I spent a very nostalgic Saturday night drinking red wine, eating steak and telling Argentinian adventure stories.
February and March this year I was travelling through 4 countries in South America. One of my favourite weeks was spent in Buenos Aires – the capital of Argentina. BA is an absolutely beautiful city with a European feeling. My friend and I spent our time drinking, partying, taking tours around the neighbourhoods and eating steak every day, and I mean every day!
CAU aim to replicate the sense of fun and passion you can find in Buenos Aires after they also fell in love with the City. They say their vision is to capture the spirit in a restaurant that would fit right into the heart of Palermo. Palermo is the Soho of BA and just happens to be the place where I ate the best steak of my life – so they had a lot to compete with.
With my Malbec and steak levels now reaching an all time low in 2016, this was the only place I wanted to go for Saturday night date night.
Luckily CAU caters extremely well to coeliacs and gluten free’ers! Of course the usual burgers and sandwiches are off limits but that’s not such a terrible thing when you’re choosing between steak, speciality cuts, sea bream fillet or twice cooked belly pork.
Triple cooked chunky chips, thin chips and baked sweet potato sides are all safe to eat. I was slightly disappointed that the CAUslaw was not GF friendly because I mean, steak and coleslaw is always good. But, I got by with a CAU chopped salad instead.
The decor inside is very modern with big white cushioned booths, higher level seating and tables all mixed in together. It didn’t necessarily transport me back to the streets of Buenos Aires, but it was nice all the same! The staff were lovely and we were never left waiting for anything.
I started with a ‘Where the wild things are’ cocktail which I have to admit, didn’t taste of much. It was a mix of sloe gin, portobello gin and ginger ale but tasted like sweet berry water instead. Saying this, I am not ready to write off the cocktails quite yet and would definitely give them a chance next time. Moving on swiftly, I ordered a bottle of the Trasandino Malbec – Mendoza, Argentina and sipped this happily as I remembered cycling around Mendoza vineyards and wine tasting on private balconies.
We both went for the 220g sirloin steak medium/rare with a side of thin chips and salad. One of my favourite things here is being able to eat the steak sauces! All of them are gluten free, so we chose a pepper sauce and shared a truffle butter.
The results were beautiful.
The steaks really were great – juicy and excellently cooked. I’m not ashamed to say I eat the fat on meat, its one of the best bits, so these sirloins were perfect. We had no complaints!
I would 100% go back to CAU, I’m eyeing up the twice cooked pork belly. But, it may still have to be a side to my sirloin, I really struggle to turn steak on a menu down.
For good quality steak and wine along with a friendly atmosphere I would really recommend checking out CAU. They have restaurants all over the UK from Glasgow to Tunbridge wells – so there’s no excuse to miss this Buenos Aires experience.
Check out my Instagram for lots of pictures of my my Buenos Aires visit and more from Argentina!
Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest
xx