Tante Marlene

Tante Marlene operated as a conventional German-style restaurant on Vitacura, close to its current location for years. It abruptly closed sometime between 2012 and 2014, if memory serves me correctly. It is my understanding that the proprietors of that restaurant then opened a German-style kneipe across the street under the name Biergeist paying homage to a revered German restaurateur, Germán Kleinknecht. A few years later they changed the name of that bar and restaurant back to Tante Marlene, a name steeped in tradition, which is, today the official name of the restaurant.

Since 2015 they’ve continued to improve the design and décor of the restaurant, covering the large terrace area out front and on the side of the building with a huge awning and tarp and giving the outside dining area a bit of the feel and charm of a German beer garden. The style of the restaurant and the menu hasn’t changed much since 2015.

The restaurant offers a lengthy menu of classic German cuisine, including sausage plates, Aleman crudo (steak tartare), German meatloaf, spaetzle, goulash, sauerkraut (chucrut) and lots of imported German beers, including a full line of Erdinger and Schneider Weiss beers.

I’ve been to many a restaurant in Latin America claiming to offer German cuisine. Any worth visiting are small mom-and-pop restaurants or the ones located down in the colder parts of the Southern Cone in both Chile and Argentina. For my money, Tante Marlene, despite not having all the kitschy German artifacts on the wall that they display over at Lili Marleen, has the best variety and execution of German cuisine in Latin America.

First-timers will want to try the sampler of German sausage, perhaps with a side of sauerkraut, spaetzle and cole-slaw. And of course, the German beer of your choosing.

Service is friendly and better than acceptable. Prices are about what you’d expect for this specialty-cuisine and location.

For a kitschier German décor and raucous ambience, Lili Marleen is a good alternative. But for a modern-day take on German culinary classics and plenty of good German beer, you won’t find better than Tante Marlene in Santiago.