As predicted, Argentina is back in lockdown. Not quite as strict as the one 14 months ago now, but still. Restaurants are closed again other than for takeout and delivery (and delivery only between 6pm and 6am, because there’s a curfew for being out and about unless you’re “essential” during those hours). And I know of restaurants that are, and have been, simply ignoring the public health decrees. Public transit is ostensibly limited to essential workers, though if past experience says anything, no one’s asking. Etc., etc. Me, I pushed off a couple of appointments by a week or two to see what happens, and mostly I’m just staying in. The first three days of the new lockdown were rainy, so it didn’t make much difference. I may return to my rooftop meanderings, mostly just because I don’t have to wear a mask and I can still get some exercise and fresh air. Currently scheduled through the end of the month, but who knows what they’ll decide for June.

At least for the next week or so, The Horde is not sallying forth, but we did get out twice over the last couple of weeks.

We’ll start at La Épica Pizza & Love, Av. Melián 4092, Saavedra, at the north end of the city. This is the second restaurant opened by the owners of La Fina, which I’ve reviewed before on a solo visit. One thing I didn’t note, actually didn’t even know, is that the first spot was opened by a couple of high school students, aged 16 and 17 if my info is correct, and La Épica was opened about a year later as a full-on pizza restaurant rather than a “garage” countertop. One of their interesting gimmicks at this new spot, located across the street from Parque Saavedra, is that they have folding chairs available (I don’t know if they’re free or you put a refundable deposit down or you rent for a period of time) that you can get, and take your pizza across the street into the park. More than doubles their seating capacity!

With four of us, we decided to share an appetizer and then order some individual sized pizzas. We all like burrata, so the trio of sounded like a perfect start. Three halves, each topped with a different preparation – sun dried tomato pesto, capers, herb pesto, was just a nice way to open up the appetite while we awaited the pizzas.

I could basically just repeat my assessment of La Fina, and the other three at the table all noted the same as I had (without my prompting from that past experience).

“It’s not that it’s a bad pizza, it’s just not as good as the other spots around that we’ve tried. The dough is kind of bland, white bready, and it’s not cooked to the point where you get that lovely char, it’s not raw, but it’s not quite… done.”

I would say that these had a little more char than the one I had at the other spot, but the whole middle of the pizza was kind of droopy and wet. Good toppings, again. I had liked the flavors of the mortadella and pesto one I’d had, but didn’t like that they put the toppings on refrigerator cold, and I asked if they prepared it the same way. The answer was yes, so I asked if they’d make it with the mortadella hot, put on the pizza while it was cooking, and the answer was yes. Far better than cold deli slices atop a pie. We also tried the pepperoni – good, but not pepperoni, it was more of a salami-like sausage, maybe cantimpalo. The brie and bacon with sun-dried tomato pesto one was very good, while the mushroom and ham one was fairly good, they literally took a stack of sliced lunchmeat ham and cut it in julienne – you can see in the second picture if you click on it that it’s actually little stacks of sliced meat. So, all around, my, our, feeling was about the same as for La Fina, it’s good pizza, but there’s better out there. Who knows? Maybe not in Saavedra.

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Our second outing fared far better!

We’ve been hearing about this very trendy small plate sort of spot in Villa Crespo since shortly before the pandemic. We’d not gotten to Julia Restaurante, Loyola 807, to try it before that first lockdown, and I’m not even sure they were open during most of the last year – it’s not the sort of food that translates well to a delivery setup. And, given where they are on a street lined with clothing outlet stores, there’s not a lot of outdoor dining space, plus there’s a lot of foot traffic passing by on the sidewalk. But they’re managing (or they were until this weekend, who knows what’s going on now).

They have a regularly changing menu, and it looks like they just sort of print them out for the day of whatever they have – roughly a dozen dishes. With five of us at the table, we ended up settling on nine dishes to sample, which turned out to be just a perfect amount of food. We left it up to the kitchen to send the plates out a couple at a time so we could pass them around and share.

First off, props to the bread, which is excellent, but perhaps even more to the freshly made organic butter with sea salt. Reminds me of why, most of the time, we make our own breads and butter for Casa SaltShaker.

Calamari, finely diced and tossed with a “yogurt pesto”, and topped with slices of avocado. Because we had two folk at the table allergic to one or more kinds of nuts, they very nicely left the walnuts out of the yogurt pesto for us. Fresh, bright, tasty. nice start. And beautifully presented.

A grey mullet tartare in “gazpacho water”, flavored with chilies, chili oil, and crunchy corn. Vibrant and zingy, another yum! This is going well.

The flat-out, hands-down, winner of the meal, a chicken liver pate (or “bird liver” I guess it specifies) topped with a fruit chutney and crispy fried chips of Jerusalem artichoke. Wow. Just, wow. That plate and a glass of wine in the afternoon, any of us would be thrilled.

A nice fresh salad of cured strips of duck, radicchio, cress, and pickled blueberries. We really liked the contrasting bitter, sweet, sour, and salty flavors – this one had that balance just right.

And another winner – and a very close second to the paté, shiitakes in a sort of miso broth, with fresh peas and green beans, and pomegranate seeds. Another one that just hit all the wow points.

In normal times, sharing a soup around a table is a bit difficult, so it’s interesting that they offer one (actually two, but we didn’t order the other) as a sharing plate. In non-normal times, like now, albeit we’re all good friends, I popped inside and asked if we could have some small bowls or something to share it around rather than all dipping our spoons in repeatedly. They gave us a stack of espresso glasses and we dished it up. Big white beans, pickled onion, and capers, all floating around in a lovely, mildly spicy ‘nduja broth (hot Calabrian sausage), with toasted almonds (on the side for us, to be added by those who could eat them). Love the idea, would have liked a little more intensity of flavor from the ‘nduja and maybe a broth that’s a little thicker, or creamier or something. But the flavors worked!

The only dish that was a disappointment. Not a bad dish, but bizarrely one of the most expensive on the menu, it’s a bowl of simple ricotta gnocchi floating in herb-infused whey (presumably left from making the butter!). And that’s it. I mean, they were nice enough gnocchi, but the dish overall was kind of listless and very basic feeling, especially in contrast to the rest of the meal – and certainly doesn’t use any fancy ingredients to justify the price.

Probably our third favorite, because we all love mushrooms, this is a lovely dish of cavatelli with a trio of different mushrooms in a rich, unctuous sauce. Accompanied by a shaved, fermented cashew cheese (on the side for us again).

And, finishing off the meal, a perfectly grilled fillet of grey mullet with a little mess of kale and baby leeks and a simple pan sauce. Tasty, but not as creative as the other plates, and again, one of the two most expensive ones on the menu. Odd that the most expensive are the least interesting and least creative. But so be it. It was a good plate of fish and a nice finish to the meal.

Plates run from 800-1600 pesos on the menu – we didn’t hit the high end one, which was a rib-eye steak, and sounds about as simple as the fish dish, but the last three plates were all 1100, 1100, and 1200, respectively – only the mushroom pasta one was one I’d consider paying that for again. The rest, all around the 800-900 range. A couple of nice bottles of wine, some water, and tip, and this was one of our more expensive meals out (somewhat planned, as it was also a good-bye (for now) lunch for one of our members who is heading back to the UK), coming in at 2500 pesos per person. For me – a plate of pate, a plate of the shiitakes, and a glass of wine, and that would be a fantastic lunch.

And, that puts a pause on The Roving Ravenous Horde for the moment (we’re up to 98 outings, had it not been for the pandemic, we’d be well into our second hundred). We’ll hold off as we weather this latest wave of Covid and see where things go.