AnuvaBlog

Even though I don’t think one should pick a restaurant based on its wine list, it is important to know where you can go to get great bottles within the city.

1. Cabana Las Lilas. Now, I have written before, that I really don’t like this restaurant because it is very overpriced for steak. However, if wine is what you are looking for these guys have in the neighborhood of 1000 label on their menu. Everything from vintage wine to imported (yes, non-Argentine wine!), to boutique wineries that Anuva works with, their wine list has to be considered formidable.

2. Gran Bar Danzon. Some have mistakenly called this place a wine bar. While they do have about 15 wines by the glass, this restaurant/lounge is far from a wine bar. They do not offer tastings or flights but their bottle list is very extensive. Again, nearly 1000 labels here to choose from with vintage, imported and boutique Argentine wine.

3. Urondobar. This is a Great place for eating as well as for wine. The sommelier/owner, Sebastian goes about changing his menu as well as his wine list every 90 days, so you can always expect something new! He also specializes in looking for limited production and boutique wines for his list. Really a treat here.

4. Resto. This is a tiny little restaurant that is quite clandestine in the Recoleta neighborhood with some very select treats. Palo Alto, Carinae, Las Perdices, Durigutti and others appear on this list.

5. Sirop. A gorgeous small setting in recoleta, with many of the highest rated wines coming out of Argentina. Not just the Achaval Ferrer but also the Chacra, Noemia and others.

Try Argentine Wines from Mendoza

Obviously, Argentina is known for beef and Don Julio, on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga in Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires, has been talked about for some time. So it was high time to check it out.With our 25% debit card discount given to us by our bank for using it at any restaurant on Friday nights, we were set to spend money. Thankfully, Don Julio is not terribly overpriced.

First to note: the ambiance. It feels authentic enough, with a lot of leather and cowhide hanging from the walls. But then there are the tons of wine bottles signed by guests that make it feel a little cheap, and the pieced together fix-ups of certain portions of their walls.

The wait wasn’t too bad and while doing so we were served a red cocktail of I don’t know what mixed with lemon and soda water. They should definitely switch to something else. Cheap champagne would have been much better. And the other guests next to us agreed, verbally.

The wine list I would have to give at least a 9 out of 10, with only very few notable Argentine wines missing from the list. In addition, they do have appropriate storage facilities for their bottles that range from 45 pesos up to 1,500. There is certainly something for everyone here.

The bread never showed up until we had already been served our meal, which was disappointing, because it was really great, freshly baked baguette. Nothing fancy, but very good quality, just very late.

Lourdes had chinchulines, her favorite, which were cooked very well, but not perfectly, and I had mollejas (sweetbreads), which left something to be desired.

This was followed by our bife de chorizo, which was appropriately cooked, and fantastic, and a matambre de cerdo (pork cut), which was also very nice.

All of this for just under 300 pesos including our wine, which was a 160 peso bottle of A Lisa from the Noemia winery in Patagonia. Lourdes and I had sampled this wine several times and loved it, but this vintage we had never tried (2008), and it was decidedly worse. I do not recommend this wine for this price.

All in all, Don Julio was a nice experience, with good food and decent service. If the price, were, say 110 pesos per person WITHOUT our bank discount, it would have been a steal.

Try Argentine Wines in Palermo Buenos Aires

It’s nice to go to small and intimate places to eat that have good service.Restó, while small and intimate, with very knowledgeable staff, including a top notch sommelier, has slow service and is expensive.The food was ok. The best was a grilled mushroom and goat cheese appetizer that Lourdes had. The octopus was uninteresting and the jumbo shrimp were good, not great.The mains were also good not great. 3 of us had the duck, since it is such a rarity in Buenos Aires and one of us a white fish. All were rather normal and not noteworthy.The desserts: again, same story.The wine list, however, was great. A vast selection of small wineries with interesting varietals and options and even some good vintages.Another drawback, though, was that you are forced to get 3 courses… there is no other option. This makes dinner a minumum of 150 pesos per person if you are getting a low priced wine. Too much in my opinion.

In the interest of keeping the restaurant review theme going, I have a triplet of restaurants, all with the same theme and owners that I would like to recommend.These restaurants are NOT fine dining establishments. You will not find extensive wine lists, or cloth napkins, or waiters with bow ties.

What you will find is plentiful, delicious food for very little money.

Lourdes and I always get the “parrillada completa” when we go to one of these three restaurants. This is the traditional Argentine fair for meat: organ meats and many different kinds of steak and chicken in a quantity for 4 people for only 55 pesos! It also comes with fries! Now if you’re not into morcilla (blood sausage), or rinon (kidney), or molleja (sweet breads), then maybe the parrillada completa is not for you. But it’s an incredible value and I recommend trying it even if it does give you a little “asco” (grosses you out).

This is actually one of the only meat places in Argentina that has good vegetarian options that are not pasta. They have tamales (corn husks with meat or cheese inside), humitas (corn paste/polenta with cheese and corn inside), locro (traditional argentine stew), empanadas from Salta (with all sorts of different options for fillings), all cooked in a ceramic oven.

For wine here I recommend getting the house wine (vino de la casa) which is only about 15 pesos a bottle at the restaurant. They  do have some better bottles but they do not have wine glasses so in my opinion it’s better to enjoy vino on the cheap.

I recommend this for value as even with beer or wine you can get out of there for well under 50 pesos per person.

www.anuvawines.com

Thus begins a new series here on the Anuva Blog and that is reviews of the top restaurants (according to certain publications) in Buenos Aires. This came about from me noticing that nearly all of the visitors to Buenos Aires ended up going to the same restaurants: the one’s who spend a lot of money getting reviews in U.S. publications.

So Lourdes and I went to Cabana Las Lilas, an extremely well known steak house last night for dinner. It’s on the dikes in Puerto Madero, which is prestigious real estate, but the prices were extremely overboard. I am thinking about the fact that they have their own ranch where they breed their own cattle…

Now, we knew what we were getting into, but paying about 4 times (yes 4x) what we normally pay for the same meal of the same quality was breathtaking. And the place is packed!! I really don’t understand why.

We narrowed down the difference between our meal at Cabana Las Lila and what the exact same meal at our other favorite steak houses would have cost/consisted of. Here are the similarities and differences:

1. Similarity: the quality of the meat. Exactly the same. The meat you get at Cabana Las Lilas is no better than any other good steak house in Buenos Aires.

2. Similarity: the overall menu. Nearly the same. Save a few fish dishes, Cabana Las Lilas has nothing different on the menu.

3. Difference: the service. This was a notable quality. The service was impeccable. This cannot be denied. But does it justify paying 4x as much?

4. Difference: the breads/bread selection. Fantastic bread and bread selection. Bread costs about 1 peso per table. Again, a notable difference but one that does not justify the cost.

5. Difference: the wine menu. Extremely extensive. For a wine guy I found their wine menu to be one of the most impressive in the city comparable to any other restaurant. There are so many choices I doubt even the sommelier get’s tired of making suggestions.I want you all to know that this is just our personal opinion of this restaurant after having lived in Buenos Aires for over 5 years. See my other blog on where I recommend you eat steak in Buenos Aires.

www.anuvawines.com