Porteno
Reviews
We had a lovely experience here on Friday night! The decor is really cool and from the moment you walk in the door the atmosphere takes you. All the meats and veg were well cooked, clearly with care and skill. Their air died beef with quail egg is a must try! I also enjoyed the brussel sprouts. The wait staff were really attentive and friendly and the atmosphere of the kitchen was a big plus.
When you get there at opening time, there's already a bit of a queue, for good reason: this place is pretty amazing. For starters, we had spiced pickled eggplant (appetising with well-balanced acidity) and marinated olives (some of the best olives I've ever had). For mains, we had the 8-hour wood-fired lamb (intensely flavoured bits of meat that just fall off the bone, together with amazing lamb skin crackling), which went well with the crispy fried Brussels sprout. Good wine selection too.
Feels like Buenos Aires. The hostess is the true star. Open fire cooking while lamb and pig 'a la Cruz' (crucified) pulls you right in. Their empanadas are wonderful, their postre chaja with dulce de leche transports you to Argentina, but the point of the restaurant is to go with an appetite and order all sorts of properly barbecued (charcoal and fire) meat. The wine list is phenomenal.
If you are looking for a place to feel as if you were in Argentina this is not the place for you. A solid 3 stars but for sure no more than that. We went for dinner on Tuesday night looking for a dish that is in their menu. We were made to wait for about one hour at the bar because we didn't have reservation, the problem is that they don't answer their phone after 5 so you can reserve at the last minute. After we got a table we were informed that the are no mollejas (sweetbreads) on weekdays because they are, apparently, very hard to get. Maybe they need to change their meat provider because I can buy sweetbreads even at the supermarket most days. We asked for one of the chorizos to be cooked well done and they replied that they are cooked for 2 hours. It came and was still too juicy for my wife's liking. You would expect that at $15 a piece they could at least cook it the way you want it. Not even the music was Argentinian. All it played was old rock and roll music. This place is more on par with the Brazilian brasseries that keep appearing than with fine Argentinian dining.
Attended a friends birthday party here and the canapes and cocktails were amazing. Will definitely be back.