I may be biased as an American, but just about every parrilla I find in Argentina is 5 stars because it's better than anything we have here. This was my one "treat" meal in my entire recent vacation and I'm so glad we ended up here. Yelpista Rebecca S. brought me here to try it at 2 PM - roughly lunchtime here - but I hadn't eaten in so long I went for dinner. Okay, actually, I went for a 2-person meal for dinner. Maybe that was a mistake, but at 1800 pesos (under $10 with the locals' exchange rate)... no. No it was not. Neither was the 475 peso (so $2.50) liter of cold beer. Amazing.
I started with the chinchulines, fried beef innards basically. If that's not your thing, fine, but it was totally my thing. Perfectly seasoned, almost perfectly done; my only wish would be for even crispier overall. That could be an individual preference though. Ms. S. went for the cheese appetizer, which is an entire cheese round (we're talking 1 lb or more) air dried and then cooked so that the inside melts gooily while the outside remains crusty. Honestly, put these two apps together and I would have myself a lovely meal out of it. But wait, there's more! I did not ask for details on her salad, but here's the details on my chorizo de bife main dish: Yes, it's meant for two people. It's 400g of meat, just under 1 lb. That's less than I usually eat, but there are SO MANY sides. Rice, sweet potato, half an entire onion grilled perfectly, peppers, fries. The meat was done rare just as ordered. The entire plate is most definitely meant to be shared, and despite my college try I couldn't quite do it. It's not easy to make me quit on such delicious food but you get such a fantastic portion for the price.
Other notes: Very nice ambiance. It's a very open place - you have a roof but I'm not convinced there are walls. Part of the kitchen opens to the sky and the roof is high overhead so the feeling is very unconstrained. Service was decent - I noted some reviews on other sites mentioned slow service and I wouldn't call it slow, but neither was it fast. But in Argentina no one serves you USA-fast, so I'm really not deducting any points for that. They did everything right.
Ms. S. says that Las Petunias is one of several restaurants under the same owner, all with different names and menu/theme variations. Based on this one I would happily return here or try any of the others. They know their meats and they know all the other foods that go with them. I would get fat and happy here in a heartbeat if I lived in BA. read more