Critic's Review
The BA Argentenian Bistro is closed and now a Greek Restaurant will be opening. I'm starting to think that this building is just a write-off for Harald. Why does he keep opening one loser after another? Just go back to Miami already.
Review 5/7/13
Bouillabaisse is gone and a new Argentinean Bistro has been born. I never had any interest in Bouillabaisse; a french restaurant on E Commercial just didn't make sense to me. I'm not sure how an Argentinean restaurant fits in either, but they're open for lunch and I like the food better. The obvious shills are appearing everywhere; Everyone knows they're not real so why do restaurants continue to try to fool people like its 1995?
Physically the place is largely the same; they've really just thrown a new sign on the place and changed the menu.
I think this place is part of the Bierhaus; there's no restaurant at this address in the State records, and there's no inspection or license listed. Maybe they share a kitchen? Regardless, this place is a lot nicer than the Bierhaus. There's a small bar with a TV (showing Soccer of course).
The door was locked, but as I tried it a guy inside opened it and handed me a card. "Are you open yet?", I asked. "Yes", and he let me in. No other diners, just the owner and a vender at the bar.
I looked at the menu and I was astonished that they didn't have a skirt steak entree; only a sandwich. I asked if I could get it without the bread and they were happy to comply. I ordered an iced tea and after a few minutes they brought out a basket of rolls.
I think the rolls would have been good if they weren't ice cold. And I don't mean refrigerator cold; they were partially defrosted cold. They served the rolls with an interesting blue cheese spread; I found enough that wasn't frozen to try it; again, it would have been good if it was warm or even room temperature.
Pleasant ethnic music played; Foc and Depende were all I could make out. In a few minutes the skirt steak came out.
Clearly they didn't get why I didn't want the bread; they gave me a boatload of fries instead. It was a decent sized steak. But the best part is the Chimichurri sauce; they gave me a big bowl of the oily, garlicky sauce.
It was a nice piece of meat, grilled medium rare as ordered. As good as the one I got at Thai Spice; better because of the chimichurri.
I ate a few of the fries; the raw onions didn't entice me and the carrot thing; well I didn't eat that; Just the tomato.
Not bad for $12. They do a lot of things right here; the lunch prices are fair, they're not chincy with the sauce, and service is first rate (they even take the splenda wrappers off the table when they swing by). I'm not sure how they'll do in this part of town, but it's one of the nicer places on this street.
