Rishtedar

Rishtedar was a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Holanda in Providencia, with a handful of tables serving about 15 to 20 diners on a good night, until recently, when they opened a much larger and elaborate restaurant up in Vitacura. The new location has gained favor with the affluent residents of Vitacura living in close proximity to the restaurant.

The décor in the new location probably trumps everything else in serving this cuisine in the city. Elaborate hand-carved wooden columns, mosaic mirrored walls and colorful paint and table linens make for a pleasant ambience. Certainly, Rishtedar is the most sophisticated among all the restaurants offering Indian cuisine in the city.

Management seems devoted to pleasing the locals living in Vitacura and seems to be doing a good job. They have now gained parity in popularity on consumer review sites such as Tripadvisor.com, where Rishtedar’s Vitacura location recently garnered a #5 position of more than 4,800 restaurants in Santiago.

But foreigners that are familiar with Indian cuisine don’t seem quite as convinced as the locals and everyone seems to agree that the prices are high and portions small for the money spent. Charging extra for bread, rice and side dishes to drive up the total check is the major complaint with consumers.

Despite the claims of being overpriced, our assessment of the prices at Rishtedar indicate that the prices aren’t any higher than competitors Jewel of India or Majestic. In fact, in a recent comparison, many items on the menu were lower priced and we saw no significant difference in portion sizes.

In 2018, the shrimp and lamb curries, the most expensive items at all three restaurants, were almost identically priced between $12,500 and $12,900. A few of the seafood curries were actually less expensive at Rishtedar, and the most expensive of the Indian restaurants we recently visited was Saffron Indian Delicacies on Nueva Costanera in Vitacura, which was also our least favorite of the four restaurants in terms of both execution and ambience.

Although many diners will favor the less pretentious ambience under the tarp and twinkling Christmas lights covering the terrace at Jewel of India, we think the ambience at the new location for Rishtedar and the clever décor is more in line with what appeals to modern-day diners. In every other respect, we felt the restaurants were almost identical, with execution, originality and service being almost indistinguishable between the three top contenders.

Where you choose to dine to get a bit of spice in your life will likely have more to do with geography than either the food or the service.

The good news is that for anyone living in Providencia, Las Condes or Vitacura, there’s now a legitimate option for Indian cuisine within a few blocks of your residence.