I was putting together a new Bite Marks and realized that all the places had a Middle Eastern theme, so let’s just dedicate this post to the Levant!
Shawarma King, Mario Bravo 1112, Palermo – A fairly new spot, I noticed it a few months back walking by and put it on my list. Not the friendliest service – kind of gruff and uninterested. I got a shawarma mixta, with beef and chicken. Decent flatbread, reasonably generous amount of lettuce, tomato, and onion. A bit light on the meats. And the only sauces, a classic garlic sauce and some more or less plain yogurt. No hot sauce available (“no one wants that”). Pretty good all around, just no wows, and could do without the attitude. I think it was about 600 pesos.
Bankedo, Medrano 1906, Palermo – Lovely little spot situated in front of Plaza Güemes, it’s basically a mini-gourmet shop with various preserved goods, packaged goods, and wines. They don’t have a real kitchen in the sense of cooking anything. Everything’s served cold, and basically what they do is open up various things in the store and plate them with the addition of some fresh greens. Basically the menu is a mix of tapas and salads. The combinations are surprisingly good – someone clearly put a lot of thought into this.
It was a bit of a scorcher of a day, so I ordered up a carafe of iced green tea with ginger – albeit they have a nice selection of wines, by bottle and glass. Really nice for a hot day. A gravlax style cured trout was interleaved with red onion, arugula, capers, and pomegranate seeds, and served with an excellent black bread – one of the best I’ve had here. Hummus was adorned with cubes of dried apricot, cashews, a mix of various seeds, and sprouts. And, quartered brined artichoke hearts were accompanied by cubes of smoked cheese (not very smoky), confited cherry tomatoes, walnuts, and arugula. All really quite good, and very satisfying as a light meal. The prices for the small tapas plates range from 580-850 pesos. The salads and more main course dishes run from 900 to 1250. Overall, highly recommended!
Eretz, Malabia 1583, Palermo – I’ve reviewed this place a few times in the past, and only include it here today to see what The Horde is up to. A recent venture here – a couple of us had been, others had not. We basically just ordered up a double of the “Como en Israel” combination. The combo is perfect for 2-3 people, and comes with an array of six pickled salads, taboule, hummus, falafel, the main course of the day (the day we were there it was the shish-kebab), dessert and coffee. We loved everything except the very odd dessert of unpleasantly textured gelled custard smothered in a heavily perfumed rose jelly. I don’t have the receipt, but I think it was 2800 pesos per combo. Quite reasonable!
