Ne Plus Ultra?

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou, poet

We arrive at the third of the trio of “over hyped, hyped just right, under hyped” reviews that I promised you. If you’ve been keeping score, I’ve covered over and just right hyped, so you know where this one is going. This one really hasn’t had a huge social media presence, but when it has, it’s been almost universally high praise.

Ultramarinos (“the other/far side of the ocean”) is located, officially, at Arribeños 1980, in Belgrano. That doesn’t make it easy to find, because Arribeños, on the maps, runs from 1300 to 1800, then there’s a three block gap where the Belgrano C train station is, and it picks up again at 2100. I’ve heard from more than one person that they spent way too much time looking for the place. To make it easier for you, it’s along the relatively new pedestrian passageway that runs alongside and under the train tracks - in this case, it’s on the backside of the middle of the station, just slightly south of Echeverria street.

Owned by chef/owner Maxi Rossi, I’m just going to say it, this is currently the best place to have seafood in Buenos Aires. Rossi comes from a twenty-five year career history that took him through the kitchens of top local restaurants - Thymus (closed in 2010), Unik (closed in 2016), and Sacro (okay, I wasn’t fond of the latter) - and his own short lived burger place, Big Sur (closed during the pandemic), which I loved, before opening his own full on restaurant, Picarón, a few years back that is one of my favorites in the city. The direct, day to day kitchen operations at both restaurants are overseen by his righthand man, Costanza Oviedo.

In a city where the average denizen consumes some 50 kilos of red meat a year, and only 7 of seafood, this place, at least for those with some cash in their wallets, could be a game changer. I’ve talked about the reasons for this disparity - much of it has to do with historic availability, and the prices (which might well come down on seafood if there was more demand, because currently, a huge percentage of Argentina seafood is shipped overseas, because no one here eats it).

Finally someone who’s done “industrial chic” proud. This is a stunningly beautiful room. It’s imposing, yet warm, and the staff are friendly, welcoming, and beyond helpful. Now, upfront, they knew who I was. I’ve met Maxi numerous times before, and though he wasn’t there, it was clear they were going to try to impress me.

The menu is moderate in length - it’s certainly not limited in choices (roughly a dozen small seafood plates, a half dozen vegetable dishes, and a half dozen main courses - only one of which is non-seafood or vegetable - a wagyu steak). So many of the smaller plates sounded amazing, and so did quite a few of the main courses. As I debated, and discussed with my waiter/sommelier, he asked me to wait for a moment and went and talked with the young woman who was running the kitchen at the moment. He returned and offered - just pick a whole bunch of what sounds interesting and the kitchen will scale down to smaller, tasting kind of portions. I can’t swear that they’d do anything of the sort on a regular basis - though actually, quite a few of their dishes are available in half as well as full portions.

I also left the wine selection in his hands at that point, and after a few questions about my tastes, and looking at the dishes ordered, he selected two wines to try as I went through the dinner (there’s actually a quite well selected range of wines by the glass). Both wines were delightful, and both paired brilliantly with what I was eating.

I started off with an oyster in a tosazu granita. Now, I’ve been eating Japanese food for my entire adult life. I’m sure I must have had tosazu at some point, but I simply don’t recall anyone ever naming it. It’s basically a blend of rice vinegar, soy, sugar, and dashi made from both bonito flakes and kombu seaweed. I’ve now made some and have a bottle of it in the refrigerator because it’s stunningly good. The other dish, slivers of geoduck in a mixed berry infused leche de tigre to cure it. I knew I was in for a great meal at this point.

Spianata is a Calabrian salami made from minced pork, diced lard, salt, and chili paste. Here, they substitute in trout for the minced pork, but keep the lard and spices. It’s brilliant, and a delight served over a lightly bitter radicchio salad.

A trio of delights - they were out of fresh clams, but were preparing the same dish with scallops lightly dressed with verjus, orange, and lightly draped with a veil of lardo. Razor clams were brushed with a Chinese XO sauce - delicious, though given my personal tastes, a bit tame for an XO sauce, which should have a more pungent and picante bite. And, chipirones, baby squid, with ‘nduja and a squid ink cracker of sorts. All fantastic.

And then… just a mouthwatering plate of tandoor spiced pacú ribs with pickled green chili and lemon. I could eat through a platter of these. Pacú is an insectivore piranha from the rivers of South America, and a personal favorite fish.

Beautiful room, impeccable service (and other people were getting great service as well), and absolutely fantastic food. And all of the above, including water, wine, and tip, for 75,000 pesos. For the quality, this is a steal. Rated… under-hyped, and not to be missed if you’re a fan of seafood. As I said, right now, I don’t think anyone’s offering better seafood in the city.