The Horde was on the march once again, bravely battling our way ‘cross town to the barrio of Chacarita for our 89th outing, where we had ourselves setup for a table of six on the sidewalk out front of the newly opened Picaron, Av. Dorrego 866. It’s not the best block for outdoor eating; though it has wide sidewalks, it’s traffic-heavy, both vehicle and foot. But, as a group, we’re not ready to resume indoor dining just quite yet.

These are picarones, or in singular, picarón. Sweet potato doughnuts, a traditional dessert from Peru, served up with either honey or syrup of some sort. So, given the name, we were counting on having some pretty special ones on the dessert menu. Those hopes were dashed, dashed I tell you, when we discovered that the only picarones on the menu at this spot were on the savory side of the menu. What? How could they? Well… let’s get to the restaurant….

It’s very modern, sleek, a bit out of place for the neighborhood, but hey, maybe the first of a wave of the local equivalent of restaurant gentrification. Until recently it was a branch of the clothing store Chocolate. Inside is quite inviting, so we’re looking forward to the time when we’re ready for that (which also tells you we plan to return).

The menu is all “small plate” food. I’d venture that if you’re dining solo, 2-3 plates would be a perfectly fine meal. Sharing, a group of six of us were comfortably full with 11 savory and 3 dessert plates. The chef, Maximiliano Rossi, has some solid chops in the food world. Born in Brazil, trained in Spain and France, where he put in a long stint with Mauro Colagreco, arguably Argentina’s most famous chef outside the country. Locally we first saw him a decade ago at Unik, one of the more creative spots at the time. Later we saw him in a more casual setting, at Big Sur, one of the city’s better hamburger joints, and then most recently, a spot I haven’t been to, the highly touted vegetarian spot Sacro. All of which, except Unik which is no longer in business, I believe he’s still the chef behind.

Service was friendly and helpful, albeit that it seemed that there was only one waitress and a manager to handle the whole room and the outside tables, and the former did most of the order taking and serving. When it got full, service got fairly slow.

On to the food!

The food has a certain pan-Latin America bent, and first up, a couple of bowls of the excellent aguachile de pescado, a classic Mexican dish related to ceviche, here with fresh corvina, sea bream, in a spicy broth with melon, shiso, and achiote oil. 400 pesos.

Delicious as it was, even better was the vegetarian aguachile tomatemado, with fresh figs and charred green tomato in a spicy watermelon broth. 300 pesos.

Equally good, and nominally vegetarian, the griddled broccoli in a creamy, emulsified bagna cauda with pangrattato. Okay, we’ve strayed from Latin American territory to Piemonte in Italy. I say “nominally” because on the menu it looks to be a vegetarian item, but for those who know, the saltiness in a bagna cauda comes from anchovies. I’m guessing with his cooking background that holds true, but we didn’t ask. Regardless… spectacular. I think personally, my favorite dish of the day, though that fig aguachile was vying for the same spot. 325 pesos.

And, the picarón dish. Done as dolloped fritters, they’re kind of boring on their own – maybe given that the syrup level is cut way back, and it’s done as a savory dish, a bit of salt in the batter would have livened them up a touch. But, paired with the sparingly drizzled bitter honey below, and the fiery ‘nduja sausage (housemade? and another Italian element, this time from Calabria), this dish easily placed third on the roster for me. And hey, if you’re going to a restaurant of the name, you gotta… you know? 270 pesos.

Hmm… maybe we could call this menu “Italian-Latin American fusion”, because here’s another Italian influence. A take on vitello tonnato, the classic dish of poached veal in a mildly spicy tuna sauce. This version, tonnato maiale (those words should be in the opposite order in Italian) uses sliced cured and smoked bondiola, pork shoulder, a classic of Argentine picadas, or charcuterie plates, served with a very mild tuna sauce. Delicious? Unquestionably. Would we have appreciated a tad more spice in the sauce? Yes. 430 pesos.

And tamal de lengua, a slow cooked tongue tamale with black beans with salsa macha. Quite tasty, and at least one of our group declared it his favorite. For me, again, more spice. Salsa macha is a classic of Mexican cooking made with fiery hot chiles de arból, garlic, salt, and regionally either sesame seeds or peanuts are typically added. Sometimes tortillas are blended in to thicken it. I didn’t find it spicy in the least, though it was, as I said, quite tasty. 310 pesos.

The entraña marinada is one of two larger plates offered and is served as a room temperature salad with sweet potato noodles, thin slices of grilled hanger steak, and kimchi. The last, definitely toned down. I guess that’s a bit of a running theme, with the exception of the two aguachiles, all the things that would normally be on the spicier side were not. I’m surprised, as the chef has certainly never been shy about spicier food at his other spots, and Argentine tastes have evolved over the decade and a half I’ve been here from complete spice aversion to embracing it. Good dish, but for me, anyway, just lacking a bit. Of the savory dishes, my least favorite. 750 pesos.

On to dessert, which we just shared one of each on the menu.

Ummm… hmmm… across the board, I think we were all disappointed with this one, and was, I’m pretty sure, bottom of our list for all six of us of everything we had. Fresh figs, honey ice cream, the latter with little to no flavor of honey. The bits of honeycomb were a nice crunchy touch. But, kind of blah. 320 pesos.

Mixed reactions on this one. Peanut cookie, peanut brittle, sesame seeds, cocoa nibs, and a sort of chocolate frosting. A couple of people at the table loved it. It wasn’t my cup of tea, the cookie overly hard and crunchy, and the whole thing feeling a bit stodgy. 300 pesos.

And, the rest of us really loved the last dessert, a pavlova (Australia!) – a baked meringue filled with passionfruit cream and topped with fresh peaches and basil. 270 pesos.

Overall, we loved the food and the place. Personally, I’d probably stick with the savory side of the menu, though I’m not much of a dessert person to begin with. A couple of us are already talking about going back to try more of the menu and revisit a couple of our favorites. All told, with beverages, including a bottle of wine (their wine list leans pricey, not for what you get, there just aren’t any less expensive options), 8700 pesos for 6 – $101 at official rate, $56 at the blue rate.