Puerto Cristal - Buenos Aires

Puerto Cristal is a restaurant on Restaurant Row in Puerto Madero that emphasizes seafood on its menu. The restaurant is nicely decorated albeit in a somewhat archaic style with white tablecloths with a white floral pattern that seemed a little dated.

For the appetizer round I had a salad of mixed greens (mostly baby spinach) with julienned red cabbage, sliced turnips, melon and cherry tomatoes. The salad was served undressed with the only option for dressing being extraordinarily boring and mundane options of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The greens were limp and the combination of the turnips, cabbage and melon was an odd one that simply didn’t work. There were no cherry tomatoes in my salad despite the indication of such on the menu. This salad was a huge miss.

My friend and I also shared a cup of calamari stew as an appetizer that was quite a bit better than the boring salad. The stew had a rich and flavorful base but the calamari were just a bit chewy. This dish was tasty but not perfectly executed.

For the main course we had the clam risotto. The rice dish, although a little too al dente for risotto, had a wonderful flavor. The accompanying parmesan twill, in theory something that should have been crispy, was a bit chewy. Again, this dish had great flavor, but just fell short on execution with the accompanying elements.

The other main dish was a white salmon in a garlic cream sauce. The fish was quite overcooked. The sauce was acceptable and helped counter the dry, overcooked fish somewhat. The star of this dish was the creamed spinach. It was delicious.

For dessert, probably the best course we were served, we had a crepe filled with dulce de leche, with a charred sugar glaze and a fruit salad topped with vanilla ice cream. Although there was a bit too much syrup in the fruit salad, the blend of the vanilla ice cream with each little bite of fruit was tasty. There was a single tiny slice of kiwi and strawberry in the mix of fruit. Something a little more exotic than the pears and peaches in the fruit salad would have been an improvement.

The crepe pancake, the dulce de leche filling and the glaze were delicious but the sugar in the glaze was just slightly burnt creating a slight bitterness. Once again, a minor error in execution.

The service was excellent from beginning to end earning high marks from me and my companion. The overall meal was acceptable but just fell short on both execution and creativity. The recipes were great but the guys in the kitchen had just not quite fulfilled the chef’s vision on several of the dishes.

The US$10.50 (ARP$132) that we paid for three courses on the prix-fixe lunch menu was a bargain despite the few shortcomings. The rather hefty charge for the soft drinks and the “cubierto” made the total check more than US$16 (ARP$200) per person. I note further that the regular menu is fairly expensive, with the main course entrees ranging in price from US$17.50 to US$29.50 (ARP$219 to $365). Had I paid the regular prices for these dishes I would have felt short changed. So take note. Our value rating on this review is based on the price of the lunch menu, not on the al a carte menu.