It takes me awhile to collect together enough steak experiences to post a scroll. Despite living in Argentina, and early on indulging in the great beef here, in general, I probably don’t eat even ten steaks a year. Should I eat more? Should I eat fewer? I tend to leave these things up in the air.
This time around, we’re going “cheap and cheerful”, or at least the former.
Don Hilario, Peña 2475, Recoleta. This parrilla took over about a year and a half ago from a previous steakhouse, El Estrebe, which has moved a couple of blocks away to Uriburu 1269, which took over several years ago from a satellite branch of the famed (though in my mind, infamous) La Brigada, where I decline to eat. Unfortunately, the quality of the steaks has declined with each of those changes of venue.
Now, that’s not to say that this place is bad, but it’s not particularly good either. They seem to have a fetish for fats, oils, and greases (and this has been mentioned, it turns out, more than once in Google reviews). While a tasty beef empanada, with bits of vegetables and lots of onion, it was just dripping with, not juices, but so much oil, that I had to resort to a very non-Argentine approach, and eat it with a fork. And while a 250gm (9oz) tenderloin steak for barely over $5 sounds like a steal, it turned out that probably about 100gm – almost 4oz of that, were simply a fat cap that hadn’t been trimmed. I mean, I guess for $5 it’s still kind of steal, because it was decent quality, but some amount of trimming on a steak ought to be done.
There are some nice middle eastern touches to the menu, including several dishes and even combo plates of dishes from the area, and the bread is served with hummus and pickled eggplant. Service is friendly, but pretty inattentive – that may be unfair – it’s a big place, and there seemed to be only two waiters working, each covering around a dozen tables – so perhaps better said as “under-staffed”. Still, there are better parrillas in the immediate area – El Estrebe mentioned above to Melo, come to mind immediately (I should re-review the latter, we go there on and off, but I haven’t written it up since a brief blurb back not long after I first moved here, around 18 years ago).
Parrilla Jazmin, Bogotá 2102, Flores. This is not a spot that had made it onto my radar for any reason related to the food or a recommendation. Just that a friend of ours works there as a waiter and brought up more than once that I’ve never come to his place of work to try it out. So, I tootled off one midday for another solo steak lunch and to visit with him. The latter part more or less didn’t happen, as the place was so packed that other than taking my order and bringing me my check, he had no time at all for a conversation. This is why I don’t generally like to go visit friends where they work – they’re working.
An excellent beef empanada. The filling one of the better that I’ve had – kind of the “Salta” style, with lots of green onion and egg in the mix. The bread served with an interesting chicken escabeche. They only offer four different cuts of steak, and they were out of my favorite, the hanger steak, so I went with flank steak, vacio. Decent quality of meat, and cooked a beautiful medium rare as requested, but as best I could tell, completely unseasoned when grilled. Added salt and pepper helped, but not quite the same, as we all know. Didn’t like the chimichurri, it has some sort of weird, muddy taste to it; the salsa criolla was fine; the provencal was a beautiful parsley and garlic puree that was a perfect accompaniment to the steak. An okay mixed salad came with it (fries or mash available if preferred), though the onion was cut in rather large pieces. Overall, another okay parrilla experience, and if one lived nearby, probably just fine, and I’ve not tried any others in the neighborhood, so… there’s that.
El Rebenque de Omar, Matheu 24, Once – I’m not sure this place was ever on anyone’s “must try” list until recently. It’s could be the dictionary picture for a hole-in-the-wall, the sanitation is questionable, the ambiance is nil, the menu is shorter than it appears to be, and to some extent unrelated to what’s actually on offer. But, it had a shining star moment in the new Argentine TV mini-series Nada (or, depending on where you are, Nothing), from Hulu and Star+, starring Luis Brandoni and Robert DeNiro. It is, by the way, a thoroughly enjoyable five-episode show. This parrilla got the nod when the star of the series opined that it was his favorite steakhouse in the city, and couldn’t be beat by all the fancy places. It kind of got on everyone’s list, for about a month, until, I’d guess, most people sort of thought… well yeah, it’s good steak, but it’s not all that. Note: odd name – a rebenque in local parlance is a horsewhip (which is, I suppose, at least better than the classic Spanish definition of a whip used to punish slaves).
And it is good steak. Options available were a bife de chorizo (basically a tenderloin steak), vacio (flank steak), both of which we got, and a picaña (rump cap), chicken, or pork shoulder. Appetizers offered were chorizos, morcillas, and kidneys. And side dishes on offer were fries, ensalada rusa, and a green salad. That seemed to be it, and weren’t necessarily what was listed on the menu, instead what was offered by the waiter. Attention is limited, but friendly. The steaks are cooked to order, a surprise in a place that looks like this where usually it’s all parcooked and just sort of reheated. And, they’re really good. Also one of the best chimichurris I’ve had in BA – with a kick, too. Really good fries, decent ensalada rusa.
So, would I go back? Probably, if I was nearby. At the same time, there are other cheap and cheerful parrillas with more ambiance, more choices, and equal quality food. This is also the first parrilla I’ve ever been to in BA where everyone thanks and tips the parrillero, sometimes instead of the waiters, sometimes in addition to. I don’t think I saw a single table leave without doing so – and the going amount seemed to be 500 pesos. We tipped both, and with the two steaks, two sides, three waters, and tips, we came in at a mere $27k pesos, a steal these days, especially for good food. I spent more individually at each of the places above, and neither was remotely as good as this.
