Firing Up the Steaks of July, Part 1

In which I rediscover some favorite steakhouses of the past.

Given my last two posts, obviously I’ve been waxing a bit nostalgic. I had this idea, which actually came before the overall look back at the last twenty years, of looking back at past restaurant discoveries and favorites - and tying them to the month we’re in. So, being that July is my first month into my 21st year here, I thought… what were my favorite restaurants in July - 20, 15, 10, and 5 years ago. I’m not going to go for all twenty years, but those seem nice round numbers.

It was interesting, going back and reading, and discovering that in July 2005, 2010, and 2015, some of my favorite restaurants of the month (that are still open), were all steakhouses. My actual favorite spot in 2015 was La Mar, which had just opened, followed by Uco, which has closed, but since a steakhouse made the top three, I went with a theme. 2020 didn’t have one because… well, you remember 2020, right? I was going to pop off to all three and then write one post on the topic, but given my current dizziness, I’m going to have to stretch this out a bit, since leaving the house is a bit of a wobble. But, one of the three steakhouses is just three blocks from home, and I managed the voyage.

The place? El Estrebe, Uriburu 1269 here in Recoleta. Now, ten years ago, it was actually just around the corner from our house, at Peña 2475, where it had moved into the space formerly occupied by a short-lived branch of La Brigada, probably San Telmo’s most famed steakhouse, and one which I had a love-hate relationship with that has meant I haven’t been to it since 2006. You can read about that here, if it interests you. That space is now occupied by Don Hilario, an unfortunately mediocre parrilla.

These, by the way, are estrebes - supports for cooking pots, usually tripodal, though sometimes with four legs. (Photo lifted from a MercadoLibre listing.)

Let’s start with my thoughts on the place a decade ago. I think I only went there twice while it was around the corner, and haven’t been to its new location, which it moved to just after the pandemic, despite its proximity.

This is the original room. And bread service - which consisted of clearly “bought in” commercial type breads, some of them in plastic packets.

And here’s my edited (for a tad more brevity) review at the time:

Nice ambiance – perhaps slightly marred by the arrival about half an hour after me of a really boisterous group of twenty 20-somethings who took up a huge section of the room, and unfortunately my table was right next to them. But hey, steakhouse, folk out for a good time, I wasn’t looking for a quiet café. Service is friendly and helpful, if at moments feeling a bit perfunctory. And, as happens at many restaurants, solo diners are often paid less attention than others. Bread is served up with a delicious pâté, which I made my way through rapidly. Excellent chimichurri and salsa criolla, clearly fresh, and the former actually had some kick to it. A good number of the dishes on the parrilla menu are available in half portions, which is the direction I went. Great sweetbreads – perfectly cooked and tender with just a little hint of crispy edges – but, completely unseasoned. Not a lick of salt. The same is to be said for the equally dead-on cooking of a medium rare, bone-in sirloin – prior to hitting my plate and my addition of it, no crystal of NaCl had kissed its surface, nor of the lovely grilled mixed vegetable plate. Expensive, yes, but not the way others have made it sound – yes, I paid out 660 pesos ($73 at the time) for dinner with tip, but the half-portions are all priced at about 2/3 of the full portion price, so had we been two, sharing full portions, dinner would have been about 1000 pesos ($111 at the time), for a pretty darned good steak-out experience, and about 35% of that was a bottle of wine.

This time, at the new spot, Henry joined me. We still kind of overdid the amount of food we ordered. We’ve been being homebodies for the last month or so, so this was the first real nice meal out.

So the new space shares a similar ambiance to the old. The décor is quite similar, though they have more space, I think, and it feels a bit more open. They’ve added a couple of nice touches to service - most importantly to me, good bread. Clearly freshly baked, and absolutely delicious, every table gets a loaf - we ended up bringing half of ours home. They also offer a welcome cocktail, their take on a media y media, or half and half, which can really be anything, though is often half wine and half liquor, in this case they went with half white wine, a Sauvignon blanc, and half hard apple cider. It was… refreshing but not really to either of our tastes. They still offer that great pate with the bread, along with salsa criolla and chimichurri for whatever you may care to put them on. And the latter still has a decent kick to it.

Started with an empanada. I’ve got to say, the filling on this one was one of the best I’ve had in a long time, and one of the best I’ve had in a parrilla rather than a dedicated empanada spot. It was a lip-smacking, unctuous beef stew on the inside, with cubes of beef and bits of carrot, onion, and bell pepper. I like the added touch of wrapping it in a small napkin so you don’t get your fingers greasy. That’s the classic way to eat one, but its rare that someone wraps it up for you.

Henry went with a suprema, a breaded chicken breast cutlet, simply served with a half and half puree of potatoes and squash, a common offering. The portion was generous, the chicken juicy, the crust crunchy. Everything you want in a good suprema. He also, strangely, ordered an ensalada criolla, which is sort of the large size of the salsa criolla - peppers and onions in vinegar and oil, or lemon and oil in this case, at his request. It wasn’t the salad he meant to order, but it ended up being a good topping for both his suprema and my steak.

I went with what is generally my favorite cut, the entraña, or hanger steak. It’s not the most tender, but it is one of the most flavorful. It wasn’t quite the medium rare that I ordered - most of it more medium some of it into medium well, but it was still juicy. I also ordered it with a baked potato, because… baked potato. Meh. I don’t know why Argentines don’t get baked potatoes right. It’s not that hard. But to date, there’s only been one steakhouse in the city where I’ve regularly had what I consider a properly baked potato, Marucha Parrilla Familiar, in Nuñez.

Now, here’s the caveat to all this. With the exception of the filling of the empanada, which was seasoned beautifully, not one of the other dishes served had salt. The same as ten years ago. There was no salt on the steak, the chicken, the two potato dishes, not even the dressed salad. We had to add salt ourselves. Now, under-salting is a common issue in BA, which has a silly city ordinance about how much salt restaurants are allowed to use (way too little), but many restaurants ignore the rule, since there’s no one out there enforcing it. But under-salting is different from no-salting, and as best we could tell, there was none.

The ambiance is pleasant and relaxed. Service was impeccable - noticeably better than it was at the old spot. Nice touches like the welcome cocktail even if it wasn’t our tastes, likewise an end of meal limoncello, and the aforementioned wrapping of the empanada. The menu, other than updating prices, seems to be pretty much identical to what it was there. And other than the salt thing, this was all around excellent.

Pricing is still about the same. With water, a bottle of wine, and tip, we shelled out 132,000 pesos, which at today’s rate is about $110, pretty much dead-on what I estimated dinner for two would have been a decade ago. It’s still on the pricey side - there are plenty of steakhouses that are less expensive, and plenty that are more. But it is Recoleta, one of the city’s wealthier neighborhoods, and it’s not out of line.

Definitely recommended!