And no, BsAs is not particularly clean as major metropolitan cities go. Lots of litter, soot, dirt, and, of course, the famous dog poop everywhere…

I’m getting that optical illusion effect on the first picture too. Strange stuff.

 the press talked about it like a “new gastronomic phenomenon in Argentina” and recommended it enthusiastically. Even today, after thirteen years, Piola Buenos Aires is known by everyone as a unique place that has given a very strong impulse to a new gastronomic culture in that city.”

When it comes down to it, of course, we’re just poking fun at them. Self-promotion isn’t a bad thing, and we’re all guilty of it – it’s why we blog, right? It’s just often amusing to see how someone else approaches it!

In terms of the pizza – hey, maybe the day I was there someone simply forgot to put salt in the dough. It happens. And that lightly painted on sauce thing isn’t unique to them – I see it often on very thin crust pizzas – I don’t know why… in my view, showcasing your sauce ought to be more important than presenting a cheese or some ingredients that someone else made or raised. As long as, of course, you don’t go overboard… it’s such a fine balance.

Personally, I find myself just scrolling up and down over that first architecture picture… I’m getting this cool optical illusion as I go up and down and up and down…. I better have another cup of coffee.

I think restuarant reviews taken on their own can be a little hit and miss, especially when it comes to something like service. Two people that went at different times/days can come back with completely different experiences, and one of them may well have been a genuine one-off occurrence. Also I think the tone of a review can really depend on the mood youa re in when you go to the restaurant, and also when writing… it’s impossible for any human to ever be truly objective… ah, sorry about the quasi-philosophical rambling already!

All the same, given that both you and Robert Wright (the Tiramisu recommender… not I!) reported good service, perhaps my bad experience in that area at Piola was an unusual occurence for them. Or maybe it was that you went at lunch, and I went in the evening when it was rammed full of people – perhaps they just can’t cope with volume well?

Also, strange that I had one completely opposite experience to you… when we came in, we were immediately greeted in a friendly manner and seated, it was only after then that the service went downhill. Again, perhaps a day/night difference.

As for the Pizza, I really enjoyed mine, maybe they are strong in some pizzas and weak in others… or maybe I am just a bad judge of Pizza

Anyway, it’s good to have a range of opinions in the BA blogosphere so that people can read them all and make their own conclusions.

Finally, I didn’t distort the Piola quote, I promise. It really is THAT arrogant! I just didn’t link to the exact page on their website where I got it from because there is something funny on their website that means the links to direct pages don’t work… you have to go to Locations/Menus in the left sidebar and then click on Buenos Aires, and you will see the exact quotation I copied and pasted. I thought for a second after reading your comment that maybe they had changed their site after seeing my blog post!

Oh, and a big whoops about my limoncello/sgropino confusion… showing up my complete lack of foodie knowledge there… I’m going to do a sneaky edit on that post now to avoid further embarrassment

Keep up the great food blogging,

Alan