. And boy this one was awesome and perfectly seasoned. I enjoyed every single bite of it until the end.

Oscar, another friendly and joyful waiter, proposed dessert but no one of us could ingest another small piece of food. We are always amazed by the quantity of food per ordered serving in the restaurants late in the evening.

Service: Courteous and friendly (Natalia). Oscar even initiated a sort of complicity with us thanks to his joyful kindness. 👍

Food: Delicious. We could taste the freshness of the vegetables which were masterfully grilled. Everything (from the empanadas, the chimichuri sauce to the desserts) seems to be homemade and fresh of the day. Santa Fuego is the paradise for meat lovers.

Ambience: The atmosphere is relax even though you can feel this restaurant is more on the upper scale side of quality. Everybody of the team seems to know their role and carry it out efficiently. Waiters and waitresses are attentive but discreet. They are always there when one needs them but they will not twirl around you for no reason.

Price: Not the cheapest one around in Puerto Varas. But in terms of price/quality ratio certainly one of...

Despite no lakeside views from Santo Fuego, I definitely recommend this restaurant over that other eatery overlooking the lake and square. Santo Fuego has good ambience, lighting and temperature. The men's room is tidy and conducive to washing hands before eating the meal. The mainly male wait staff are professional and extremely courteous. The one lady table manager was friendly and professional as well. Diners don't receive a menu booklet at Santo Fuego. Instead, diners must scan QR code emblazoned on the dinner table to see the menu online. Those travelers who go on vacation to unplug from connectivity and technology--they might should avoid visiting Santo Fuego as there are no menu booklets in this restaurant. I ate here only once, so one experience doesn't spell all impressions as a general rule, but my ribeye steak wasn't sufficiently grilled. Not a problem, however, the table waiter politely took away the entire main dish, had the steak grilled an additional five minutes, and voila, the outcome was "en punto" as I had originally requested. In my opinion, properly sharpened steak knives should accompany Santo Fuego steaks. The main course's meat is fresh and tasty, but not tender for a dull knife. The highlight of this meal was the side of grilled vegetables. Typically in most restaurants around the world, a side of grilled vegetables comprises three items--carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. At Santo Fuego, the side vegetable dish contained a block of white onion, two large champignons, two large and full asparagus sticks, a small but tender sweet potato, half a green bell pepper, half a red bell pepper, a carrot, a small corn cob medallion, and several zucchini squash sections. This was a real grilled vegetable side which is noteworthy. If the diner is on a slight budget and must choose between a side of vegetables versus a side of "fritas", I recommend dropping the fritas because my fritas order was limp and greasy. The desserts on offer were mainly cakes with fruits, whereas I wanted a chocolate mousse which wasn't available. I recommend Santo Fuego to the tourist who doesn't mind spending a little more than average on a hearty meal at the end of the day. The wait staff, including Mr. Godoy, were...

We came to Santo Fuego after 3 rigorous 15-hour days of hiking Torres de paine . As cold, sore, un showered, and hungry as we were, the sublime grilling meats of this restaurant jolted us like bolts of electric energy. With the first bite of their salmon, we were (almost instantaneously ) brought back to “life.”

Grilling fish well isn’t super easy, but Santo Fuego’s chefs are true grill masters. They know how to grill local conger, salmon, tuna, etc perfectly- without overcooking, without making the meat to fall apart, without causing the fish to stick to the grill. They use top notch fresh seafood from the local puerto montt area and value light and nuanced flavors. because they go easy on seasoning and oil, their fish’s wonderfully rich, fatty, and underlining mineral flavors are retained. The chef’s subtle use of Chilean white wine conveys some acidity and sweetness, which goes really well with the subtle smoky flavors infused into the fish from the grill . Pair the seafood with some roasted veggies, local fava bean salad, and fresh bread + chimichurri and you are in...