Restaurant Survival Guide

Big_m

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Hi all,

Lets just say that in my opinion the food in BsAs is at best indifferent and normally very poor.

So I wanted to share with you some places that are expat friendly and offer some kind of eatability. All of this research conducted on a trial and error basis :) List is in NO particular Order and has a dish which is perfectly passable and at push enjoyable!!!

Venue 1 - Taco Box - Mexican - Palermo Hollywood - Chicken Fajitas with the hot sauce, cocktails are ok too

Venue 2 - Tandoor - Indian - Recolleta - Chicken Tikka Masala

Venue 3 - Bakano - Pizza - Palermo Hollywood - Any Calzone and Pizzas are thin

Venue 4 - California Burrito - Mexican - Palermo Hollywood - Burritos your style

Venue 5 - Parilla La Gran Hollywodd - Argentine - Palermo Hollywood - All the meat fab as are the fries

Venue 6 - Las Cabras - Argentine + Mexican - Palermo Hollywood - All the meat, Quesadillas with chips and salad, casseroles meant to be good

Venue 7 - Olsens - European Brunch - Palermo Hollywood - All good in a great environment

Also try Yankee for Chineese delivery, Paraguay y Humboldt and Green Bamboo is meant to be good but personally not been


Approvechar!!!
 
In general there is a culture of serving food with little love expressed in the cooking and lower quality ingredients. I am a very discerning diner and will be very happy to pay high prices for good quality food with flavours that stand out.

I also have noted that the service in many establishments is not customer friendly and has made me feel like that the customer is the enemy. An example the other day i went to a restaurant on Sante Fe and Puerrydon Cocina anc Cia and had a terrible experience with the management there . The food was average at best with no hot food buffet and just a standard salad bar with a parrilla. Now this is a buffet and had in its past a good experience . Now its unrecommendable .

One of the problems i had with them was the service and the agressive attitude to sell you a drink . I was not thirsty and declined . Instead of being made to feel welcome the service was cold . To make matters worse when the bill came they had the hide to charge me for non consumption of drinks which amounted to 4 pesos. This was to me a outrage to a prospective client as well as going against all that I have been taught to treat guests in your house or restaurant as family.

I refused to pay those 4 pesos out of principle and would you believe that the Manager came to ask for these monies . This is public flaggelation for the restaurant involved as i then raised my protest to a high decibel and made it very clear that I was not going to pay en ningun manera.

Service is very important to attract repeat business . I certainly will never frequent again and looking at their poor votes most agree with me.
http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Cocina%20&%20Cia./
 
Sorry to hear you have only experienced food here that you rate poor or at best indifferent. I’ve had some fantastic meals here in the past 14 months and I wish I’d paid more attention to the names and addresses of all of these places to recommend them to you and others. I’ve listed a few below, off the top of my head. Hopefully others will suggest more to you.
I do get home sick for food too and so I can see where some of the negativity towards food here comes from. On the occasions I have searched for a curry or noodle soup fix I have been very disappointed at the quality and the prices. Coming from London, I miss having an incredible variety of restaurants on my doorstep. I try to stick to the food that is best here, the amazing meat but now and again I fancy a change from Milanesas, various cuts from the parrilla and empanadas etc. But, there really are some great places around and I love eating out here.
So to add to the list you have already started…

-Chan Chan, Hipolito Yrigoyen 1390, (Peruvian). On Saturday I enjoyed Ceviche and a lamb curry with rice that had a really good kick to it.
-Hola Luis, Conde 802, (Armenian). This is around the corner from me in Colegiales and it has a parrilla with all the usual stuff but on the other side of the menu there is a great selection of shish kebabs, humous, falafels, cous cous etc. Most people recommend Sarkis if you like this sort of food, it’s pretty popular.
-El Establo, Paraguay 489, very traditional, the best steak I have ever eaten, I prefer it to La Cabrera and always take our visitors here. The scruffy curtains and dated interior add to the charm.
-Giuliano, Av Elcano 2756, does a good thin pizza (a la piedra/artesanal). I like the Pizza Piola chain also. There are quite a few pizza places around with proper wood fired ovens and pizzas that are not covered in cheese.
-Las Cholas, Arce 306, has a good selection of food from the North, some great stews and big platters of salmon, vegetables or meat with salad, fries and wraps and of course it has a parrilla with all the usuals.

I’ve had good and bad service here, just like many other cities. Service is slower but I have got used to it. I love the fact that I can sit with a cup of tea for 2 hours in peace to watch the world go by without being hurried along by the staff.
 
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I have very little enthusiasm for dining out in BsAs anymore, since 97% of new restaurants I try are a complete disappointment. Mediocre food, the same limited menu, invisible waiters, and a basket of lame French bread that is supposed to justify the 8-peso cover charge. Customer service is generally zero -- once at Sattva, the waiter accidentally brought me soy sauce instead of balsamic (which I discovered when I took a huge bite.) When I explained that I couldn't eat a salad drenched in soy sauce, he just shrugged his shoulders and tried to walk away. After pushing the issue, he finally said he could take the salad back to the kitchen and try to rinse the sauce off, but could not bring me a new salad (which the manager agreed with.)First time in my life I didn't leave a tip.

That said, there are a few restaurants that I am happy to return to over and over, and strongly believe they are worth supporting:

-Buenos Aires Verde: Hands-down my favorite restaurant in BA. From the complimentary fresh watermelon juice and homemade hummus, to the fresh and organic food, to the cute pastel tables, everything about this place is fabulous. On my first visit, I ordered the Oriental salad and pizza, and I wasn't being hyperbolic when I said it was the best meal I'd ever had in BA. No cover.

-Miranda Parrilla: This place is awesome, and I almost don't want to mention it here because I don't want to wait for a table. To be honest, I can't comment on their animal dishes (don't eat them), but they make the BEST entree salads in the city. They use ingredients that are far more "special" than in most restaurants here: rucula vinaigrette, pesto, fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with low lighting, a lot of open space, and a fireplace. No cover.

-Artemisia: A little more "upscale" than Buenos Aires Verde. Beautiful restaurant, and though the dishes are a little less adventurous than BAVerde, they are well-prepared and delicious. I've always had very friendly servers there, and they let diners linger even after the restaurant is supposed to be closed. No cover.

-Sarkis: Everyone knows about this one. Even though I think the wait times are a little excessive, and one sort of feels like they're in a corral, the food really is quite good and the menu is huge.

And... that's about it. Other than those and a few other decent places (Hanan, Siempre Verde), I'd much rather just cook at home.
 
The customer service you take for granted in the nasty old capitalist USA doesn't exist in Argentina. The assumptions are radically different. Perry's story says it all. I have many stories but I'll mention one. I went to one of the most fashionable restaurants in BA, opened by the owners of another very fashionable and good place in the same neighborhood of Recoleta. I was known by some of the staff but even so I ran into a problem. When we arrived we looked at the menu and settled on fish so I ordered a very good bottle of Torrontes. The waiter brought the wine, we started to drink and then ordered. The fish we had wanted was not available. I asked for another fish. Not available. Apparently the purveyor had not delivered fish that day. The waiter, however, waited until after he had opened the wine to tell us this. With no fish available, we settled on beef. That means a red wine. I had assumed that the waiter would apologize for his mistake and substitute a red wine for the Torrontes. Not so simple. He left and had what looked like a major conference with the manager. When he returned he told me that as I was known to the management they would change the wine and not charge for the white wine. That is generous for Argentina. Needless to say something like that would never happen at a top restaurant in the US. If the mistake had been made there would have been an apology, probably a visit by the manager and the replacement bottle would very likely have been offered as a gift. Despite this sort of thing, however, there are some very nice restaurants in BA, albeit not as many as you would expect for such a big city.
 
london2ba said:
-Chan Chan, Hipolito Yrigoyen 1390, (Peruvian). On Saturday I enjoyed Ceviche and a lamb curry with rice that had a really good kick to it.


If you like Peruvian I'd highly recomend El Rey over Chan Chan for their ceviche (atmosphere is nothing, but the food is good -- one block from Abasto on Aguero at Corrientes -- cross Corrientes heading across the street from Abasto Shopping)

The other Peruvian that is fantastic, higher end, but everything very good quality is Mochica, also on Aguero, outside of Abasto shopping (one block from the big Disco or Coto supermarket) -- their Pork in Adobo sauce is delicious -- we both thought ceviche at El Rey may have been better but Mochica is a more formal atmosphere so it depends on if you feel like a more dressed up or more casual beer and futbol place.


Last Saturday we went back to the Taj Mahal on Nicaragua and about Scalabrini Ortiz. Their lamb curry was delicious, nan bread etc all very nice. Still not as good as something I might get in canada or england, but very nice, quality food. Fairly upscale.
 
The bad service has everything to do with the crappy labor laws (not being able to fire anyone easily) and old, uninterested staff.

A lot of places (especially parillas) all seem to have old men doing jobs they are 110% bored to death with. It reminds me of some of the Old hotel bars in NYC, or Peter Luger's Steakhouse, and some other old guard steak places where its a bunch of "grumpy old men" who have been there forever and just take for granted "you" will be back and so will they. Service at those places is equally "indifferent" at best.

I also find that some of the "trendy/popular" places the service can be poor as well, and I think that is just a fact that they know they will be busy. But at the end of the day, it is management's (or lack thereof) fault.

I do like the luxury of not being rushed out the minute my plate is finished. Which is rarely as the portions are gargantuan.
 
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