Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Bandola is a trendy-looking restaurant located in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. Surprisingly I went to a restaurant that had low-lighting and fancy place-settings. Actually I stumbled upon this place because it was lunch time and I was hungry and by this point I just wanted to go to any restaurant but refused to go to any of the restaurants along Plaza Serrano. What I ended up having was a very satisfying 3-course meal and discovering a unique restaurant that interested me to see how the nightime crowd was when the tango show ensued.
The first course was an appetizer that simply was deep-fried beef on a stick. How can you not want to eat that? When deep-fying beef you’re not going to get medium-rare but isn’t the old saying that everything is good deep-fried? I didn’t find this well-done beef to be overly tough or lack of flavor, again, it was deep-fried so it has something to it. Now I’m not a big fan of deep-fried food and the coating on the outside was a bit greasy but nonetheless it was something that I had to try and indulge since I was on vacation.
The second course was a simple sirloin cut with some steak cut-style potatoes. A very simple looking dish but rather to make it fancy they split the meat in the middle, mariposa style, and filled the middle with a garnish that included garlic and chopped spinach. Now, when ordering this entree as my choice for the 3 course meal I really had no idea what I was getting because I saw the word “bife” as a choice and so therefore ordered it. Topping the meat with criolla rather than chimichurri also made the simple sirloin a different dining experience. The meat was a bit more on the rare side but the preparation of it was different to the typical parrilla serving that I found it to be rather tasty.
Finally there was dessert. This was a simple choice because once I heard the waitress say helado as a choice I didn’t care for the rest. What I ended up with was what looked a similar to those supermarket brand neopolitan ice cream box cartons. However, being that I was in Buenos Aires, you be certain that the quality of this helado completely trumps any of those store-brand varieties. Naturally they had to make the helado look all pretty with some chocolate but after eating the other 2 courses I was very happy to finish it off with some helado.
The price for this 3 course lunch was 25 pesos. Sure they add in their service fee and drinks are separate but I can’t think of a place where I can get a 3 course lunch that looks like that for roughly $8 USD. The lunch crowd was all but non-existent; however, the atmosphere, though trendy by my standards, made me wonder how much a bustling place Bandola must be at night, especially being located in the heart of Palermo Soho. Needless to say I’d recommend this place. If not for the food, then why not come to check out the tango show.
