Let’s have a little music with our review today. The Impressions live in 2012 with their hit song Gypsy Woman from 1961.
It was outing number thirty for the Roving Ravenous Horde and I’d been promising to pick something up north of the city. I’d heard about this Italian spot that was supposed to be quite good, albeit a tad pricey. What the heck, we went for it. Four of us arrived at La Gitana (The Gypsy Woman, hence the music), Av. del Libertador 2330, in Victoria.
It’s a pretty spot along Av. Libertador, a reasonable seven block walk from the Virreyes stop on the train to Tigre, and there’s also a stop on one of the ramales of the #60 bus less than half a block away, but only one of the branches, so you’d have to get the right one, or, of course, any other bus that runs along Libertador up to that part of the suburbs.
A heated and covered patio at the front of the building was a lovely spot to ensconce ourselves, ready to check out the menu. First off, a bit of a surprise, the menu covers three cuisines – and kept quite separate. Each cuisine, Italian, Spanish, and Peruvian, gets its own two pages in the menu – the left side being a list of sort of staple dishes, the right side of each being three or four chef’s specialties.
While perusing, our waiter offered us a round of complimentary Campari cocktails or champagne – we accepted. We perused, chose, and ordered, and then waited. And waited. Now you can see the dining room isn’t full. There were no more than 8-9 people in the entire place while we were there. But appetizers took 45 minutes to come out of the kitchen. They did come with apologies, though no explanation.
Two of our group headed Peruvian and ordered up a causa de langostinos. A quite pretty little causa, though kind of lacking in what makes the dish – the potatoes were a vibrant yellow, but that didn’t seem to come from yellow chilies, which also mean they lacked in the picante department, nor was there any lemon evident – maybe just colored with turmeric? The prawn salad was nice and fresh, but a bit more church picnic style, kind of chopped prawns and some vegetables and herbs in mayo. Not the typical causa. Not that it wasn’t a tasty dish, just not what we’d expect from Peruvian cuisine. 260 pesos.
And two of us went for the mozzarella en carozza. Now, the classic Italian version is two slices of good white bread sandwiching a layer of fresh mozzarella, and kind of sealed down like a panini would be, then griddled. Basically, it’s a grilled cheese sandwich made with mozzarella. And usually accompanied by a spicy tomato sauce. This version was kind of reinterpreted as American style mozzarella sticks. They did use bread to surround the cheese – they’d rolled it out flat, kind of smushing it down to form a crust, then wrapped it around the cheese, coated it in breadcrumbs, and deep fried them. Kind of bland, though a decent dipping sauce was on hand to perk them up. 220 pesos.
On to main courses. They got their timing more or less back on track, with not too long of a wait between courses. One from the Peruvian menu again – a seco de cordero, slow cooked lamb, with tacu tacu, a sort of football of rice bound together with mashed white beans and then fried. Pretty good, and a definite improvement over the appetizers. 350 pesos.
One member of the group, feeling a bit less adventurous, ordered up the grilled salmon with mashed potatoes from the Spanish menu. The salmon cooked very nicely, the potatoes tasty. Maybe a little small on the portion, but then, salmon is expensive here since it’s all imported. 390 pesos.
And, two of us split the parrillada de mar, the mixed seafood grill, also from the Spanish menu. A rather generous selection of salmon and white fish, prawns, octopus, calamari, and mussels, with a killer and even moderately spicy tomato and pepper sauce basted all over it. Accompanied by a mound of roasted potatoes. Excellent, and I think the winning dish of the day. Ostensibly they claim it’s a dish to be shared by 3-4 people, though two of us easily finished it off with minimal help from the other two. Maybe after a full round of individual appetizers, and a plan for dessert. 860 pesos.
We skipped desserts, going for a round of coffees, which, when we declined another round of complimentary cocktails, they gave us for free. All told, adding in waters (60 pesos apiece) and cubierto charges (also 60 pesos apiece), and a couple of cokes (again, 60), our bill tallied up to 2770 pesos – call it 3000 with tip, running about $110, split four ways. Not really any more expensive than quite a few of the other nicer spots we’ve been to, and that’s taking into account that the peso dropped against the dollar precipitously over the last 4-6 weeks, and prices have been raised on menus all over the city. All in all, recommended. And I’d love to check out the Italian side of their menu some time….
