Another round of Italian – pizza, lasagna, upscale pasta!

Romagnoli, Av. Libertador 292, Retiro – It was love at first sit. I mean, they gave me a table, and I glanced across at the chair in front of me, and it says 19 – Michigan – 58. I was born in 1958, and while not in Michigan, that is where we moved to a few years later and where I grew up and went to college. They could have served me melted string cheese on cardboard and called it a pizza and I’d have been… well, appalled. But it did set me into a good mood.

And, when I received my pizza, which was not at all cardboard-y, I was in an even better one. I had no idea there was another spot in town serving up Roman style, extra thin crust pizzas. But, here it is. And the eponymous house special comes slathered with a delicious fresh tomato sauce, gooey mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula, and dollops of fresh burrata. One of the best pizzas I’ve had in quite awhile! And who knew? It was right there along my 92 bus pizza trek route all along. 1120 pesos.

 

San Carlos, Av. Rivadavía 4548, Caballito – One of those that popped onto my list recently when I was talking about the neighborhood pizza contest the city government held a few years back. Working my way through the list with a visit here and there to those remaining. Reasonably nice neighborhood restaurant – it seems much of the focus is on coffee and pastries, and it bills itself as both a bakery and pizzeria.

For the four slice individual size, they don’t offer a half and half option, and they don’t offer individual slices, so I went with my classic test pizza, the Calabresa. And, it’s not bad. Decent crust, well browned, and unlike the usual Argentine approach of putting the toppings above the cheese, they put the slices of longaniza sausage (fairly mild, almost sweet, with a dose of fennel seed) below the cheese, which allows for better browning of the mozzarella. Good sauce, good roast peppers. All in all, a decent pie, and I could certainly see the place being a neighborhood favorite. 1320 pesos.

 

Maral, Tucumán 2201, Once – I walk past this place, at the corner of Uriburu, all the time, and have just never stopped in. But it was getting late for lunch, and I couldn’t think of anywhere along my route home I particularly wanted to try. Menú Ejecutivo of the day was lasagna, so, why not? For 1000 pesos, a big serving of a reasonably tasty lasagna, a beverage, and coffee.

Now, not a classic bolognese type lasagna at all. First off, not sheets of pasta, but five layers of delicate crepes. Sandwiched in between the layers were various vegetables – a lot of spinach in particular, along with decent bechamel, and a mix of cheeses. So, a vegetable lasagna, which hadn’t been specified. Surprising, but, surprisingly good. Actually quite happy. And reasonably good coffee to finish off. I’ll have to stop in again and try some more of their dishes.

Orazzio, Pacheco de Melo 2001, Recoleta. Last year, a new market, Republicano Mercado, opened in this spot, offering up an amazing array of gourmet products from oils and vinegars, to cured meats and cheeses, and the best black bread I’ve had in Buenos Aires. All stuff that I’d not seen elsewhere. And for several months it was my go to spot for a lot of things. The owners behind the market are the owners of the chain Fabric Sushi, so it wasn’t overly surprising when they started using part of the kitchen to prepare and deliver a limited selection of sushi to the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, that kind of took off, and then they introduced pastas and pizzas under the name Orazzio. Now, the array of gourmet products had been cut to maybe a quarter of what they started off with. The good bread is no longer. The meat and cheese selection is minimal. Even the bottled, jarred, and packaged stuff is mostly things I can get anywhere. But they’re doing booming delivery business of sushi, pasta, and pizza, which have completely taken over the kitchen space and the staff’s attention. If you do want something from the market, you can now count on waiting until someone deigns to come out from behind the counter to assist.

So, on that basis a disappointment. I’ve tried one pickup order of sushi from them – not near as good as what comes from one of their bigger outlets that has a more expansive menu – it seems hastilly and sloppily prepared. But, one night I needed something quick, so I grabbed a lasagna. And… it’s okay. The pasta is light and delicate. But the various fillings are average at best – a slice of lunchmeat ham, some okay bechamel, a bit of scattered ricotta and mozzarella, but really very little, and a bolognesa sauce that is just not really that sort of ragu – it’s just more of a tomato sauce with some ground meat tossed in. A big meh for 1100 pesos.

 

Massey Familia, Av. Cerviño 3883, Palermo – Our most recent outing of the Roving Ravenous Horde. A group of seven, I was informed when I called that they didn’t take reservations. Only for us to arrive and find that most of the tables were reserved. But, we got a table without issue. And, we immediately got sticker shock. Let’s just say, well, because it’s accurate, that although all we ordered was a plate of pasta each (one person had a salad instead of pasta), with no appetizers, no dessert… and we ordered two bottles of wine, plus two bottles of mineral water split around the table… this was probably the most expensive lunch the Horde has ever had. Certainly the most expensive in the last year or so. We came in at close on 4000 pesos apiece. For a plate of pasta and a glass or two of wine.

Now, the pastas are excellent, no question. Some of the better pasta we’ve had here. And some great combinations, black squid ink spaghetti with shellfish; telephone pasta (curly corkscrews, like an old phone cord) baked with layers of mozzarella and a great tomato sauce; squash filled sorrentinos with mushroom cream sauce; mushroom ravioli with truffle butter; fettuccine bolognese; and, the aforementioned salad – a caesar with salmon. But they weren’t huge portions, albeit satisfying ones, and the question became, were they worth what probably averaged out somewhere around 1200 pesos more per plate than other great Italian spots in the neighborhood offer? My feeling is, no. I’d have been perfectly happy spending half as much a block away at Trattoria Olivetti.

Plus, while service wasn’t completely inept, it certainly wasn’t good. We had to repeat orders (and our waitress refused to write anything down, despite waiting on our table, a table of six next to us, a table of four, and a table of three, and doing them all without going back to enter them into the computer). To her credit, she only got one of our dishes wrong. But she did mix up the four tables, so at various points, food for one of the others would be delivered to our table, only to have to be rerouted to another, and vice versa. And then she just disappeared. Never came back to see how we were doing, or to see if we wanted anything else, and neither did anyone else. We finally flagged down the host and just asked for the check, paid and left. So for me, while great pasta, it’s a place I probably won’t return to.