What do you hope not to find in a neighborhood parilla? Innovation. If you want that you go elsewhere. I mention this in regard to last night’s visit to Don Zoilo, during which we were presented with olive oil and vinegar for our rocket and garlic salad in recycled hairspray bottles, that’s what they looked like anyway. I don’t want to spray anything on my dinner, thanks very much and if obliged to do so I’d prefer the device in question to be dry enough to get a proper grip of and not be generously coated with the liquid it contains.
Hairspray Bottle Madness At Don Zoilo
January 30, 2011Bad Chinese on Corrientes
August 15, 2010I rouse this blog from its slumbers to warn of a very bad Chinese restaurant. I can’t tell you the name of it because it’s in Chinese only. You won’t find it difficult to locate though; it’s just a couple of doors, heading towards the Pasteur subte station, from the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, from which we emerged at about 23.00, after seeing a none too inspiring theatre/dance thing, allegedly based on some text by Clarice Lispector.
Boiled Beef
December 21, 2009Hanan is a weird place. There’s a shop window dummy done up in Lawrence of Arabia gear in the entrance. Inside it’s aircraft hangar big and the table are well separated. The walls are covered in kitschy Arab bits and pieces. They don’t seem to mind people smoking. The lighting would be suitable for a morgue. There were a bunch of people sitting in the far right hand corner, near the cash register who looked as if they’d come to hang out and discuss business (what kind?) rather than eat.
El Lazo
December 21, 2009El Lazo is a small parilla located at Ambrosetti 266. It’s so small and unassuming that it doesn’t even figure in the Oleo guide. I have walked past dozens of times think “I ought to give that place a try” and yesterday I finally did.
La Farola de Santa Fe
December 13, 2009We didn’t really mean to eat at La Farola de Santa Fe. With time to kill before a film we went in for a beer and then thought we’d better eat something too. We ordered a medium pizza napolitana with red peppers. I wish I had noted the time elapsed between ordering it and having it served to us because it can’t have exceeded ten minutes.
La Vakita
December 13, 2009I don’t know what posessed LVH and I toe at La Vakita last Tuesday night but it wasn’t anything good. It’s pretty big, located in one of the not yet cool corners of Palermo and has pictures of cows on the walls, cows doing things like talking on cell phones and riding bicycles. There wasn’t a single table occupied when we arrived at the door but we thought, hey, it’s early, and went in anyway. Big mistake.
LVH had entraña and I had a plate of kidneys. The kidneys were vile; soft, almost mushy and tepid. Heated up leftovers from lunch? Probably. LVH’s entraña was done like she asked for it but was so tough she could barely cut it. When I tried a piece I couldn’t chew it enough to make it swallowable and had to go the toilet to spit it out. Lovely. With a bottle of López red, a bottle of water and a garlic and radichetta salad the bill came to 125 pesos. A fucking disgrace.
Slop With Red Slop Sauce
December 6, 2009What is a bodegón? It’s supposed to be a place where you can have a decent feed of porteño culinary classics served in generous quantities and without any restauranty airs and graces. There’s also the idea that it should be, if not old, then at least of a reasonable age. What’s not to like about all that?
Los Amigos
November 19, 2009You’ll find it on the corner of Castro and Agrelo. We went on the strength of a newspaper puff for it. It was supposed to be a neighborhood parilla of the old school. It wasn’t. It’s a shithole. Small, overdone meat portions, knackered fixtures and fittings, pushy staff. Cheap but not cheap enough. Don’t even think about going there and look elsewhere for the Boedo revival.
