Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

El Palacio Del Bife is a parrilla located in the central area of Mar Del Plata. Being centrally located within Mar Del Plata amongst the hotels, this restaurant’s clientele is predominately tourists that spent a few too many hours in the sun during the day. The menu is standard with their choices as with any other parrilla. Personally, the portion of one steak is enough for two people but as evident by the couple over on the next table there are those who will each eat their own well-sized steak. I thought the service was a bit shotty as the normal attentiveness of these male career waiters wasn’t up to par with other parrillas.

While in Mar Del Plata I stayed at the Hotel Tronador as it was the only hotel that had a vacancy during this high season. El Palacio Del Bife was a couple blocks away and the recommendation by the front desk girl. Upon walking in I was greated by (probably) the proprietor and immediately seated. As mentioned above, the portions looked big and the clienetele were all burnt. The bife de chorizo was large enough for two and so I went that route. As with every other restaurant I also ordered empanadas and a chorizo. One difference though was the salad. Typically I’ll go for the ensalada mixta which is simply lettuce, tomato, and onion. However, to switch things up I went for the ensalada primavera which to my knowledge would include the ingredients of a mixta along with carrots, rice, eggs, and some other mixed vegetables (maybe corn and peas). I’m not exactly sure what I ended up with but aside from asking for no eggs, the salad included celery, red peppers, and no rice. Edible by all means but no exactly what I expected and when asked about it for atleast I wanted the rice they decided to just bring a side order of rice to mix in.

Also, so I’ve encountered a few parrillas where they’ll take the basket of bread away as the bife arrives but mostly it’s a small detail that is overlooked. I guess with this place it totally threw me off when they took away the basket because I’d really only received the salad and were still eating some of the bread too. In fact, it was odd to the point that I had to request for it back and got a response where they’d thought I didn’t want anymore. Now, this is a small detail but come on now, free bread, and this is my first meal after sitting over 5 hours on the bus riding into town from Retiro station; needless to say, I was damn hungry.

Anyways, not much to report on the meat except that it was cooked perfectly, as I’ve come to expect with most parrillas. Again, the service did get a bit shotty but nothing that made me completely irrirtated. As for the price, well, you’ve got to expect that being in the central part of town amongst the tourist-filled hotels that you’re not going to get the cheapest deal. I sensed that there were more of the buffet-style parrillas in Mar Del Plata and atleast in my opinion I prefer the non-buffet because the quality of meat and cuts you are able to order outweigh stuffing yourself with mostly vacio (flank).However, I’ll say that the prices are reasonable and didn’t leave me with the feeling of being ripped-off upon leaving.