As Chile's Independence Day celebrations approach, Santiago fills with the smell of freshly baked goods. Here's where to find the capital's best pino empanadas, the ones that combine tradition, flavor, and the spirit of Fiestas Patrias in every bite.

Every year, as September creeps onto the calendar, Santiago turns into one giant collective oven. The smell of freshly baked dough takes over entire neighborhoods, and the same question comes up at every family table: where are the city's best pino empanadas? This 2026, that question finally has an official answer, thanks to the verdict of the Círculo de Cronistas Gastronómicos y del Vino de Chile, which celebrated the 23rd edition of its historic competition right on the eve of Fiestas Patrias.

Few dishes carry as much identity as the pino empanada. Inside its golden crust live hand-chopped beef, slow-cooked sweet onion, a hard-boiled egg, an olive, and a raisin, a balance that every Chilean household argues over and claims as its own. That is why, when an expert jury dares to crown a winner, the result becomes news that thousands of families wait for, the perfect excuse to head out and buy one before the 18th.

The winner that stole the show

After a day of blind tasting held at Restaurante Ana María, the jury crowned Los Lobos de Ita, from La Florida, as the Best Pino Empanada of Greater Santiago 2026. The winning empanada won over the jury with its balanced flavors, excellent dough, and flawless presentation, achievements that also earned it the award for best value for money in this year's contest, priced at $3.000 Chilean pesos. A double win that confirms tradition and excellence can live in the very same empanada, without hurting anyone's wallet.

How the true champion gets chosen

What has set this competition apart since its beginnings is the way the participating empanadas are selected. No producer submits or sends them in: they are purchased anonymously at different points across the Santiago Metropolitan Region, coded, and then put through a blind tasting in which the jury has no idea where each one comes from. That way, every empanada arrives at the table on equal footing and is judged purely on its culinary merits.

During the tasting, specialists carefully assessed the dough, its baking and texture, the doneness of the pino filling, its seasoning and juiciness, and the overall balance among all the ingredients. As Pilar Hurtado, president of the Círculo's new board, explained, the contest's goal is to help consumers make better purchasing decisions while also safeguarding the traditional recipe of the Chilean empanada so it can keep being enjoyed without major alterations for many years to come.

The ten empanadas that defined 2026

Here is the full ranking of the ten best pino empanadas of Greater Santiago 2026:

  1. Los Lobos de Ita – La Florida (Best Pino Empanada and best value for money)
  2. La Violette – San Miguel
  3. Don Guille – Downtown Santiago
  4. Betty Delicateces – La Reina
  5. La Nonna – La Reina
  6. Holz – Vitacura
  7. Prem de Bokato – Providencia
  8. El Remanso Empanadas – La Florida
  9. Empanadas Di Voltri – Ñuñoa
  10. La Picatta – Ñuñoa

A lineup that proves Santiago's empanada excellence is not confined to one neighborhood, but spread from north to south and east to west across the capital.

A tradition that reaches beyond Santiago

The competition was born in 2004 and has since become a true institution within Chilean gastronomy, sustained for 23 years by the work of the Círculo de Cronistas Gastronómicos. This 2026, its reach went beyond the capital's limits, with the Círculo taking part in the empanada contests of Casablanca and Curicó, held in early September with support from Gato y Típico Chileno. A sign that the search for the best pino empanada has, by now, become a nationwide celebration.

The 2026 tasting panels brought together gastronomic critics from the Círculo alongside notable guests from the culinary and media world, including chefs, TV cooks, and specialized journalists, all sharing the same mission: to find, bite by bite, the empanada that best represents the flavor of Chile. A new board, led for the second time by Pilar Hurtado, also took on the challenge of carrying forward more than two decades of work, bringing fresh perspectives to project the contest into the future.

The flavor that crowns September

With Fiestas Patrias just around the corner, this ranking becomes the perfect guide for planning the 18th of September. Whether family tradition calls for making them at home or a gastronomic detour leads straight to La Florida, San Miguel, or Ñuñoa, one thing is certain: it has never been easier to know exactly where to find a pino empanada truly worth the trip. Because, after all, there is no Fiestas Patrias without a good empanada waiting on the table.

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