Bite Marks #131
The good, the bad, and the ugly dips into the casual dining scene here in BA.
This time around we have takeout pastrami sandwiches in Recoleta, a new Peruvian in Once, a long time Colombian staple that I’d not yet tried, revisits to some old favorites that have changed hands, and a casual Japanese spot in Palermo.
Taura Express, Juncal 2517, Recoleta. I got all excited when Taura Burgers, up in Martinez, announced they were opening an outpost just a few blocks from my home. And, they did, but… no burgers! Just a few sandwich and salad offerings, to-go only. Still, they’re also known for their pastrami and their smoked brisket, so I was willing to give it a shot. The pastrami itself is great, and a generous portion on the regular sandwich. I think there’s an XL version with double the pastrami. The classic version, here, comes with cream cheese, sweet and sour pickles, and honey mustard - I asked them to leave the last off and added a good spicy mustard at home. Even then it’s pretty sweet in terms of the flavor profile, especially as the bread is, as well. I love the pastrami, I kind of want a different bread that holds up a bit better and isn’t so sweet. Maybe I’ll just buy pastrami from them and make my own sandwiches. The classic runs 17900 pesos, the other sandwiches about the same.
Jauja Peruvian Grill, Anchorena 637, Once - From the chef-owners behind Quechua, comes a brand new restaurant focusing on grilled meats, Peruvian style. The menu’s not up to speed, so to speak, they’ve opened with a short offering of just a few dishes, with plans to add more over the coming weeks as they find their rhythm. The place is big… really big… and the tables are laid out kind of oddly - with a row of double booths on one side, but a long line of banquettes on the other, facing into the room, and then a line of tables down the middle. There’s a lot of… white space. I’m assuming they’re planning on adding more tables. There’s also a second floor private party space that’s almost the same size.
A foursome of us hit the place up for dinner one recent night. It felt a bit old home week, as the Julio Marin, the chef behind both places, is a long time friend, and the co-owner is the father of one of Henry’s dance students.
Two of our quartet ordered up mostritos - a combo plate of a marinated steak slathered in a bright herb sauce, chaufa (fried rice), and french fries. They paid their own bill, I think these were 24000.
An excellent classic lomo saltado, really one of the better ones around. 25000 pesos.
And a steal at 20000 pesos, some of the best anticuchos de corazón we’ve had in the city. And a massive portion of them - we took about a third of these home.
We’ll be back, and I definitely recommend it!
Santa Marta Tiene Tren, Av. Scalabrini Ortíz 443, Villa Crespo. There used to be quite a few Colombian restaurants in Buenos Aires - Gabo, Antojito Colombiano, La Aromática, Los Recuerdos come to mind. All closed. Well, Los Recuerdos was bought and reopened as Los Guadales. And, there was always this place, which has moved a couple of times I believe, and somehow I never got to it. The name is the first part of a Colombian expression related to a traditional cumbia - there’s a whole story as to the political and social satire it signifies. But I’m here for the food. The place is big, festooned with color, and at the same time pretty worn. Service is friendly and prompt.
Among the offerings on the fairly extensive menu, a couple of different bandejas, or combo plates. This is the bandeja guajira, and for a mere 28500 pesos I was treated to goat stewed in coconut milk, a shrimp fried rice, plantains, an arepa, and two types of bollos, which are sort of the steamed fillings of things similar to tamales, removed from the husks and sliced. They’re typically made from corn, yuca, plantain - the two white ones are, I believe, bollos blancos, made from white corn, and the two darker ones underneath are bollos angelitos, made from yuca, with anise, coconut, and unrefined sugar. Oh, and a fresh salad of lettuce, tomato, bell pepper, cheese, papaya, and mango. I managed to finish almost all of it, accompanied by a coconut lemonade and a small bowl of hogao, Colombian “hot sauce”, albeit it’s mostly onion and scallion, with just a whisper of chili. Recommended.
Nola, Gorriti 4389, Palermo. I should just kind of refer you back to the very first Bite Marks column, some dozen years ago. While Nola was pretty much the first place offering southern style American fried chicken (there were some places that offered American fried chicken around, like Jay’s, The Embers, Randall’s, and Chicken Bros. (the last might have actually opened after Nola), none of them were doing a real, spiced, New Orleans style. My friend Liza, who opened the place, decamped to Portugal quite a few years ago now, and left things in the hands of her sous chef and manager. I gather she checks in now and again, but pretty much leaves them to run the place.
And, it hasn’t changed much. The menu is roughly the same. I think they’ve cut back on the number of sauces offered, but the good ones are still there. The chicken is still delicious, though we didn’t quite get why it was sitting atop a handful of arugula and red cabbage shreds, which basically just wilted into nothing under the heat and oil from the chicken. We did find the cornbread to be really, really sweet, like it had been soaking in honey; and I’d forgotten that I’m not a real fan of their coleslaw - it’s the vinegar style, I like the creamy, but that’s me, not them. It’s still really good, but it feels a bit disorganized (posted hours on the door don’t match posted hours on their site don’t match posted hours on Google; and even though it was lunch hour, they weren’t actually ready to serve anyone yet, so we had to wait a bit for food). These days, there are far more options for good fried chicken here, though still no one doing this style. Still recommended.
Asian Cantina, Humboldt 1626, Palermo. A decade ago I reviewed Sunae Asian Cantina, Cristina Sunae’s first real brick and mortar spot after running a closed door restaurant for years. We became friends during the early part of that and have stayed in semi-regular contact, though it’s been awhile since we’ve actually connected. So, without going into detail, she’s no longer associated with this place, it now belongs to her ex-husband, and she’s been running a casual spot for several years, Apu Nena.
Let’s just say, it ain’t what it used to be. We ordered a round of appetizers (all in the 11000-15000 a plate range), ended up only eating two of them, as the other two were borderline inedible, and we didn’t bother with main courses, asked for the check, paid, and left.
Kenji, Nicaragua 4424, Palermo. A few years ago I ordered delivery from these folks and had a very nice feast of onigiri, gyoza, and tonkatsu. The Horde was out for lunch this week, and the place we’d reserved at… was closed… and they still haven’t responded. Spotted this place a block away, remembered having tried it the once, and thought we’d give it a shot. Four of us for lunch, and another two people who came in shortly after us. So… six customers in total. This will shortly be significant.
The menu’s pretty lengthy, and it’s on a phone app, which just makes it a pain in the ass to scroll up and down looking at different things and prices. So while we were figuring out our main courses, we ordered up a double order of pork dumplings and a quartet of katsuboshi onigiri. The waiter returned to say they were out of those rice triangles, so we swapped it around and got the pork onigiri and the salmon gyoza. Took about 10 minutes, no big deal, and we had them on the table. No real reason for why one plate of the dumplings has the lovely “skirt”, and the other was broken into separate pieces, but it didn’t change the flavor. Quite good!
And then. Nothing. We waited. And waited. And the other two in the place waited. And waited. An hour went by, with repeated promises from the waiter that the food was coming out “in five minutes”, “in less than a minute”, and nothing emerging. Another 15 minutes, we flagged him down and told him we were leaving and just bring us the bill for the appetizers, as did the other two. Suddenly, food came out of the kitchen, like they were just waiting for us to be pissed off enough to walk out.
And an even bigger issue, none of it was worth having waited for. We kind of got the impression that maybe the person in the kitchen wasn’t the chef, and was just trying to do her best to figure out how to make things. Which would explain the dumplings (probably premade, just needed to be heated) and onigiri, just put on a plate.
Katsu kare, a japanese pork curry was bland and uninteresting.
The katsudon fared better, albeit soggy and heavy on the onions.
The veggie ramen was okay, but we didn’t order veggie ramen, we ordered shoyu ramen after talking it over with the waiter, though he opined, grumpily, that that wasn’t the case.
And, the Tantanmen ramen, which sounded quite interesting - a spicier dish. But… umm… so, one of the ingredients in the broth is soy milk, which is to give it a slightly creamy texture. But it should be plain, unsweetened soy milk, not sweetened vanilla flavored soy milk from the supermarket. Let’s just say… that didn’t work.
All main courses in the low 20000s, dumplings 16600 a plate, onigiri 14000 a pair. Way too pricey for mediocre food. I really hope this was a one-off problem in the kitchen, but as it stands, I don’t see returning.