Time for outing #33 of the Roving Ravenous Horde! We’re certainly getting around town, and we’ve been on a hot streak of some really good places recently. This time, it was out to Caballito and…

 

Planes Bistró, Fragata Pres. Sarmiento 891. I’m assuming the name comes from the cross street, Planes, and likewise, I’m assuming that that name comes from Francisco José Planes, a politician, orator, and generally cantankerous dude from around the time of the Argentine revolution. I’m just guessing on that, because there have been others of the surname Planes in Argentine history, he just seems the most likely choice.

 

Checkout that cool oven behind the bar. No, they don’t make wood-fired oven pizzas. In fact, they only light it up on weekend evenings, when they roast things like whole legs of pork in it and carve it up for lucky diners.

 

The menu tends towards a superficial similarity to any of a zillion places in town, grilled meats, pastas, etc., but if you look closely, most of them are offered up with little twists away from the local norms. Even the spread to go with the bread turned out to be a pungent blue cheese and mustard concoction that was as surprising as it was delicious. And, great breads.

 

With six of us at the table, we decided to share a tortilla planes, their house version of an española, packed with potatoes, onions, bell pepper, and prosciutto. While cooked right, and seasoned right, and tasty, I’d say that around the table we were disappointed that it’s served cold. My deduction, based on the barely warm surface temperature and near refrigerator cold insides, is that they make them in advance and throw them in the oven for a few minutes before bringing them out to the table. Bring me a hot one, right out of the skillet, and we’d have a winner. 230 pesos.

 

We’ll just go around the table for our six main courses. On Jamie’s plate we have the ojo de bife macerado en chimichurri, a decently cooked ribeye smothered in spicy chimichurri, but strangely, like the tortilla above, the vegetables on the side were served cold, or, basically, at room temperature, like they’d just been plucked out of containers on a counter top and used to garnish the steak. Odd. 370 pesos.

 

Michael headed for the bondiola de cerdo a la cerveza – pork shoulder braised in beer. The pork needed longer braising time, the sauce needed more flavor. On the other hand, great sweet potato fries and a really excellent spiced applesauce to accompany it. 300 pesos.

 

Rena’s plate was graced with a properly cooked, and quite good sized fillet of salmon “planes”, in a honey dijon and ginger sauce. Really quite good, and the “rustic” potatoes were a hit. 330 pesos.

 

Okay, Steven getting all artsy with the photo of his plate there – pan fried mollejas al verdeo, really nicely cooked sweetbreads. The green onion sauce was a bit stodgy and could have used some seasoning. Simple boiled potatoes dusted with parsley and paprika didn’t add a whole lot to the plate. 280 pesos.

 

I think, the all around agreed on plate of the day, Bettye’s lomo “planes”, with two thick medallions of sirloin, wrapped in smoky bacon, topped with cheese, and smothered in a lovely beef and onion gravy. With simple papas españolas, and everything on the plate just hit the right notes. 370 pesos.

 

And, ending up in front of me, a rather tasty, if a bit messy, pollo al ajillo, with a whopping two patamuslos, or two legs and two thighs of chicken, braised in a mildly spicy achiote, paprika, and garlic sauce and accompanied by lightly crispy baked potato wedges. 240 pesos.

We decided to forego desserts and just get a round of coffees. Throw in two bottles of wine, a bottle of seltzer, and a liter of pomelada, fresh squeezed and lightly sweetened grapefruit juice, a 25 peso/person cubierto charge, and a tip (great service!), and we came in at 475 pesos apiece (a shade over $17), which isn’t bad. It’s not the best place we’ve ever been, but it was, for the most part, quite good, and I think we all liked that they took classic local dishes and gave them their own spin. Serve the tortilla and the side vegetables hot (all the potatoes were hot, it was just the one plate with vegetables), and throw in some more seasoning on the pork shoulder, and we’d have no complaints.

It’s the kind of place that if I lived in the neighborhood, I’d be a regular, but I’m not likely to make the trek there again, except, possibly, a couple of us are thinking about those weekend night pork leg roasts….