The two restaurants I most wanted to visit during our time in Chile couldn’t have been more different.

Rancho Doña Maria, by the side of the highway forty minutes outside of Santiago, serves empanadas baked in clay ovens and pork ribs to die for. Boragó, in the heart of Santiago, offers extravagant eight- and sixteen-course tasting menus, and could be considered South America’s Alinea.

Yet both represent the county’s cuisine at its finest.

Boragó currently comes in at #8 on a list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, which therefore puts it at #1 for Chile. And after having eaten the restaurant’s most elaborate option, the Raqko tasting menu (the shorter tasting menu, still apparently mind-blowing, is called Endemica), we’d have to agree.

When we arrived for our 8:00 p.m. reservation, we were greeted by name and ushered into an empty restaurant … which again told us that if we want to dine at fashionable hours while in South America, we’re going to have to start making much later reservations! (If I remember correctly, the tasting menu at Astrid y Gaston in Lima wasn’t even available before 10:30 p.m.) The next patrons didn’t arrive for another half an hour, so for a brief period, Boragó was ours.

But a note of apology as I begin—my report on Boragó will be picture heavy and text light, because the explanations given by the (extremely friendly and knowledgable) servers for each dish were very complex, with the sourcing and harvesting of each ingredient being explained in depth, with far more detail than my memory could process. Luckily, the dishes themselves are so beautiful that the photos alone should still satisfy.

Amuse Bouche

We were brought not one amuse bouche, but half a dozen, each of which was described in loving detail, but which in my muddled memory are deviled eggs, melon-flavored jelly cubes, donuts filled with chopped liver, potatoes stuffed with a savory filling, fish crackers, and caramel-filled egg rolls. I fear you’re going to have to travel to Santiago yourself if you want a better understanding of the components of this elaborate amuse bouche.

Nalca Chilota y Fruitilla de Playa

The first course featured thinly sliced nalca, the Chilean rhubarb, while in the center is a sea strawberry, which grows on rocks along the coast.

Verdolagas y Yogur de Pajarito

Portulaca is considered a weed in the U.S., but the rest of the world knows better.

Cremoso de Isla Negra

A squid ink cracker dotted with goat cheese atop samphire (that is, sea asparagus) which as you can see was almost too beautiful to eat. But we ate it anyway!

Robalo y Betarrga

Cured haddock with beets. Lovely.

Chupe de Setas de Quintay

This mushroom dish was very rich, packed with umami, and might have been my favorite dish of the night.

Huevo al Rescolodo

A poached egg hidden by a layer of ash. We were instructed to mash it all together before eating.

Curanto y Agua de Lluvia de la Patagonia

This is Boragó’s way of presenting a curanto, the Chilean dish in which meat and vegetables are buried between dirt and hot rocks. Instead, we were presented with a cup of rich broth from the traditional ingredients. A potato pancake, perhaps a metaphor for the moon seen through trees, was stuck in twigs.

Porotos Granados

The traditional chilean stew deconstructed and reinvented.

Congrio Frito

Conger cooked in a fried batter of squid ink. Solid blackness until my fork revealed the delicate white eel.

La Caza del Ciervo

Venison with mushrooms, beets … and antlers made of chocolate! It was served in a representation of a hunt, with metaphorical spatter and even vegetables standing in for shotgun pellets. But it was only the second most playful plating of the night, as you’ll see below.

Ternera y Su Leche

Veal braised in milk, with a skin of burnt milk. Very tender, with a complex, almost sweet flavor.

Maqui y Yogur de Pajarito

The first of the dessert courses, a frozen, fruity concoction we were told to eat quickly before it melted.

Rica Rica de Atacama

The cookie, cracked to look like the Atacama desert, was soft and chewy, and served atop rica rica flavored ice cream.

Oveja Chilota

Hidden beneath this sheep’s cotton candy “wool” and behind its marshmallow head was a scoop of sheep’s milk ice cream. It made us laugh, and was delicious, too!

Coulant de Espino

You don’t get to see this dish as it was served to us, because it came out as a perfectly round globe, which we were asked to crush immediately. Inside the chocolate shell was gooey melted chocolate.

As for the sixteenth and final course, Frio Glacial, well … you don’t get a picture of that one. Our server rushed from the kitchen with a plate containing what looked like two upright macaroons and told us to pop them in our mouths immediately. But they were not macaroons. Because the instant mine hit my tongue, my mouth became icy cold, and smoke burst from my lips and nostrils with every breath. This lasted for more than a minute, and I could’t stop laughing until the effect wore off.

An amazing meal! My only disappointment was that Chef Rodolfo Guzman was out of town at a cooking event in Lima, which meant I was unable to thank him personally for the experience.

Guess that means I’ll have to return!