Trilateral Tidbits
“Asian food is about balance; it’s about the sweet and the salty, the spicy and the sour.” — Ruth Reichl, food writer and restaurant critic
A threesome of Asian spots… we’re off to Korea, India, and kinda sorta Japan.
Hidden behind this unmarked façade at Páez 3046 in Floresta is Han Gang, a Korean restaurant that you have to be in the know to know which you now know.
There’s a fairly cramped dining area inside with too many tables packed too close together. Better to sit out in the covered patio, with tables spread out, and some air and light. There’s also a swimming pool, though it’s empty of water. There are cute, albeit very young, waiters. Then again, these days, everyone under 30 looks very young to me.
Started off with some quite tasty fried mandu, pork and chive dumplings.
The menu is short and simple. Basically variations on a few dishes - your choice of rice or noodles topped with either pork-black bean sauce, stir-fried beef, or stir-fried shellfish, and then either spicy or mild. You can also get a combo platter of two or three of the sauces over either rice or noodles. That’s pretty much it. I think there was also a fried rice with choice of beef or shellfish. They all run around 12000-15000 a plate, the combos slightly more.
Since we’d both ordered the pork-black bean sauce, spicy, me over noodles, my companion over rice, we only have those to judge on. Good, decently spicy but not overly so. We’ve had better, we’ve had worse. I’d go back.
I rarely go to Puerto Madero except when friends are visiting and want to see it. But now and again, something pops up of interest, including, in this case, a relatively new Indian restaurant, Bharat, Olga Cossentini 1124 in Puerto Madero Este. “Food that tells Indian Story” is the off-grammatical vision statement on the front and the menu. Why it’s not in Spanish I’m not sure. Maybe because most of the denizens of Puerto Madero Este are foreigners. It’s a comfortable room. Service is attentive and sweet. We appreciated that they asked if we’d like the food mild or spicy, and were receptive to “Indian spicy, not Argentine spicy”.
Tasty samosas (14500 pesos). A little bready for our tastes, but a well seasoned filling. The dipping sauces were not great - a thin cilantro sauce and a barely tangy tamarind sauce. Both seemed like they’d been watered down. A little pricey for just a trio of samosas but then, it is Puerto Madero. A request for something spicy to dip them into was met with a smile and a bowl of freshly made chopped chili sauce that more than fit the bill.
Jeera rice with cumin and other spices (9800 pesos), a rich, slow cooked Sindhi mutton stew (25000 pesos), the specialty of the house, and a tangy chicken vindaloo (19800 pesos) were spot on, plenty spicy, and some of the better Indian food we’ve had in Buenos Aires. Again, a touch pricey, but still, Puerto Madero. And a single, kind of dense, roti for 4800 pesos is also a bit much.
The only real disappointment. Pistachio kulfi was rock hard, weirdly flavored, and just kind of unpleasant (12500 pesos). The owner chatted with us about the food and experience and acknowledged that they were having trouble getting the kulfi right - lack of certain ingredients.
Overall, again, Puerto Madero pricey - a lunch that came in at 110000 pesos for two with one appetizer, two main courses, one piece of bread, and one dessert. They also charged a 7000 peso cubierto for the table, which is rather high. “That’s the standard in Puerto Madero” according to the owner. Not from what I’ve seen. It’s really good food, it’s really good service, but it is expensive. Would I go back? Maybe. Tandoor in Recoleta is basically the same price, just as good or better, and portions are bigger, and I can walk to it in ten minutes.
Hidden away in the back garden of the Pleno Palermo Soho Hotel, Gurruchaga 2121, and behind Raggio Osteria, a quite good Italian restaurant, is a geodesic dome that four nights a week is the setting for RU Omakase. Is that a question?
I kind of want to just say… “oh, it was okay” and move on. The “room” is… fine. It’s a wooden counter for ten surrounding a too cramped workspace, and, as my best friend back in NYC would say, “I see they’ve spared every expense on décor”.
Service is… serviceable. It was polite, it was attentive at moments. When I sit at a kitchen food bar, or a sushi bar, I tend to expect some regular interaction with the chefs. But other than a vague attempt at some questions like “how did you hear of us?” and “where are you from?”, the only interaction with them was monotone recitations of what we were eating for each course. The rest was all perfunctory motions.
Everything’s beautifully presented. There are a lot of courses, and it went on a little longer than either of us would have liked. Then again, had it been better than okay, we’d probably have thought it was an appropriate number. First there was a duo of shellfish courses, then a tartar, a sashimi, then six nigiri served two at a time, a gunkan, two hot courses, a pre-dessert and a dessert. It was all fresh, but nothing was seasoned - neither the sushi rice, nor the pieces of fish - it was all just kind of bland and, unfortunately, uninteresting. The only things I’d want to eat again were the fried prawn head (suck those brains!) and the dessert, which in itself packed more intensity of flavor than the rest of the meal combined. For 70000 pesos it was just a big disappointment.
I guess I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Though numerous people have recommended the place, a local food writer friend had sent me the missive “RU is lacking a lot. But at least they’re doing something different, and that’s a good thing.” I don’t know, I think the lack more than cancels out the different. And truthfully, it’s not that different, other than the physical setting, from places like Mutsuhito, Nika Club, or M Palermo.