The Busy Gourmand

Campo Bravo
Honduras 5600 (corner of Fitz Roy)
http://www.campobravo.com.ar/

I had heard much about this restaurant before we had traveled to Buenos Aires. The New York Times had given it a rave review and it seemed to be popular on most of the travel sites. The original restaurant is in the Las Caňitas neighborhood which was too far for us to walk so we opted to go to the newer version in Palermo Hollywood.

The evening had a promising beginning. The restaurant has a modern feel to it balanced by the dark wood of the tables. There is a touch of stainless steel in the kitchen area to round out the attempt at “chic.” Apparently the Las Caňitas locale is a place to be seen in the city and on our evening we were seated next to a couple of “futbolers” or professional soccer players, who seemed to be known by everyone in the room except us.

It was our first evening in Buenos Aires, and candidly we were exhausted. We arrived on an overnight flight, and went right to running about the city as soon as we checked into the apartment including a four hour walking tour. We chose a “parrilla” to get some grilled steaks and a bottle of wine and call it a day.

Although we were greeted efficiently at the door, we were steered towards a table that had not yet been cleaned, so we helped ourselves to the table next to the “futbolers” which I think was something we were not supposed to do, but the “futbolers” did not seem to care or even notice us. Our waitress seemed frazzled from the start, having to speak alternately in English and Spanish. We offered to do it all in Spanish but she insisted on speaking English.

The menu is pretty much what I thought it would be. It included mostly items from the “parrilla” including the usual bife de chorizo and ojo de bife. There is also and array of grilled fish and pastas. But when in Argentina you better try the beef. Our waitress recommended the ojo de bife, which Will ordered, and I opted for the bife de chorizo. We ordered a couple of salads, a bottle of Malbec, and sat back to watch the show.

I guess our waitress was used to annoying American tourists because our food came flying out of the kitchen at break-neck speed. The salads were good, fresh, and pretty basic. The bife de chorizo was good, a bit over done, and not as flavorful as I had anticipated but it is a tough cut of meat. The ojo de bife was better although a bit overcooked as well.

The wine, well like every other night, was great. I do not think we had a bad bottle the whole time we were in Argentina, including the wines we purchased at the grocery store.

I think the final thing that put me in a bad mood about this restaurant is that they added a service charge to our check. It only worked out to about $1 per person, but I will bet you $100 the “futbolers” did not pay any service charge, nor anyone else that looked like a local.

The meal came to about $70 US dollars. Unless you want to just look chic and maybe catch some “futboler” eye candy I think you can do a lot better for less money at many other restaurants in the area.