Minga - Buenos Aires

The steakhouse, Minga, is located in Palermo Soho facing Plaza Armenia. It is a fairly new addition to the Argentine steakhouse scene, joining a variety of newbies that are serving up fairly traditional menus in a more contemporary atmosphere.

The restaurant has a sleek and minimalist look and feel, but retains elements of a traditional steakhouse like leather placemats with steaks served on wooden platters. This format is extremely similar to that of El 22 in Palermo Soho that we recently reviewed.

I ordered the Ojo de Bife and wanting to try something other than the typical potatoes and salad I opted for the Buñuelos de Acelga (chard fritters). The steak was cooked perfectly and was a reasonably tender and flavorful piece of meat. Instead of totally covering the chard filling with the breading on the fritter the chard was “charred” (pardon the pun) by hot oil and turned black in the pan. You can see what I’m referring to the images in the slider. This didn’t significantly affect the taste but the appearance was totally unappetizing. The dish was a total failure in my opinion.

Service was adequate but a bit on the slow side. There was only one waiter and he spent a lot of time in the back room or out on the terrace attending to other tables.

In the final analysis Minga was a very typical steakhouse experience. Not bad but certainly nothing special.