A much better Bite Marks than some of the recent ones have been…. Let’s start simple. Pizza.

 

This one was not on my radar. I was just in the mood for ordering a pizza, staying in, finishing off a bottle of wine, playing some Everquest, and relaxing. And they had bacon and pickled pepper pizza – I’ll eat bacon and pickled peppers on cardboard, or shoe leather. As it turns out, this is significantly better than either of those two options. While the crust isn’t a wow, it’s good, it could have used another 2-3 minutes in the oven to get browner and a little crisper. But the toppings were good, a touch more sauce would have been nice, but even the cheese was better than the oily mess that so many places use here. Not a wow, but good. De la gran 7, Acuña de Figueroa 1053, Almagro [w3w: pound.waxing.slate]. 350 pesos. I have no idea who the “big 7” are, or what the name means – though no doubt one of my local readers will pitch in with that info. Futbol term?

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Staying simple… burgers…

 

Five years ago, when it first opened, I went to the very first Burger54 up in Martinez at the “invite” of their publicist. It wasn’t really an invite because she never responded to any of my queries and there was certainly no “invitation” to try it out without cost or something, in the end it was more just “you write a food blog, we have a new place, you should visit it and review it favorably and we’re done here”. I never did get any real details on the concept, other than that supposedly everything they serve is organic, and where appropriate, free range and grass fed and all that. I heard, vaguely, that the team behind what is now a five unit “chain” is the team behind the (now) three Kansas restaurants, but I’ve not confirmed that.

Awhile back a Burger54 opened here in Recoleta at Av. Santa Fe 1946 [w3w: footsteps.jabs.zone] – I hadn’t been because I wasn’t impressed with the original. But, decided to give them a try and see if they’ve got their act together from those early days. And, to some extent they do. The process is more streamlined, there are more menu options, and my sense is that all around what we had was fresher tasting, and more “in the moment”. We had a classic bacon cheeseburger and a salmon burger, because, hey, let’s see what they do with salmon.

My original critiques more or less remain. They still cook based on a timer, like a classic fast food restaurant, and won’t deviate from it, so the burgers are well done – overcooked, and that turns out to be true for the salmon one as well. They do have good seasoning and fresh toppings, they’re just not juicy – the patties, both beef and salmon, end up fairly dry. The bun is still sweet. Yes, organic and all the rest. And look, it’s better than a classic fast food burger (I think… hmm… I haven’t had a McD’s burger since 1996, Burger King was before that, I did try a Wendy’s burger here a couple of years ago when they first opened, and it was awful, but also not remotely what I remember Wendy’s being from my youth), and if you want a quick burger, they’re faster and better than Dean & Denny’s, the other chain that aims green in the same category. Roughly, depending on which type of burger, what side you order, and what drink, a meal here runs around 300 pesos.

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On the recommendation of Jamie, one of our Horde regulars, we met up with him at Bar Chin Chin, Estados Unidos 500, San Telmo [w3w: aside.lonely.overtime] for one of our Sunday lunch outings. Cute place, very San Telmo neighborhood vibe – that little touch of bohemian….

Interesting sounding dishes on the menu. We shared a couple of appetizers – fried prawn and pork wontons with a spicy-sweet dipping sauce, and morcilla croquettes. Both excellent, and a great start. 140 pesos each.

Chicken brochettes with roasted carrots, taboule salad, and some sort of puree (it wasn’t specified on the menu and we didn’t ask, but something like a creamy hummus) was good, but not a wow. 230 pesos.

A quite good beef green curry (the menu is very eclectic, and international), that had a decent kick to it. The presentation a little difficult – because the bowl the curry is served in isn’t big enough to add the rice in, and vice versa, you almost have to eat it Chinese style, a few pieces at a time moved over to the top of the rice to let the juice soak in. 270 pesos.

And off to another part of the world, vegetable cannelloni – a whopping portion (the menu says “canelón”, so we were expecting one large one, not two huge ones) stuffed with spinach, chard, bok choy, and mushrooms, and topped with an excellent garlic cream sauce, parmesan, and walnuts, and the whole thing gratineed. Too big to finish – enough to feed two people. 230 pesos.

Cute place, good service, good food, fair prices. Not anything that was amazing, but the kind of place that if I lived in the neighborhood would be a regular hangout for lunch or a casual dinner.

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And, for dessert….

It’s always hard to review some place that you know someone involved with. But thankfully, when there are good things to say, it works out. This is going to be a little bit of a compare and contrast… or, just two different takes on the same theme… doughnuts, or donuts, or as they call them here, donas, which I attribute to a collective mondegreen on the name.

 

Donut Therapy, Thames 1999, Palermo [w3w: intelligible.skill.elevate] is the brainchild, the passion, of Venezuelan chef Gustavo Castillo, with avid and active support from his fiance, Allie Lazar, whom many of you know from the Pick Up The Fork blog here in Buenos Aires, and other food writings. The doughnuts themselves – big, cakey, delicious, and packed with flavor. They’re massive. One doughnut could feed a family of four for breakfast. They’re also limited in quantity – each day, the team whips up batches of doughnuts from overnight slow-raised yeast dough. When the batches they’ve cooked up run out, that’s it. They usually get another batch of dough going early in the morning, so there’s another run later in the day, but it’s not uncommon for there to be a 2-3 hour gap in mid-day when none are available. People line up for these, and they go fast (weekdays are easier than weekends, not surprisingly). We tried the maple glazed and the Boston cream – the only criticism being that the cream was a little thin, and had a tendency to run out all over our chins and hands and laps, but it was damned good. [Closed in March 2021, with a posted note of “news to come soon”]

 

Just a few blocks away, the team behind one of our favorite restaurant groups, the guys from La Carniceria, Chori, and Niño Gordo, have the other big entry into the doughnut world, with The Donuts Market, Costa Rica 4782, Palermo [w3w: years.spice.complied]. Here, the doughnuts are more jewel-like individual pastries. Versus the probably 4″+ diameter ones above, these are around 2½” across, and all decorated beautifully. Filled doughnuts are not pumped full, but rather sliced and the fillings are sandwiched, more like a St. Honore pastry. The flavors are more classic, there’s nothing outre or unexpected, but they’re intense, and delicious just the same. We tried a mix of flavors, passionfruit, lemon pie, pistachio, and nutella – all good, and all tasting as they should. My critique is, though, that they really do come across more like little pastries than like doughnuts – you almost want to eat them with a fork on a plate, and a cup of coffee on the side, instead of picking them up and biting in, like a classic doughnut.