It’s been awhile since I’ve had a solid “you should check these places out” group of restaurants. There always seems to be one or two that just don’t make the grade, and past reader feedback is that you guys want to know about those too, in order to avoid them, or, sometimes, argue with me. Luckily, we’ve had quite a few good to excellent adventures in the gastronomy world during March. Today I have five spots I think are worth visiting – some of them if you just happen to be nearby, some of them worth organizing your plans around. Let’s dig in!
We begin March’s adventures with a Horde outing. I have a bunch of new readers, so a little about the Roving Ravenous Horde, as I monikered it. This was my little announcement back in August 2017 – nearly seven years, and more than 130 lunches ago…,
So, I’ve launched a new little venture, intended to more or less be weekly, where I pick a place, somewhere in or around the city, somewhere where I might not ordinarily venture to solo, but somewhere I want to try for one reason or another, and post an invite on my Facebook feed for local friends to join. I’m planning to mix up the day, the location, the cuisine, etc., etc., and hopefully turn it into a regular social outing. Sometimes I get tired of eating solo, or, and with no offense to the three or four friends who are regulars, eating only in duo with just one of them. Expanding my social circle, and bringing friends together!
It didn’t turn out to be weekly, but more once every 2-3 weeks. We have a core group of people who are long time lunchers, and a few who pop in and out, now and again. For our 138th outing, five of us gathered at Enso, Holmberg 2248, in Villa Urquiza, on the north side of the city. It turned out to be not a great spot for the group, because of the counter seating, which meant we couldn’t really chat as a group, and we ended up splitting into 2 and 3 for conversation. We could have sat outside at a picnic table, but it was a scorching hot day, and they don’t have shade umbrellas for the tables. The place offers casual Japanese food, and it’s the sort of place that if I lived nearby, I’d probably drop in often for a bite. As it is, being about a 45 minute trip from home, it’s not likely to be a spot I’ll return to with any regularity.
They offer a quite reasonable lunch combo of one “mini-bowl” selected from “some” of their appetizers. The menu specifies “the ones that are apt for the lunch combo”, and you kind of find out which ones those are when you go to order. There’s probably some mark on the menu somewhere to figure it out in advance. It is then accompanied by either a larger bowl of some sort of stir-fry or soup, or, a bao. Two of us went with the fried chicken mini and the pork belly bao. A drink is included. All for around 8-9000 pesos right now.
Other options include a la carte items like their gyoza or their new selection of sandos. Everything we had was good to very good, though nothing was a wow. And it did take some effort to get hot sauce, and they upcharge for… everything… which would be my one negative about the place. All we really wanted was a squirt of hot sauce on the baos, but instead of that, we had to buy an entire bowl of the stuff, of which, even when we decided to also use it for the dumplings, we didn’t use even a quarter of it.
A new spot, opened just a couple of weeks ago, around the corner from home. Taking over the space that was Bar de Carnes (closed in early 2022), is Amano, Peña 2275, Recoleta. Now, I like to give a new restaurant some slack, both in service and food. More in the former, as staff figure out movement patterns, working together, and get into the rhythm of their regular clientele. But I’d have to say that service-wise, while friendly, has been, on two visits, pretty inept and inattentive. There seems to be a lot of running around pretending to be busy and “not my job” attitude going on. I do hope it shakes itself out, because the food is pretty good.
On a first visit, for “date night”, we started at an outdoor table. A group of four was at the table next to us, and they had their dog with them, who had taken up residence under our table. We asked if they’d move their dog, a rather huge, shaggy one, over to their table, and got screamed at for daring to suggest such a thing – “he was there first”. Shrugs from the staff, and an offer to move us inside instead. How about ask your customers to move their dog.
Inside, we sat at the table and waited. And waited. After about 6-7 minutes I attempted to flag one of half a dozen scurrying waiters down, who looked at us, rolled his eyes, and said, I’ll get to you in a minute. A couple of minutes later he returned, tossed down this plate of focaccia and a sort of pesto, and walked away. Apparently the bread guy, not the waiter. So went outside to the hostess and asked if someone might come to the table or bring menus. She apologized, apparently menus were her job, and she’d forgotten. She brought them, and we looked through it, and waited. Another five minutes or so, and I flagged a manager down who was passing by, and she went and grabbed one of the waiters and sent him to our table. He took our order and that was basically the last we saw of him. A different person attended to each contact, and no one seemed to know what was going on (by the way, they’re all equipped with walkie talkies and headsets, so, umm, it wouldn’t be hard to figure things out).
The main course menu is pretty simple – pick a protein – a grilled fish, chicken, or steak, or a milanesa – and then pick a side dish – papas bravas, a green salad, a tomato salad, or spaghetti with butter and cheese. Filtered or soda water included. The side dishes are more interesting than the basic protein. A couple at the table next to us told us it was their third night there, and the best things were the pastas and pizzas, not the main courses. My chicken was supposed to come with the tomato salad, not the green one, but our waiter wasn’t to be found. Flagged down the manager again, she whisked the greenery away.
Someone else returned with this, which is not the side dish version of the tomato salad, but the full on shareable appetizer, with a burrata. But they didn’t charge us for that, so a nice upgrade. After that, and a decent meal food-wise, we asked for the check. Three times, three different people, to finally get it. And only then our original waiter showed up to run the credit card through his little machine and point out that “tip was not included”. Yeah, that doesn’t add to your tip – though, mindful of all being new, we still tipped our normal amount.
As I said, I cut new places some slack. I made a solo visit for lunch about a week later. Different waiters (different shift I’d imagine), different manager. Still not overly attentive, though a bit better, and only two different waiters to interact with. Different bread, same pesto. An excellent pan con tumaca – grilled bread rubbed with tomato and topped with cured ham. And a pretty good casarecce pasta with broccoli pesto, roast broccoli, pistachios, toasted squash seeds, and, for some inexplicable reason, a partial ice cold burrata on the side. Leave the last off, put a little more pasta on the plate (it’s a kind of wimpy portion), and all would be well.
Overall – for the most part I like the food. Service definitely improved in their second week open, and I’m crossing my fingers it continues to do so. Pricing is reasonable, especially for Recoleta, with main courses running around 9000-12000 pesos. There is a 1600 pesos cubierto, but you get the bread and “free” water. It’s also a mere two minute walk from our front door. I imagine we’ll be back.
We have the return, in a new location, of Bonga, now behind a basically unmarked door at Av. Asamblea 1812, in the Flores Koreatown (for those who aren’t local, we have two Koreatowns here, one in Flores and one in Floresta). We had thought it long closed, prior to the pandemic, and only found out about it recently when I saw someone come out of the old space and asked if they knew what had happened to it.
Pretty much nothing has changed. I think the menu is identical other than prices. We ordered up our two favorite soups – the spicy beef and the bubbling cauldron of lamb – and happily ate the midday away.
The menu is still only in Korean. Google’s camera translate has gotten noticeably better over the years, and this is a pretty solid one. Makes it easy to look up the names of the dishes and see what they are. The spicy beef is the yukgaejang and the lamb is the yeongyangtang.
Anafe, Virrey Avilés 3216, in Colegiales, has been on my list since it opened years ago. I don’t know why I haven’t gotten there, everyone swears by it. Maybe it just sounded too good to be true, overhyped, something of that sort. It’s also a long way from home. I know, excuses, excuses. And, when I finally went, I was invited by a visiting friend!
It’s all a mix of small and medium sized plates, most intended for sharing. This one is a bit small to share, though, and explains our waiter’s “are you sure you just want one”? An amazing chicken liver mousse on toasted cornbread. Fantastic start!
Cured boquerones, anchovies, under a sort of sour cream, with an emulsion of pickled beetsl. Amazing.
Impeccably fresh heirloom tomato salad with herbs, capers, and onions – simple and delicious.
And, one “medium” plate, smoked and grilled chicken with their own housemade coleslaw, pickles, and mustard. Yum!
As always, I’m not a huge dessert fan, and only had two small bites, leaving the rest to my hostess – a dense, chocolate, dulce de leche, and coffee marquise, with a coffee and cocoa whipped cream. Too much for me, but she enjoyed it thoroughly!
Beautiful space, attentive, friendly waitstaff, stunningly good food. I didn’t see the bill since I was a guest, but looking at the online menu, small plates run 10-12,000 pesos, the bigger ones around 15-20,000, so it’s a little pricey, but I’d say worth it. I never should have thought it was over-hyped. It deserves all its hype!
The last couple of attempts at opening a “Nordic cuisine” spot in Buenos Aires have ended up with lackluster response, and fairly quickly went out of business (Söder and Bread + Butter). But those were a few years ago, and someone decided it was time to give it another shot. The relatively recent opening of Sál Restaurante Nórdico, Thames 2450, in Palermo has, it seems, been met with a bit more success. Part of it is certainly changing times and tastes, but the other part is, I think the food is not just better than at the past places, but more… “familiar”. As I was solo, I opted to sit at the kitchen bar rather than a table, and watch the chefs. They’re not a chatty bunch – usually at kitchen bars you can chat with the kitchen staff to some extent, especially when not busy, but these guys don’t seem to want to talk. A little disappointing. I had questions!
Everyone gets a little plain boiled quail egg with vegetable ash sitting on hay. Okay, not exactly what I’d call a standout start.
Toasted dark bread with cured venison, lightly charred tomatoes, pistachios, and fermented strawberries was absolutely beautiful – both flavor and look. I almost ordered a second one at the end of the meal instead of dessert.
Calamari tartar… but not really… tartar implies raw, this was not, it was just chopped after cooking. Bound in a delicious XO sauce mayo and garnished with shoots of salcornia. It was good, but didn’t wow me. The XO sauce needs a lot more punch, this was very toned down. And I’d be interested in a real tartar, with the calamari left raw and soft.
A strip from a duck magret, with smoked cabbage puree, pine mushroom demiglace, and a fermented apple sauce. All delicious (and you can see the after party in the photo at the top of this post). A little disappointing the size of the piece of duck for a dish that cost almost us$30.
And, I let them pick a dessert. I know it has a cherry and glögg ice cream, black garlic toffee foam, bits of ice cream cone, and dill. Supposedly. I could get the cherry and ice cream cone flavors, but the rest wasn’t evident. And I know there were almonds and flowers in there. I don’t see any dill. Not sure what the creamy white base was. No one was answering questions.
Love the space. Service is friendly and attentive, but, both waitstaff and kitchen staff are a bit tight-lipped. Getting them to actually tell you anything about the food would seem to be part of the experience at a place that’s doing food this different, but they simply… wouldn’t. That’s a bit off-putting. I enjoyed most of the food, particularly the venison and duck dishes. I was impressed, but I’d be a whole lot more impressed if they were more… interactive. A bit on the pricey side, but this food takes a lot of work, and is something very different from anywhere else in town. And not at all outrageous – all four dishes above, water, wine, and tip came in at about 92,000 pesos, but 30,000 of that was the bottle of wine. Recommended.
And I think I may have exhausted your attention span. A lot heavier on photos than my usual Bite Marks, but hopefully not overdone on the text!
