Bite Marks #108

From cheap to dear, from casual to fancy, we’ve got a little of everything this time around in Bite Marks!

Arredondo, Virrey Arredondo 2562, Colegiales – I’ve heard great things about the burgers here (and a second location in the northern ‘burbs). I went with their Vertiz burger, a double cheddar cheeseburger with bacon, grilled onions, and pickles – with extra pickles of course. Comes with a side of fries. Here’s the verdict:

’nuff said.

Barra Chalaca, Arévalo 1392, Palermo – Henry and I had tried a small outpost of the Barra Chalaca chain while in Santiago a couple of months back, and liked it. So a friend and I headed off on a recent afternoon to try the relatively recently open one in Palermo (there’s also one in the far southern suburbs). Very close to the same menu, though not entirely. This one has a few more options on it, but is missing others. No matter, it all looks interesting.

As do the waiters….

Unfortunately, we’re both pretty disappointed in the food. A picante de mariscos has no picante, spice, to it – it’s just a bland, creamy sauce, and more sauce than shellfish. A request for ajicito, the common Peruvian hot sauce (which would normally just be on the table, but not here), results in a little ramekin with a few rounds of some mild chili in it. A request for something stronger finally brings a paste of chilies, garlic, and onions that at least adds some interest to the dish. The arroz con mariscos is worse – a mass of rice that would keep four people filled, drowned in some sort of yellow creamy sauce and very little seafood.

Food took 50 minutes after ordering it to get the first plate, and the second plate a solid 5 more – and they weren’t busy – we were among the first few customers in the door. No apologies, just repeated “it’s coming out now” followed by nothing. The waiter attending to the tables behind me seemed to feel that squeezing between my chair and the neighboring table, rather than going around, was the right approach. Twice clocking me with his elbow, he apologized, but kept doing it. And at one point stood there talking to the table while holding a loaded tray of dirty dishes directly above my head, and then seemed mystified that I didn’t find that okay. Overall, a fail.

Norimoto, Av. del Libertador 6739, Nuñez – I’ve been hearing about this place that specializes in sushi handrolls for a few months now. I will admit, handrolls aren’t my favorite part of a sushi experience, but it seemed worth checking out. So we headed there on a recent weekend afternoon.

There’s a bar surrounding two sides of an open kitchen, and you wait off to the side until seats become available – no reservations here. The menu has a mix of handrolls, nigiri, sashimi, and a few other things. A nice selection of different fish and shellfish, including some that aren’t common here.

We started with a couple of fresh oysters each – you can pick your topping from a short selection – we each did one with lemon and one with trout roe, on our sushiman’s recommendation. Both good, but, as I’ve found in the past, oysters here are just not all that exciting a lot of the time – we don’t get the really good briny types here.

And we ordered one of the handroll combos – a selection of six handrolls, one by one, with an accompanying soft drink. Beer, wine, and sake are also available, though the latter are priced really high. There’s not much interesting in a photo of a handroll, as you can’t really see what’s going on inside. But we liked all six, and a couple of them were excellent. Well worth it. Though, given that high quality, I might go back and just go for an array of sashimi and nigiris, which I prefer. Definitely recommended.

Treintasillas, Ramón Freire 700 block (actual address given with reservation confirmation), Colegiales – Eleven years ago, Ezequiel Gallardo and I met briefly at an event at the Australian Embassy. It was an hors d’oeuvre party that was catered by a group of us in the “closed door restaurant” world, with each chef offering up a few dozen of a signature mini-dish. Over time, we’ve kept in touch, but never been to each other’s place. I had a free night and thought, why not? It’s obviously setup more like a regular restaurant than ours is, with individual tables for a total of about 20 in this room, and then a patio behind the kitchen with a large table for 10.