ASADERO: IS THIS NEW, MODERN PARRILLA WORTH THE 30-MINUTE TRIP FROM BUENOS AIRES?
The Cost -$41 per person at the official exchange rate
The Atmosphere – You’ll find Asadero, a sleek, modern parrilla, located in Olivos, a suburb of Buenos Aires about thirty minutes to the north of Argentina’s capital city. The restaurant features contemporary décor with lots of earth tones - heavy on greys, beige, and wood. There are two floors to the restaurant, but the lower floor is the one you want to be on as it features two-story high ceilings. Asadero is a great place for any occasion, from solo outings to dates to gatherings with friends or family. The restaurant takes reservations, which are recommended. Appropriate attire would be something in the smart casual to night out range.
One of the newer restaurants in the Buenos Aires food scene, Asadero is led in the kitchen by Chef Julieta Caruso. Her team, many of whom are part of Casa Cavia in the city of Buenos Aires, prepares many of its dishes on the restaurant’s grill (parrilla) or its clay oven. Most of the Asadero’s produce comes from its own two-and-a-half-acre garden, making the menu highly seasonal. In addition, Asadero boasts an extensive Argentinian wine list broken down by region and a sommelier to assist with any wine-related decisions. You won’t, however, find any cocktails here.
The Order – Fainá, Humita, Ensalada de Tomate, Entraña a la Parrilla, and a Clafoutis.
The Fantastic – This meal started out with a bang as all three appetizers earned our Fantastic rating. Asadero’s Fainá, a take on the typical snack most commonly added to pizza, was made from chickpea flour just as you would see at a local pizzeria. However, the restaurant’s version also contained chistorra, a special type of fatty pork chorizo that was a tiny bit spicy, an aioli, and a heap of fresh dill and parsley, all of which combine perfectly to elevate this dish to an incredible level. The aioli, which was made from caramelized garlic and a slow-cooked egg, gives the fainá great flavor in addition to a wonderful creaminess that brings the components of each bite together.
The second appetizer up was the Humita. Traditionally a simple corn and cheese-based dish that is often used as the filling for empanadas, Asadero’s humita was fun, bold, and full of flavor. The dish arrives at the table piping hot in a skillet and the first thing you notice is the amazing caramel-colored top that features spots of white cheese. The cheese, a goat cheese, is added to the top of the humita, which also contains butternut squash to give the dish some additional sweetness. The humita was served with two large baked crackers that were tasty but were not the most practical vessel with which to eat the humita. Luckily, the dish didn’t need any vessel - it was amazing on its own.
Asadero’s Ensalada de Tomate is a perfect example of how you can take something that only has a few, very high-quality ingredients and make something special. A steel bowl filled with a mix of colorful heirloom tomatoes and basil from the restaurant’s garden that was combined with a garlic dressing, this salad was fresh and extremely tasty. The tomatoes were bursting with flavor and were picked at the perfect time for consumption. It may just be a tomato salad with basil, but it’s a tomato salad with basil that you must order if it is on the menu during your visit.
The Great – It would be completely unfair to refer to the Entraña and the Clafoutis as the two worst dishes of the night, despite them earning the lowest ratings as compared to the other three food items. The Entraña, a typical Argentinian cut, was presented as two long pieces of grilled beef accompanied by roasted potatoes and chimichurri and salsa criolla. Entraña isn’t my favorite cut of meat but Asadero’s entraña was quite good, having a nice texture and good flavor. The potatoes that accompanied it were delicious and the tuna and anchovy sauce, similar to a tonnato, that was poured over them was very nice. This dish would be an extremely large portion for one person and would be perfect for two when combined with one of the appetizers.
The dessert menu at Asadero was surprisingly large with seven different options to choose from. The one that stuck out most on the menu was the Clafoutis, a French dessert not commonly found on menus outside of France. The clafoutis, which is made from eggs, butter, and flour, had seasonal berries (mainly blueberries) placed inside and was baked in a cast iron skillet inside of the restaurant’s clay oven. The result was a heavy, buttery, gooey dessert that was big enough for at least three people to share, especially after such a heavy meal. If that wasn’t enough, the clafoutis is served with a bowl of freshly made cream that you can add as you please. Overall, it was a unique, delicious way to end the meal, but I did wish that it had more berries to add some more lightness and freshness to the otherwise very heavy dessert.
The Verdict – Not a single item ordered was an item that we would not be thrilled to order on another visit to Asadero - an excellent feeling to walk away from a meal with. From beginning to end, Asadero presented modern versions of Argentinian classics that were playful, flavorful, and well-executed. While it is a bit of a drive from the city, Asadero is worth the trip and is a restaurant you should visit if you are a fan of parrillas.