Bar 878

Bar 878 (at Thames 878) is perhaps one of the most recognized bars in Buenos Aires. I first walked through the front door of Thames 878 about six or seven years ago on the advice of some bartender friends (I seem to have more than my fair of share of those?) that said the bar would be the most likely spot in BA to get a drink made with my beloved Crown Royal (the world’s best sippin’ whiskey).

Sure enough. They had it back then and they have it now. Rumor has it that the have a pretty good burger on the menu too. Sometimes bars have the best finger foods. Nothing quite like having a burger or barbecue sandwich in one hand and a Shiner beer in the other. So Manny M and I decided to head on over to Villa Crespo to sample the burger they have on the menu there at 878.

They have two burgers on the menu, one with caramelized red peppers and another with pancetta. The bun was decent and the condiments pretty tasty. But just like almost every other burger we’ve tasted in BA the patty was overcooked and sorely short on fat. Although requested somewhere between medium (a punto) and medium rare (jugoso in Argentina), the burger arrived well done. Another burger ruined having spent too much time on the griddle. To add insult to injury the potatoes were extremely almost raw and weren't really fries at all. They were sort of rustic potatoes posing as fries which would have been okay had they not been served grossly under-cooked.

Even worse, the drinks and the burger were outrageously expensive. $130 for the burger and $66 for an artisanal bottled beer (a Kuntzman Torobayo). You can get a much better burger for $55 a few blocks away. And you’ll pay more for both the drinks and the burger at the 878 than you would at the Pony Line at the Four Seasons Hotel. Go figure?

Although the bar ambiance was nice enough and the service adequate these burgers fell short on execution (bun, patty and condiments) and value. And unfortunately for the bar the execution of the burger is weighted much higher in our face-off compared to the service and ambiance.

Thus with our burger joint rating scale the 878 only fared an overall rating of 3 stars. That won't be good enough to put it anywhere close to the top in our Burger Joint face-off. But we'll be back next year and hopefully the kitchen staff will learn the meaning of "jugoso".