Wow, 90 of these mini-review posts! Well, plus the others that are mini-reviews but were on a theme. A whole lot of eating out over the years is basically what it comes down to. Half the places covered are probably gone after this last year and a half, I suppose gradually I’ll end up finding those out and marking them as closed. A variety of spots this time around, with no particular theme. No, that’s not true, this is one of my occasional… pass on almost all of these… posts. I really hadn’t planned on that, I just suddenly realized as I was writing this up that I’d had a spate of places I just wasn’t impressed with.
Where to start? An outing for International Beer & Pizza Day, at which, until more or less last minute I wasn’t expecting there to be 12 of us invited. Still, it was outside, though that turned out to be a quartet of small, high tables, each with two bar stools, so not exactly conducive to outdoor dining. On the other hand, Beer Cellar, Costa Rica 5654, Palermo, isn’t a restaurant. It’s a beer store, stocked with a couple of refrigerators chockful of canned beers. An interesting, albeit not far ranging selection of beers, plus a trio on tap, which the owner “didn’t really recommend”… okay, then why are those the ones you have on tap? You pick a can, you pay for it, he gives you a glass, you go stand outside on the sidewalk and day drink. Since he doesn’t offer any food, he allows for you to bring your own, or have food delivered from area restaurants, though, be forewarned, he also has no silverware, plates, etc. – a roll of paper towels was the closest things got to food service.
Over the course of a couple of hours, I tried two beers, neither of which was particularly good. One I just picked on my own (Madness Brewing Co. NEIPA – watery, not much flavor, but refreshing), the other he recommended (Jabalina Sour – a weird sour beer with flavors of passionfruit, lime, and guayaba, I didn’t even finish half of it). C’est la vie. I mean, it’s a nice little beer store, and it’s cool that you can drink there, rather than just buy to take home, but I’d much rather a place with a decent selection of beers on tap, and a real spot to sit, relax, and enjoy a pint or two.
Four of the twelve of us were hungry, we ordered a pizza from Urban Jazz Pizza, Armenia 1986, Palermo, and in short order they delivered. It looks good, but, damn, it really wasn’t. Though well browned around the edges, the center was completely raw dough. The cheese and tomatoes were just fine, but the whole thing was liberally coated with chemically tasting garlic powder, far more than should be used, anywhere, ever. That one’s a big pass.
Obviously, delivery. Fried chicken and onion rings. Perhaps, given that the place is devoted to the potato, Dr. Papa, Corrientes 5579, Villa Crespo, I should have ordered some papas, potatoes. But I didn’t, because, well, I didn’t, and I really like onion rings rather than fries. The fried chicken box that doesn’t come with fries comes with a choice of four sauces (out of a list of more than a dozen) – I think I picked spicy ketchup, chili sauce, garlic mayo, and spicy cheese; and the onion ring box comes with a choice of two, so I added in a curry mayo, and a provencal (garlic and parsley), figuring I could just mix and match around as I dipped.
So, a sampling – the six sauces arrayed, along with some chicken and rings. Meh. The chicken was okay – juicy, though not seasoned, and the breading was somehow not quite right. The onion rings were okay, but my guess, frozen commercial ones. The best part was the selection of sauces, each of which was pretty darned good, and at least made eating the bland fried food interesting.
Let’s swivel back to beer for a moment, and the newly opened Club de la Birra branch here in Recoleta, at Roberto M. Ortiz 1871, in the northernmost stretch of the Village Recoleta restaurant strip. A dozen beers on tap, and a selection of burgers, sandwiches, and ribs on the menu. The Rio Sexy Red IPA was light on flavor, and certainly not what I’d expect from the style. The burger… just a big no. Nothing about it, from the patty, to toppings, to bun, was memorable in a good way. The triple cooked fries were actually pretty good, and interestingly, because it’s not common here, served with ketchup. I asked for some mayo as well, and double dipped. Given how many beer bars there are just around the Village Recoleta complex area (off-hand, I can think of nine of them, all in a four block stretch around the cemetery), this one, too, is a pass.
The newly opened Souvlaki BA, in the Mercado San Telmo, is now, I think, offering up the only Greek fare in town, as Mykonos, which used to hold that title, closed up during the pandemic, not to reopen. This new spot being just a market stand, offers a trio of tables for seating, along with some barstools at the counter. Tiropita and spanakopita, respectively feta cheese and spinach filled phylo dough triangles, were flavorless and undercooked – I mean, there’s not even a hint of browning on those. The souvlaki offered either as a pita sandwich, or as here, plated, was slightly more interesting, but no more than slightly. Some nicely seasoned beef on skewers with a few wan slices of cucumber and tomato, and a pool of yogurt flecked with dried herbs. The pita was oily and barely cooked. The fries were decent. Ah well, was hoping for much better.
I did really like the Griffin dry apple cider, the first time I’ve tried this particular brand. I think I actually like it better than the more widely seen Pulkü that I’ve mentioned a couple of times.
This one came to my attention back during my recent taco crawl, I just hadn’t gotten to it back then. It’s a weird space… it looks like a converted garage or something, not really sure.
This was a good sign. An array of both bottled hot sauces, ranging from mild to hot, and a selection of fresh chilies of various types.
They offer, I think, five different tacos, as well as quesadillas and tingas. One really nice thing, they offer a combo plate of three tacos, and they don’t all have to be the same, which might be the only place in town where that’s true, and comes with either a soft drink or beer. Also included, while you wait for your tacos to be prepared, some pretty decent tortilla chips, though the watery tomato and cilantro sauce served with them is a waste of time. Grab a bottle of hot sauce, or some of the fresh chilies (due to pandemic considerations, you can’t dish those up yourself, someone comes out of the kitchen and dishes up your choice of them). None of the fresh chilies were all that hot – I tried their jalapeños, their limos, and their rocotos. The first two were fine, just not very hot, and the third, was almost like a sweet pickle relish, which was tasty, but not spicy.
The tortillas have great flavor. My only real objection to them is they’re ultra-thin, and fall apart. They’re the sort of tortillas that in Mexico they’d double up, and probably baste with some of the juices from the fillings to make them more pliable and less prone to crack. I tried the al pastor, which was decently seasoned pork, along with onions and cilantro – my one objection, the cubes of pineapple are, I’m pretty sure, syrupy canned ones. The shrimp tacos come over a bed of avocado and lettuce. I wish the avocado had been seasoned, more like a guacamole. The shrimp were basted with a nice sauce, but were kind of mushy. And, the barbacoa, which, while it had decent flavor, was dry, and that dryness was emphasized by the mound of shoestring potatoes on top.
I guess, actually, I might cautiously recommend this spot. The tacos weren’t bad, the prices are good. There are certainly better tacos around, even nearby, at, for example, Juan Pedro Caballero, but those are also more expensive, much smaller, and you can’t mix and match. Plus I do like having the selection of hot sauces available. So let’s give one, “better than average” thumbs up to end this post.
