December 16th
Going To Dinner
Since we had spent a good part of the day solving work problems, I was determined to have a nice Argentinean dinner. I had promised my husband good meat and wine on this vacation and were we going to have it!
We consulted the concierge and asked for a suggestion of a restaurant that was not overly expensive but good quality Argentinean meat. We are not fans of going to highly touristic restaurants, rather preferring to go to more local places.
We agreed on going to Las Nazarenas which was a short walk from the hotel. We had the concierge make a reservation for 8:30 pm. This is pretty much as early as you can go to dinner in BA. If you have ever been to Spain, it’s pretty much the same. Everyone eats late at night. When you go to a restaurant at 8:30 pm expect to be the only ones there except maybe a few other tourists.
The restaurant, Las Nazarenas is a traditional Argentinean steakhouse called Parrilla. When you arrive at the restaurant you can see the meat cooking in the window over wood coals. If you are a bit squeamish about seeing meat still looking like an animal strung on a cross, this type of restaurant will make you uneasy.
We had heard that the meat in Argentina is cheap and extremely tender as the cattle are fed natural grains and are not given any hormones. I’ll address these points after the meal description.
Our meal started with an Empanada, which I love. I was looking forward to eating a lot of them while in SA. The empanada was okay but a little overcooked (part of it was burnt). The salsa however that went with it was unbelievably good – diced tomatoes, onions and spices.
My husband had a sirloin cut and his indeed was very tender, I had a t-bone and it was okay but not great, a bit on the tough side.
We also had grilled vegetables which come out on a mini grill to your table to keep them hot – nice idea since vegetables cool down so quickly. Vegetables do not seem to be a specialty of Argentina. They often cost as much as the meat plate you are ordering and are by my taste are overcooked – too soft. The grilled vegetables (which serve two) cost the same as my meat dish. The variety of vegetable are interesting though with a lot of sweet potatoes and squash (often translated as pumpkin on menus).
We also had a bottle of Argentinean wine which was very good and a great value (compared to wine at a Toronto restaurant). In Ontario we pay a lot of tax on alcohol so ordering wine at a restaurant in Ontario, compared to many other places is expensive.
After all that meat, who could possibly eat dessert?
The total meal including the bottle of wine and tip (expected 10%) cost 207 pesos.
Points raised above:
Meat is cheap
Meat is less expensive than here in the greater Toronto area but not that much. Where we noticed the biggest difference is in the size of the meat served. It pretty much takes up the entire plate. So you get a lot more for a little bit less than you would spend at home. For me this is not necessary, I’d rather not have a piece of meat that covers my plate as I cannot eat that much. Honestly my husband and I could have shared one piece of meat and still had left over. Of course my husband did eat all of his and then some of mine! I can’t believe he could even move after that.
Meat is melt in your mouth tender
I did not find the quality of meat to be better than quality meat here at home.
Read Other Posts In This Series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
Part XI
Part XII
Part XIII
Part XIV
Part XV
Part XVI
Part XVII
Tags: buenos aires restaurant, visiting buenos aires. buenos aires parilla
