Aldo’s

It had been about two years since we had published our review of our experience at Aldo’s in San Telmo. We pointed out that the location was questionable for an upscale restaurant and that the décor was a throwback to the 80’s and wouldn’t likely have gained much praise back then either. The redundant red fabric and white lacquered furniture, oddly combined with brass-pipe lamps with antique shades left us wondering, “What were you thinking?”

The execution of the relatively creative menu was the saving grace. It wasn’t flawless, but it was good enough to garner a 4-star rating in that review.

With the opening of a second location in Palermo Hollywood, we returned to see if Aldo’s had upped its game. The answer is a resounding, “Yes”. The restaurant’s location in Palermo Hollywood offered us a dining experience that trumped the San Telmo experience in all categories.

The new location continues to use the white-laquered shelves, on which it displays its lengthy list of wines. But the use of the white lacquer is countered by the dark wood floors and both blue and red accents. Minor differences in the décor, combined with the fact that everything is new, resulted in an ambience that was exceedingly more appealing in the new location. There’s an enormous front terrace with as much, or more, seating as the single indoor dining area. The new location just has a more sophisticated feel to it, despite having retained many of the elements from the other location.

The music was pleasant at a pleasing volume.

Service was spot-on. The waitress answered all questions without a hitch and was never distracted from the task of watching over her tables. The food was delivered from the kitchen by runners who then handed it to the waitress, who served each diner, with the assistance of the hostess on larger parties. The hostess monitored the room and assisted the waitress in clearing the tables and accommodating the needs of the customers. Delivery of the food was quick. Everything worked smoothly on this visit. The service, although better than acceptable on our visit to the San Telmo location, was topped on this visit. The service was almost flawless.

The execution of our lunch menu was equally impressive.

I opted for the reasonably priced lunch menu. The appetizer was a potato emulsion with a 2-minute egg, some small, crisp bits of bacon and crunchy croutons. Delicious. Unique. Perfectly executed.

The main course was meatballs which charred tomatoes and onions. The beef meatballs, which appeared to have little or no bread crumbs supplementing the mix, were juicy and perfectly seasoned. The slightly sweet, slightly tart glaze was delicious.

The dessert was a lava cake with a dulce de leche filling. This is a very common dessert in Buenos Aires. But this rendition was anything but common. This is perhaps the best version of this dessert I’ve ever tasted. The chocolate cake had formed a firm exterior approaching crisp, but the underlying cake, which was a milder, lighter chocolate, similar to a German’s chocolate, was exceeding moist, almost like a bread pudding, and provided a contrast to that darker caramelized skin of the cake. The molten center was a mild dulce de leche, with slightly less of the dark caramel flavor that is typically encounter in this type of dessert.

In 90% of the restaurants in the city, this would then be accompanied by either vanilla ice cream or dulce de leche ice cream. This creative pastry chef elected to counter the rich, sweet cake, with a very light ice cream that was sort of a morph between a sorbet and a traditional gelato or semi-freddo. It only had a slight sweetness. It was the perfect foil for that rich chocolate cake and filling. End of story? Not quite. It was all sitting on a mild chocolate-crumble that added one more element of texture. This was a brilliant combination of textures and flavors. Well-conceived. Perfectly-executed.

What did this three-course meal with beverage included cost me?

A much better than reasonable ARS$350. With a continuing improvement in the exchange rate for visitors carrying dollars, that equated to an astoundingly low US$9.20 on the day of my visit.

This was a remarkable improvement over my outing to the San Telmo restaurant a couple of years ago, garnering an improvement in every category and now easily putting Aldo’s in the top-15 upscale casual dining spots in the city. The décor, ambience and cuisine put this restaurant on the line that divides our casual dining category from the upscale category. We have therefore placed it into both categories. The ambience is a bit more comfortable that many upscale restaurants, yet a bit more elegant and sophisticated than the typical casual dining restaurant.