This post has come together over a couple of months. I had just decided to do an Italian focused theme, and it took that long to end up with three that I wanted to showcase. Some of it was some mediocre food that isn’t worth mentioning, some of it was that much of my Italian eating ended up being at pizzerias, like the recent Roman pizza themed post. But, here we are. With a trio of “well worth it” Italians!
Let us start at Pastificio Olivetti, Av. Cerviño 3596, Palermo, the recently opened “pasta factory” (the literal translation of the name) from the folk at one of my fave Italian spots, Trattoria Olivetti, just down the street. I first visited this spot with a friend for an afternoon “snack” – some nibbles and a couple of glasses of wine a few months ago. We had excellent stuffed fried olives, arancini, mozzarella in carrozza, and wispy thin strips of lardo. All delicious! It was good enough to put it on my list for coming back and checking out the pastas.
And so, a more recent return, which ended up being solo, and a lovely, whopping Plate of paccheri alla amatriciana. Now, it was a good plate of pasta, no question. But it just wasn’t quite amatriciana. It was more of a thin tomato sauce that didn’t do much clinging to the pasta, with a bit of finely chopped, maybe even ground, guanciale. At least in theory. I’m pretty sure it was bacon, not guanciale. And the cheese used wasn’t pecorino romano, it was parmesan or more likely, reggianito, a local imitation. And virtually no pepper. In short, not amatriciana, though pretty much what a lot of places here call amatriciana. Here’s the test, though it was a perfectly tasty bowl of pasta, I wouldn’t order it again. I’ll still be back there, I’m a sucker for tasty pasta, even if not “authentic”, and the nibbles are delicious!
I had actually ordered a plate of those great stuffed olives, but my waitress forgot about them completely. So when the pasta arrived, I canceled those, and decided to go for dessert afterwards. Two quite good cannoli, with a ricotta filling and toasted pistachios. All was right with the world, pseudo-amatriciana or no. All told, with the above, a bottle of water, a glass of wine, and a tip, 6600 pesos, somewhere between $8-9. A steal!
It was an sextet of us who headed up to the northern ‘burbs to check out a place that’s been on my list forever. It’s a bit of a pain to get to Ike Milano, Dardo Rocha 2602, Martínez – two or three different buses, and even then about a 12 block walk. But, we had two folk with cars, and I prevailed on them to ferry us up there. This was not what I expected – somehow I had a vision of a very fancy sort of place. Instead, it’s a homey feeling, trattoria type spot. Which, is a positive!
We, I, left the appetizer selection in the hands of our waiter – asking for a little sampler of some of the house favorites. We felt they overcharged us a bit for what we got – which were two plates of mixed charcuterie and two bowls of gnocchi fritti – for 14000 pesos ($20), but they were all quite good. The gnocchi fritti are addictive. I think we would have preferred, and felt the price was justified, if the things on the plate had been stuff that they actually prepared, rather than most of it being commercial stuff just sliced up or fished out of jars, and put on the plate. They actually have a menu chockful of interesting sounding appetizers, and we thought that’s the sort of stuff they’d have given us.
Although there are nearly a dozen pastas on the menu, four of our number zeroed on on the casarecce with portobellos, stracciatella, and crumbled Italian sausage. And, they made a great choice, it was not just excellent, but the best dish on the table. Two of us went different – one with spaghetti with prawns and a lemon cream – a bit of a meh dish, but good enough – it just needed something more to it. The other (me), paccheri with mussels, pistachios, cherry tomatoes, and a pecorino romano cream sauce. Yum, but still not quite as good as the mushroom pasta! Their wine list is pretty reasonably priced, and we had a bottle of Carmine Granata Pinot Negro 2019, which we all enjoyed (we ordered a second bottle, but the waiter forgot about it until we were done eating, and then still wanted to serve it – we demurred). Overall, however, we really liked everything, and with the exception of the forgotten bottle, our waiter was fantastic the rest of the time. Cost? With a 10% discount for cash, plus tip, 10200 pesos each, under $14!
Certainly worth the half hour drive to get there, though I’m not sure it’d be worth the hour and half each way via buses and walking.
A local chef friend posted about having a great meal at an Italian restaurant I’d not heard of, Il Ombu Trattoria Italiana, Patagones 2976, right off the side of Parque Patricios. That makes it very convenient for me, with a short subway ride and only a total of three blocks walking between both ends!
Now, I didn’t have a reservation, and at lunchtime on a Tuesday, I didn’t think I needed one. But the place was jammed full, with more folk arriving steadily as tables opened up, and it continued that way throughout the meal. This place is popular! The manager asked if I minded sitting at the bar – which isn’t really setup for diners, but there was a small space to the side of the espresso machine, and they pulled up a barstool and set up a lovely little individual dining spot with a white tablecloth and everything. Plus, I got a bit of a steam facial every time they foamed the milk.
The menu is a bit terrifying. I opened it up, and setting aside that it’s enormous, both physically and in length, I think the cheapest thing on it was around 10000 pesos, and that was for an appetizer. But then I noted that at the bottom of every page (except desserts) it says that all plates are for sharing. So I asked my waiter, who was at the ready, and he said they could easily make half portions of anything on the menu, though they charge 70% of the price. That seems still a bit steep, but, in for a centavo and all that.
In more than one review, people touted the garlicky prawns and calamaretti. And, well worth touting. And a half portion, on this large platter, is easily enough for two as an appetizer, which implies that the regular portion is easily for 3-4 people. It was so good, in fact, that I ate all of it myself. See the photo at the top of this post!
And then, this whopping platter of their house specialty pasta – squid ink fettuccine with salmon and prawns, in a smoked garlic cream sauce. Absolute heaven. And easily enough for two, if not three, people. I made it through about a third of it (then again, I’d eaten the whole appetizer, so maybe if I hadn’t been a glutton for that, I’d have made it through half of this), and had them pack up the rest to bring home, where Henry promptly ate it all.
And, they were out of the dessert I wanted, a sfogliatella, so I ordered an affogato, with a creamy vanilla ice cream and a shot of espresso.
And then I paid – a bit steep, at 30000 pesos including water, glass of wine, and tip, which, taking into account that two of the dishes could have been or were shared, runs to a little over $20 per person. Still not expensive, just more than typical. And I do think charging 70% of a full plate price for a half plate is a bit much – most places charge 50-60%. Then again… if I look at these three restaurants, this is the one I’d return to without hesitation. I foresee more forays here, preferably with a group, and full plates to share!
By the way, side note, there’s a very cool Korean food show called Let’s Eat!, (not the Thai knockoff showing on Netflix, though that may be excellent as well, nor the Malaysian dramatic movie fo the same name). The show centers around a food blogger, over three seasons, who writes anonymous reviews, and illustrates them all with photos of the empty, or near empty, plates after he’s eaten (the more food left on the plate, I suppose, the less he liked the place). It is, actually, an intriguing idea.
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