Much of the menu comes from the wood fired oven right there at the bar, and this is definitely a…read moremeat-centric place. The food is generally Argentine, but with some nice creative twists here and there, and a few dishes that have influences from other places in the world - like a hummus platter, or the day's special, a chicken curry.
Whenever I see olives and bread as something you have to order if you want on the table, I start to wonder if the place is a rip-off, I mean, dump some olives out of a jar into a bowl, and stick some of BA's ubiquitous cotton-ball bread on the table, and hit us with a 90 peso charge? But, oh... these are house cured black olives, pits removed, and cured in lemon and thyme, and they're outstanding. As is the elongated football of a bread (all breads are baked in-house). And then there were the empanadas, of which we had two rounds - coming in four varieties - a ricotta, spinach, walnut and portobello; a ham and cheese with a not the usual suspects cheese gooey and melty inside; a barbecued chicken with a bbq sauce that was beautifully balanced; and the star, the tapa de asado ahumada - basically the cap of meat over the shortrib, smoked, and kind of the house specialty, and completely awesome. I almost picked up half a dozen of those to go when we left. All the empanadas run 42-44 pesos apiece.
A short section of the menu is entitled La Ganga del Mediodía, the "noon bargain", and consists of a choice of several of their main course meats (which come in a 1/4 kg portion), served in a 1/8 kg portion with a choice of several side dishes, for a mere 175 pesos. Two of our number selected the bondiola, pork shoulder, slow-cooked rotisserie style on a spit. They did differ on their side dish choices, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Very good, though both noted that the meat wasn't quite as hot as they would have liked.
The claim to fame smoked shortrib meat, served up with a side of coleslaw - just as good as in the empanada.
And, a six-day cured and then smoked pastrami in sandwich form. One of the better pastrami sandwiches I've had here, with bread and butter pickles that were sharp rather than sour, and a housemade whole grain mustard, and... actual rye bread. I did think the amount of meat on the sandwich was a little skimpy, given that the sandwich is priced as a main course, but has the quantity of one of the lunch specials. 260 pesos.
A round of beers on tap. All the above food. Generous tip. And we headed out sated for 1920 pesos, 480 apiece, or $13. Any of us would happily go back!
