Don Emelio Restaurante — Restaurant in Viña del Mar

My husband and I were lucky enough to find don Emelio for our first dinner in Chile. After reading the outstanding reviews, we avoided the - many - tempting places along the way to stop at this small, unassuming restaurant one hour before closing, and boy, are we glad we did! Marcello, the owner, who served us, spoke good English and his suggestions were impeccable. The generous portion of salmon ceviche - luscious pink salmon marinated in lime juice - was the best I ever had. My husband's spectacular fried fish was beautiful and tasty. As for the beef filet with shrimp and mushrooms, it melted in your mouth. All helped down with a bottle of excellent - and very reasonable - organic Carmenere from Colchagua valley which flowed down like silk. All at the very reasonable price of around $60. As an extra treat, we also met the chef, a charming and very talented young man whose English was way better than my Spanish. All in all, a splendid evening that we won't...

Anyone who meets the others can tell that they are clearly in love with their job (and with each other). We met the chef as well, and a couple of the wait staff too. They all seem happy and excited to work here. This kind of love for one's work is plenty obvious in the work itself. In this case, it's the fantastic food and the incredibly thoughtful service.

They make fresh empanadas every day and they're only available during mid day. If you come here at night, don't worry, you can't go wrong with anything on this menu. The 'special sauce' in most of their dishes apparently come from a family recipe from Spain dating from at least 4 generations ago (the intermediate generations are from Chile, Venezuela and the Canary Islands). Anything that lasts that long has gotta be awesome :)

Overall, fabolous.

PS: Try their chardonnay sour in addition to their pisco sour, they're both delicious and aren't as crazy sweet as you'd find at other...

This meal, was life changing. A must try if you are in Viña del Mar. The service was impeccable, the food and wine so fresh, high quality and delicious. Andres helped us pick out an appetizer and two entrees with wine pairings to complement the dish & dessert. I had a local whitefish with peach sauce & mashed potatoes. The perfect amount of sweet and savory. My partner had their eel stew, extremely generous amount of seafood. Broth to die for. Our appetizer was Chilaen sea bass in a yellow pepper sauce, served cold/raw. The ambiance was calm and quiet on a weekday evening.

We have had some great meals but this was definitely one of our best, and we went to a michelin star restaurant earlier in the week. For the quality and uniqueness of the dinner we got, the prices were extremely fair. Thank you so much to the chef, staff and owners...