EleBar

I had dinner at EleBar recently. I had read mixed reviews. There seem to be issues with service and a slow kitchen based on consumer reviews. It was a Monday evening so I assumed I’d have less of a chance of running into these service issues. You should be aware that you should possibly use the same strategy and avoid the restaurant on Friday or Saturday nights.

Walking in, my concerns were heightened. This place looks about as ordinary as most restaurants in Buenos Aires. It’s as if someone spilled coffee on the “Amount allotted for Interior Design” line in the budget for opening the place.

Would this be an omen for more ordinary things to come?

There were only about three tables occupied in the place so there was no wait for table. We were brought a basket of bread. There was a variety of tasty bread. The little rolls everybody loves to serve in restaurants in BA were included (those little baguettes with the 2 inch section portioned off). But they were actually fresh and hot ... something you don’t see in most of the restaurants.

That was a good start. More importantly, the menu, although nothing more than several pages printed on plain white paper in a clip board, was actually fairly unique. We took advantage of the menu diversity. We ordered an appetizer pizza to share, and two main dishes to share.

The pizza dough was unique. It was sort of cake-lie similar to some of the Chicage deep dish doughs I’ve encountered (specifically, Pizzaeria Uno). The topping were fresh. A crisp crust. And it was served on one of those pizza baking stones. Nice. Very nice.

The first main dish was a chicken breast stuffed with blue cheese and spinach in a creamy almond flavored sauce. Very unique for BA. And the other dish was a tenderloin, butterflied, and served in a pan sauce with pancetta, confit tomatoes and fresh basil. One dish was served with rustic sweet potatoes, crisp on the outside and nice and soft inside. The steak was served with a potato mash ... No big surprise. But what was a surprise was the almonds and herbs mixed in throughout the mash and sprinkled over the top. Brilliant. Some chef in a corner bistro finally came to their senses and put something flavorful in a potato mash.

Bottom line. It was all hot, delicious, and interesting. Now to be clear, this was not gourmet cuisine. It was that “full of flavor”, comforting kind of food like you get over at Peron Peron, but without the Peronista anthem and no oil paintings of Cristina on the wall.

We had to see if the good luck would continue. So we ordered up a coffee and a brownie topped with ice cream. The brownie was a tad on the flat side but the flavor was there. 100%. A dark rich chocolate and a nice creamy vanilla ice cream with a raspberry coulis smeared around the edge of the plate

Although the waiter looked a little bit like a player from the Bolivian national soccer team he was quite competent throughout the whole event.

Let’s see. A successful appetizer. Two successful main course dishes. And a nice dessert. We hit all four bases. That’s a home run.

In summary. This is no gourmet restaurant. It’s just really good food at a descent price. That shouldn’t be something to brag about ... but in Buenos Aires, it’s pretty rare. Beware a visit on weekends based on consumer reviews we’ve read. On a weeknight, I think it’s a definite “GO”.