A round up of some casual lunch bites over the last month or so….

Let’s start with a trio of pizzerias. First up, Antonio’s Pizza, Tacuarí 76, Monserrat. This one was ordered up for delivery as my lunch while watching the presidential inauguration. I tossed it quickly in the oven to re-crisp it up a little bit after its journey here. I’ve been hearing about this place for close to a year now, since, I think, they opened. Crust? Spectacular. One of the best crusts on a neapolitan style pizza I’ve had here to date. Very good, flavorful sauce, and enough of it to make a difference to the flavor of the pizza. Nice chunks of ‘nduja sausage, fiery hot. High quality mozzarella mixed with smoked provolone. Fresh basil. Really great pizza, all around. I’ll have to try it again – maybe in situ – but it might well knock one of my top five Italian style pizzerias out of the ranking. 420 pesos – a steal.

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Next up, a newly opened spot, L’Inferno Pizzicheria, Nicaragua 5002, Palermo. While the name sounds similar to pizzeria, it’s an Italian word that means delicatessen. I wonder if that was known by the owners. Of course, they do sell various packaged foods retail, so it may well be completely intentional. I ordered up the eponymous L’Inferno pizza. Mixed thoughts. [Closed in June 2021, business never took off, and they announced it post-closing with no prior notice on their Instagram page]

Good crust, not great – could have used just a touch more time in the oven to really brown, and it’s also, although according to them, a 48-hour slow fermented dough, very “white flour” in flavor. The sauce, the best thing about it, and one of the best tomato sauces I’ve had on a pizza here in BA – chunky, crushed San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, herbs, seasoning – really delicious. Toppings, a bit scant, and I would have liked to know that the “cured boar” was not something like slices of cured meat, but “en escabeche”, or a shredded meat, vinegary preparation; the ‘nduja sausage had virtually no spice, and there was almost none on the pizza; and one of my pet peeves, olives with pits, which basically means you pick them off and eat them separately if you don’t want to chip a tooth. 490 pesos.

Cannoli for dessert – great shells. The filling was an unflavored and unsweetened ricotta, which is just kind of odd – it tasted of, well, the vinegar used to make the ricotta; and with only a hint of a dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of chocolate, it was good, but not very dessert-like.  400 pesos. Good coffee. 120 pesos.

Service is friendly but slightly odd – there are call buttons on the table (with a separate button for calling a waiter or calling for your check, the latter to save time). That’s all well and good, especially with outdoor dining, but they really pay no attention to you unless you use the button. I didn’t notice them on the table and sat for five minutes waiting for someone to come, and finally poked my head in the door – where four of them were huddled around the bar watching a video on a cellphone and paying no attention to anything else. The buttons should be a supplement to waiter attention, not a substitute. They also weren’t being as careful with mask wearing as I’d appreciate – the manager/owner never put one on as he wandered about, even approaching tables, and my waiter had his below the nose most of the time.

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Do I even have to…? New chain in town purporting to offer “true New York City pizza slices” – TouchDown Pizza Neoyorkina. I tried the closest branch to me, at Av. Santa Fé 2676, Recoleta. That’s a “pepperoni” slice. There’s not one thing about this pizza that’s either good or New York City-like – not even at the mere price of 130 pesos a slice. And the NY Jets as their decor theme as “New York City’s football team”?! (On the local delivery app Rappi, they double list themselves as American Jets Pizza.) Fumble.

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Another, the less said, the better. Joe’s Burgers & Chivitos, in the new food court mall sort of construct that used to be, sort of still is, the Mercado San Nicolás, at Av. Córdoba 1750, San Nicolás. First off, they don’t have chivitos – there’s space and description for them on the menu board, but they don’t actually offer them. So it came down to burger or a pulled pork sandwich, I went with the latter. Useless, tasteless, soggy bun that turned to paste within the first minute. The 8-hour smoked pork had zero taste of smoke, and was chewy and unpleasant. It was slathered in a sickly sweet barbecue sauce. It did have lots of good pickles on it, and I ended up just picking those out and eating them with the just okay fries. 420 pesos and not worth a tenth of that.

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But let’s end on a positive note. I’ve walked past Hana Poke & Bar, Fitz Roy 1988, Palermo, many times. This time, I just decided to give it a try – it wasn’t even on my radar. I’m glad I did. Quite good fried dumplings – I wasn’t expecting completely deep-fried ones, I was thinking more potsticker style, but nonetheless, tasty – filled with salmon and drizzled with oyster sauce and wasabi cream. Yum. 390 pesos. And while they have several preset combos for poke bowls, I’d say the way to go is the “make your own” – where you get a list of ingredients divided in various categories – you pick a protein, a selection of vegetables, sauces, crunchy things, etc., to your own tastes. It comes in two sizes, this was a small, at 590 pesos, whereas the large is only 100 more. If I hadn’t been having the dumplings, I’d have gone for the large. Absolutely fresh and delicious. I’ll definitely be back. Service is friendly and helpful – maybe they spend a little too much time explaining things, it seemed so obvious how to do the make your own, but perhaps experience has shown them that they need to.