Restaurant Review: Coco Loco (Santiago, Chile)

Have you ever seen a crazy coconut? Neither have I. That's why I took note of the funny sign sitting above the doorway of a local eatery in the upscale Las Condes district in downtown Santiago, Chile. And on the sign, the bold distinction of specializing in Chilean seafood. With over 4,000 miles of Pacific coastline (6,345 km), that means a lot of opportunities to pull some tasty food out of the ocean in this country. Mmm!

I was en route to a drugstore, and my appetite wasn't quite with me (besides, I had sushi on my mind for dinner), but I vowed to return, and return I did for lunch today.

I won't necessarily give the restaurant bad marks for being empty, as it was around 3:30pm on a Saturday, and the Las Condes area feels like a ghost town during the day on weekends, as the business crowd is long gone, and it's much too early for the bar and dinner crowd to have descended on the city. But, I was one of 6 total guests in a restaurant that looks able to seat more than a hundred.

Coco Loco has been in business for 40 years, and has only one location, so all signs point to them knowing what they're doing, and so I prepared myself for an amazing lunch experience as I waited for my Caipirinha to arrive.

I was also served hot bread rolls, baked fresh en casa, and they were amazing. Anyone who likes the taste and density of a good homemade buttermilk biscuit is going to love these rolls. It was wise of them to serve me only two, because any more and I would have spoiled my appetite.

 Plus, I did save the second roll to dip in my appetizer, the chili and garlic octopus (3,500 CLP), which was amazing! The perfect amount of spice from the diced red chili peppers, combined with fresh minced garlic and fresh coriander, surrounded the succulent fresh octopus in a buttery broth. The bits and pieces of the garlic, chili, and coriander, and the fresh butter flavor, made for the perfect biscuit dipping sauce.


I was barely finished when my main course was brought to me. Something taken from the chef's suggestions page in the menu, and which I was confident would taste as delicious as it sounded: Chilean sea bass stuffed with shore crabs, and served with sauteed vegetables (the vegetables were my own substitution as I preferred them over the sauteed potatoes originally paired with the dish). At 10,300 CLP, it was slightly more than most of the other main dishes, except for the lobster, but I wanted to really sink my teeth into something special, and sea bass and crab are two of my favorite seafood items. Put them together, and it has to be a winner, right?

Now, here's something I did not know: Chile is number 9 on the world's list of salt producers and exporters. You can read all about that exciting fact here. But I wish they would have exported a bit more of that salt, rather than putting it in my fish.

The vegetables were perfectly cooked in light olive oil, and there is no doubt that the sea bass and the crab were fresh and local. The texture and taste of the fish itself was delightful. The chef's attempt at creating a delicate cream sauce to accompany these treats, though, was overpowered by a saltiness which tasted like the ocean itself. The dish was spoiled.

I could conceive of be forgiving if the house was packed, and my dinner was one of dozens coming out. I can empathize with a chef who may not have every available second to pay attention to details, and things do happen. But when I'm the only person in the restaurant (the others had by now left), why shouldn't my meal be as amazing as his skills allow? You're gonna let your 40 year reputation ride on the shoulders of a chef like that?

But, I'm never one to give up early, and so I fought the good battle and stuck it out through dessert, which was a homemade flan de la casa. It was sensational, and served at the proper temperature, with the perfect caramel sauce all around it.

So, while my starter and dessert were amazing, and would definitely be given the opportunity to see the light of day again in this reviewer's mind, the Crazy Coconut left my main course down in the mine to perish. 

While I'm sure that a 40 year old restaurant in a prominent location in the center of one of Santiago's finest food districts is capable of doing things better than they did today, today was not Chile's proudest day.

The Danger Zone doles out a mediocre 3 gas masks to the Coco Loco, and encourages them to lay off the salt!

Coco Loco
Avenida El Bosque Norte 0215
Las Condes, Santiago de Chile
http://www.cocoloco.cl/site/