La Mesa — Restaurant in Vitacura

It’s very unfortunate that we have to write this review. We went to La Mesa this evening for a dinner celebration (being sold with the sustainability concept by the restaurant), oblivious with the more recent reviews.

While the outdoor garden ambience is pleasant and the service warm, the food are below standard at its best. We ordered 3 entree - the oysters, the ceviche and the grilled octopus. All 3 were underwhelming and it’s beyond our comprehension that the simple dishes could be executed so poorly. The presentation, texture and taste profiles were all so out of balance. Giving it another chance with some naivety (as it is also recommended in the worlds50best) we ordered a seafood risotto and seafood pasta as our main. Both dishes were, once again, left a lot to be desired. Overly salty, unnecessarily overpowering sauce, overcooked pasta and risotto that left unpleasant tastes in the mouth. I was in constant denial we could have such a bad meal in La Mesa but this could possibly be the worst meal I have in a very long time across all restaurants categories, globally. Even if the meal is of 1/3 of the price, we unfortunately cannot recommend anyone to come here. We left with tremendous sadness and puzzlement. Perhaps it was good once but no longer the case presently. The kitchen really requires a lot of improvement to catch up with the culinary game.

The cocktails were done well though - the only solace to such a...

We had dinner in the Masal Bar de Vinos room. The food was decent but not particularly memorable, especially considering the price. We ordered octopus as a starter, followed by lamb and slow-cooked beef, with eggplant and broccoli as sides.

The octopus was fine, though oddly covered in an excessive amount of parsley. The beef was quite good, but the lamb was tough and lacked flavor. The broccoli was well-prepared, but the eggplant was difficult to eat, underseasoned, and—like the octopus—unexpectedly buried in parsley.

Our main reason for choosing the Masal room was to explore Chilean wines. Unfortunately, the sommelier didn’t seem particularly engaged in guiding us through the selections or explaining the differences in the wine flights on the menu. While the wines themselves were enjoyable, the overall experience fell short of...

Sat at the bar.. my experience with both Jose, the sommelier and Fabian, the bartender at Verde bar, made the experience count..

I walked in on a rainy night, sat at the bar starving…. The complimentary home made focaccia was so nice, warm and tasty (I ordered more and I never eat bread). I had the ceviche (this is fresh and different to Peruvian style sauce), grilled octopus and beef chunks.. have to say beef chunks was my favourite ( mind blowing with sweet and tender flavours) contrarian..

Jose explained to me different type of Chilean wines and what organic meant on wines.. def helped narrow my wine valley visit and learning experience of Chilean wines ..

Will be back again if my days here weren’t limited, but I really enjoyed the...