Valparaíso has a good restaurant scene concentrated mainly in Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción, where the terraced cafés and small restaurants have views over the bay. The city is not the food capital that Santiago is, but it has a handful of genuinely excellent places.
Fauna (Pasaje Dimalow 166, Cerro Alegre) is the most reliable of the hill restaurants — a relaxed space with creative Chilean cooking and a good wine list. The views from the terrace are excellent at sunset.
El Internado (Almirante Montt 449, Cerro Alegre) occupies an old school building and offers hearty traditional Chilean food: cazuela, pastel de choclo, grilled meat. Affordable and reliably good.
La Playa (Serrano 567, city centre) is the old seafood institution on the flat city — a noisy, bustling fish restaurant that has been feeding port workers and merchants since the 1950s. The corvina (sea bass) and chupe de mariscos (shellfish gratin) are the things to order.
The Mercado Puerto, near the port entrance, has a covered market with informal lunch counters serving fresh fish and shellfish at low prices — one of the most authentic eating experiences in the city, busiest at noon on weekdays.