Restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Travelers come to San Pedro de Atacama to have adventures in the Atacama Desert, which is hungry work. We first visited San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile in 2017. Seven years later, we returned to find the range of restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama has improved (a bit). Though the best food is still to be found at guests-only restaurants within the luxury all-inclusive hotels around town, there’s now a range of recommendable restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama for all types of travelers.

Most budget hostels and mid-range hotels in San Pedro de Atacama include at least a rudimentary breakfast in their room rates, so in this post we’ve concentrated on lunch, snack, and dinner options.

Restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama: cheap eats

Though prices in the tourist hub of San Pedro de Atacama are inflated overall, it is possible to eat on a budget in San Pedro de Atacama.

Sol Inti restaurant offers a simple but well-made 3-course (appetizer, main, dessert) set lunch and dinner menu with good-sized portions, fresh ingredients, beer on tap, and friendly service (about 7,000 CLP/US$7.50).

A guide tipped us off to Restaurant Tara el Regalon. Located in a strip of simple shops and eateries near the Artisan Market, Tara is another good bet for a cheap set lunch with a wide range of options.

During our first visit in 2017, we encountered La Franchuteria. We are happy to report that one of the most unexpected restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama was still going strong in 2024. Opened by a Frenchman who still runs the place, La Franchuteria is your source for legit croissants and loaves of bread plus other high-quality goodies including sandwiches. They also offer an inviting garden setting for breakfast. Come early. They sell out fast.

Since 2005, Heladeria Babalu has been offering homemade ice cream in distinctly desert flavors including rica rica (a sweet dessert herb), quinoa, chañar (a desert tree), and more (they serve common flavors too). There are now a few Bablu shops in San Pedro de Atacama and they’re a great place for a cooling snack.

Chilean empanadas (larger and breadier than their Argentinean counterparts and sometimes stuffed with fillings that include raisins or olives) are sold all over town and make a cheap and portable meal.

There are a lot of places claiming to serve pizza in San Pedro de Atacama. Avoid Pizzeria El Charrua which dishes out pricey pies with lousy crust, way too much cheese, and scant other toppings. Pizzeria La Manada looked to be the best pizza in San Pedro de Atacama with a real pizza oven, better crust, and a roof terrace–but they were closed the night we tried to eat there.

There are also a number of basic restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama selling rotisserie chicken and french fries and this can be a somewhat affordable option, particularly for families.

Restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama: not so-cheap eats

We’ve already noted the tourist town prices in San Pedro de Atacama. Here are restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama that are more expensive, but worth it.

By far the best restaurant in town is Baltinache. This place opened in 2011 and we ate there during our visit to San Pedro de Atacama in 2017. It was fine, but not remarkable. After the pandemic, two young Bolivian sisters living in San Pedro took over Baltinache and their skills (Evelyn is the chef and Fatima does, well, everything else) have transformed the place into one of the best restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama. The new Baltinache has taken the restaurant’s original focus on Indigenous cuisine and ingredients to new heights by bringing their own Bolivian flair. Expect elegantly-plated 3-course lunch and dinner menus (30,000 CLP to 40,000 CLP/US$31 to US$41) featuring dishes like silky and rich squash soup with tender and flavorful llama charque (dried and shredded meat), tender guanaco stewed with potatoes and mushrooms and brightened with mango, perfectly cooked risotto perfumed with rica rica herbs from the desert, and more. Baltinache is located a few blocks out of the center town and reservations are a must because they cook precisely to the number of diners that have booked.

Pulperia Atacama is the place to go for homemade pasta (around 14,000 CLP/$US15), indoor and outdoor seating, and live music. When we were there, an old man with a tiny traditional Bolivian guitar–like a ukelele–was performing with his son on drums as we enjoyed our pasta. Service is good. There’s a decent wine list. Reservations recommended.

Many of the pricier hotels in San Pedro de Atacama have decent in-house restaurants but most are for guests only. So we were delighted to learn that the restaurant in the lovely Almas Restaurant in the Our Habitas Atacama Hotel is planning to open to the public. During our stay at the hotel, we enjoyed dishes like the Farm Bowl with greens, rice, black beans, grilled chicken breast, and pickled cabbage (pictured above bottom middle). The fricandela (essentially, a Chilean cheeseburger) was super satisfying (pictured above top right). Fish featured prominently on the dinner menu at Alma, including bluefin tuna in an orange glaze on a bed of silky pureed sweet potato. Smoked trout (made in-house) was fresh, mild, and flavorful served with microgreens. Fish ceviche was made with cubes of fresh fish marinated in citrus or in beets for two distinct colors with homemade potato chips. Check it out.

Though we never went in, we walked past Karavan Restobar on Caracoles Street many times. It was often crowded and always seemed more appealing than other bar/restaurants by offering live music, indoor/outdoor seating, a full bar, and a food menu.

 

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