As always, The Roving Ravenous Horde continues. We had a bit of a hiatus, culpa mia, when I took most of March off for some… me time… my father passed away at the beginning of the month – long expected due to terminal illness, and so both sad but a relief in some ways. I ate food in Louisville, but didn’t pay all that much attention to it – I look at the photos, more or less taken automatically, and don’t even really remember the meals.
But, back to the Horde, with a meal from the end of February and one this last week.
Let us start at Emperador Meiji, Honduras 5902, Palermo. This is the full-on Japanese restaurant from the same folk who bring us one of my favorite omakase bars in the city, Mutsuhito. We had a larger group for this one, and they offered us this lovely little alcove – all those gold figures are fortune kitties, waving hello. Thank goodness they don’t actually have the moving arm constantly waving about. Overall, a trifle shabby, despite the look – the place is only a couple of years old, but looking around, they don’t seem to have kept it well maintained.
Service is… ept. As in, not bad, but not good, just functional. The menu is odd – they have both an online and print menu – but only the former has prices. So if you’re presented with the menu book and don’t happen to have the website loaded on your phone, you have no idea what you’re paying for things. And this place isn’t cheap.
They offer a two course lunch special, with a choice of appetizer (currently 3900 pesos), as well as a la carte. Some of us went one way, some the other. Pictured, two of the appetizers from the menu, one a tiradito of lightly torched salmon, the other, dumplings. Now, the menu offered pork dumplings, but first they brought tofu ones. When asked, the waiter claimed there were no pork ones available, at which point we went to send them back and change the order. At that point he disappeared, returning a minute or two later with pork dumplings, which, miraculously, they had (speculation, an attempt to surreptitiously save costs on the lunch menu). Both dishes quite good. The last appetizer is an a la carte wagyu beef tartare (2900 pesos). I loved it, the table was mixed – some liked it, some didn’t.
Main courses, again the first two from the daily menu – a chirashi sashimi – various cuts of fish over a bowl of rice, nicely done. The other, a dish of udon noodles with a mix of vegetables and fish, again very good. The only real disappointment was the wagyu beef burger (4200 pesos). The fries were good, but the condiments on the side were flavorless, and the burger was so overcooked that well-done was a mere memory, while the charcoal (we assume) laced black bun was just unpleasant. It was mine, actually, and I’m not sure why I didn’t just call the waiter over and send it back, but it was only barely edible.
Overall, I don’t know that I’d go back. The lunch special isn’t a bad deal, depending on what’s on offer. But the rest of it is overpriced and I personally wasn’t impressed, though that view was not universal at the table.
La Pescería, Av. Cnel. Díaz 1651, Palermo – This one got onto my radar from a recent article somewhere about the best places for fish in town right now. It’s a small spot, just a few tables indoors and a few on the sidewalk. Obviously a very fishy, nautical theme going on. Service is friendly, quick, and helpful. When you sit down, they bring you a cup of vegetable broth, which seemed a trifle odd – why not something seafood related, like a fish broth? But it’s fine, and sets a nice tone for the meal to come.
With six of us at the table, we opted for a trio of platters of half a dozen each of oysters. While reasonably nicely flavored, these were kind of meager, like they were wasting away in their shells. A bit of a disappointing start, especially at 3500 pesos a plate. On the other hand, the grilled octopus appetizer (it was split onto two plates like this, for ease of access for the group) at 9500 pesos (octopus isn’t cheap here) was excellent and everyone cheered up immediately.
Most of their main course menu is fish or shellfish off the grill, very simple. Our waitress recommended one plate for every 2-3 people, so we went with three for our group. Chernia, a type of stone bass, was tasty, if a touch overcooked (4300 pesos). The pacú, a local river fish, was perfect, really one of the best I’ve had (4600 pesos). And the whopping plate of whole prawns with provençal, or garlic and parsley, was excellent (I think it was 6400 pesos, but can’t find the receipt and it’s not listed on their online menu).
The one area that we weren’t happy with was wine. Out of a wine list of only a dozen selections, they were out of several, and when we did hit on one that they had, they only had one bottle. When we went for another bottle, our waitress brought out a bottle each of two different white wines, letting us know that these were the only bottles of white wine they had left. There were shelves and racks of bottles of red wine all around, but for some reason in a seafood restaurants, they only had a few bottles of white. Just seems odd to us.
I’d go back in a heartbeat. Great service, for the most part, great food, and we liked the space. A little pricey, but not for seafood, and not these days when the blue rate is approach 400:1 to the dollar.
