Bite Marks #129
Because not everything needs a full-on review. Plus, this round, it's all fast food.
This time around… coffee, a sando, a burrito, and a trio of burgers.
Cubanito Café, Azcuénaga 1222, Recoleta - Sharing the space with the (execrable) tapas bar, Lady Madrid, which takes over after 6pm, this place is offering up pretty darned good coffee and, given the name, no surprise, cubanitos. Basically, a tube (a “cigar”) of waffle cone filled with your choice of any of half a dozen or so fillings. It’s so much better than the tapas bar that its hard to believe there’s any association. And where else in this neighborhood can you get a cubanito?
Mitingu, Lidoro quintero 1490, Belgrano - Touted as the city’s first onigiri and sando bar, that’s exactly what’s on offer. A selection of six different onigiri - for those not clear, onigiri are the triangular shaped rice “balls” with different fillings, and sometimes coatings. I gave a try at the spicy tuna and the miso-eggplant, both excellent, and the tuna one was indeed spicy. Happy face! But then, the sando, the now trendy Japanese sandwiches. Sorry, but this falls short for a sando. The key defining characteristic of the genre is the use of shokupan, or a sweet milk bread that is light and fluffy, and is served crustless. This was dense, chewy, had a crust, and basically tasted like ubiquitous Argentine miga bread. The filling of trout, horseradish, and dill was tasty, but just didn’t make up for the bread. And those are not the promised trout roe, which don’t look like that, nor are they that size or color. I’d go back for the onigiri. 6000/each for those, and 20000/each for the sandos, a little pricey for the former, especially when you can get excellent onigiri a few blocks away in Barrio Chino for 4000-4600 pesos. The latter, just didn’t work for me.
Nacha, Fitz Roy 1988, Palermo - Have you seen those videos where someone rolls up an overstuffed burrito into a neat package that you can’t quite believe they got it to look so good? This isn’t that. This is a normally stuffed burrito that wasn’t much more than a folded over large tortilla, maybe slightly tucked in. It was a mess. The filling’s are not bad at this burrito bar, and they give you a large number of selections to fill it as you wish. You just can’t really pick it up and eat it, and they don’t provide knife and fork. Learn how to really roll a burrito and you’d have a solid concept here. They also have locations in DOT shopping center, Olivos, and Avellaneda. Pricing depends on size and what you want it filled with, but is quite reasonable.
Hey Bro, José Bonifacio 641, Caballito - The goal, recreate a sort of Happy Days! soda fountain style burger joint. With a location here in town and one in Pinamar, it appears this place opened up just about six months ago. They’ve pretty much nailed the vibe, and they’ve even gone with a music track that bounces between the 50s and 60s for the most part - a few later tunes creep in now and again. And based, at least, on their classic cheeseburger, they’ve nailed the fast-food diner burger too. This was nostalgia at its finest, and I almost ordered another burger to try as well. They also have patty melts. Pricing varies from high teens to low twenty thousands, depending on the burger. If this place was near to home….
TMT Burgers, Honduras 5670, Palermo - Had this one delivered one day when I didn’t have time to go out at lunch. It’s not bad, not bad at all. Decent burger, well seasoned, done medallion style. It was nice to have the option of something other than “American cheese” style cheddar. Good caramelized onions, okay pickles - a little sweet for my tastes. And even the fries were decent. It’s not going to win any awards, I probably wouldn’t try them again (maybe, just because it might be fairer to assess it in situ), but I wouldn’t be unhappy to do so. Burgers run in the low twenty thousands.
CHS Burger, Tucumán 975, San Nicolás - On the other hand… No. Just a solid no. I can’t remember the last time I had a burger that I just rolled back up in its paper and tossed in the trash. The patties had a weird, crumbly texture, and tasted like they might have been doused in onion powder, which then burned on the grill, the chewy, thick bacon was nearly as unpleasant, and the fried egg was so overcooked it was chalky. Add to that having to wait twenty minutes for the burger because no one had bought lettuce and tomato for the day (for either my, or the other burgers being ordered as they first opened), and the cook hadn’t told anyone, and there’s just nothing redeemable about this place. Not even the fries, which were borderline cold by the time the burger was put together - like they’d made them, then realized they needed to send someone shopping for veggies. Same general price range - high teens to low twenty thousands, but not remotely worth it. They also have locations in Palermo, Villa Santa Rita, and Lanus.
And that’s a wrap for today’s post. Highlight for me is definitely Hey Bro and their diner burgers. I will go back and try more of them.