La Dorita - Buenos Aires

Our search for the best restaurants in the neighborhood of Palermo Hollywood led us to yet another steakhouse. I was out with a friend who was on a budget (and also has an appetite like a bear) so we were looking for something that would deliver big portions at a moderate price. I’d heard good things about La Dorita so we decided to give it a go.

La Dorita is no stranger to the Buenos Aires restaurant scene. They have multiple locations in Buenos Aires ... the one we just visited in Palermo Hollywood, and four more in Recoleta, Palermo Botanico, Belgrano, and out in the boon-docks in San Isidro. The Palermo Hollywood locale is at the corner of Humboldt and Costa Rica.

There is plenty of outdoor seating on the sidewalk where you can view all the “hip” locals walking by and in a cleverly decorated interior dining room. This place is not that modern industrial loft décor that I usually favor. The décor defies explanation. Strings of multicolored flags and Christmas tree lights and a huge wine bottle chandelier anchoring the middle of the room wouldn’t qualify as Country French or modern minimalist. But whatever it is, it works.

Combine the funky décor with a busy room full of hungry, happy people and you get the basis for an enjoyable dining experience.

But would the food and service keep La Dorita in the running to rank a review in ComaBeba?

After being seated we were offered a tattered menu with a wide range of offerings. The menu is pretty typical Buenos Aires parrilla ... But in the specialties section the Veal Ribs with BBQ sauce caught my eye. So we ordered up a 400 g strip steak (Bife de Chorizo) and a big rack of ribs to share. The ribs came with fries but since one eating out in BA gets bombarded with French fries I ordered up a baked potato for a little variety.

What arrived in just a few minutes was a perfectly cooked Bife de Chorizo. But oh my gosh ... take a look at that photo of the ribs in the slider above. It reminded us of the slab of ribs that toppled Fred Flintstone’s prehistoric car in the intro to the classic cartoon favorite. And the portion of French fries brought new meaning to the words “super-sized”. It was an enormous plate of food. But despite the fact that we Texans brag about size ... I’ll concur that size isn’t everything. So how did this huge rack ribs taste? Answer, “Delicious”. It was tender, ”fall off the bone” perfection with a delicious barbeque sauce that brought back memories of eating at classic barbeque joints in San Antonio or Austin back in Texas.

This was a great meal and at an average of about $135 for the main plates was priced better than the steaks we recently had at nearby Campo Bravo and El 22. For the amount of food we received it was a real value. The plate of ribs could easily have been split by 2 people. But since I was eating with both a person and a bear it is probably a good thing we ordered the extra steak to split.

Service started out great and through the service of the main course would have likely received 4 stars. But then attention by the waiter dwindled as he got busy. After finishing the main course, the waiter was not to be seen for another 20 minutes. And even after getting his attention to request the check it was another 10 minutes or more before we received it. When all was said and done, the lack of attention at the conclusion of the meal required us to offer no more than an average 3 stars overall for service.

But with an appealing ambiance, good taste and execution on the food, and high marks for value the overall score came in with a formidable 3.8.

The busy and popular La Cabras a couple of blocks away scored slightly better marks in our rating of Palermo Hollywood steakhouses. Were it not for the lapse in the quality of service at the end of the meal this visit would have scored 4 stars overall. But that plate of ribs was something pretty unique and if you’re looking to avoid the line at Las Cabras (which almost always exists after 9 p.m. on any day of the week), La Dorita is an excellent alternative.