8 hour wood-fired milk fed Mirrool Creek lamb
Do you believe in fate? I don’t really, I’m far too practical to ever believe that things happen “for a reason”, but sometimes I think that something is challenging me to believe that there are greater powers at work. Like, the will of a greater power for me to shove my face into a pile of meat.
What am I talking about? Well, a month ago, we tried to book a table at Porteño. A month ahead, Friday or Saturday, either session, and they were all booked out. Though we were put on a waiting list, I pretty much assumed that “waiting list” is restaurant code for “no can do but please rate us for customer service” so we gave up hope and made a reservation elsewhere. As the day drew closer, I wished and prayed and even rocked out some hoodoo. Anything that would get us into Porteño and would you believe it? On Thursday, we got a call that a table had freed up. For seven people, no more, no less. PER-FUCKING-FECTO.
I believe!
Ok, no I still don’t really believe. But we sure did go to Porteño!
Porteño is fricking awesome and that’s pretty much all I want to say. If you’re a vegetarian, steer well away because two steps into the restaurant and you’ll run into this:
These guys literally have slabs of slow cooked meat lying around ready to carve. If this isn’t a carnivore’s heaven, I don’t know what is.
Aside from the obvious lure of the succulent, juicy meat, Porteño is a great venue is many other ways. With Gardel’s Bar upstairs, downstairs is dedicated to the consumption of meat, Argentinian style. In fact, I’m told that everything they have is from Argentina, from the crockery and furniture through to the tiles on the floor. Might as well do it right!
So, what did we eat?
Beef empanadas
Citrus marinated seafood with cucumber, grapefruit and yellow chilli paste
BBQ eggplant, peppers, cauliflower with tahini and quail egg
chimichurri and tomato salsa
I know, I know, where’s the meat? Coming right up!
Veal sweet breads – kind of looks like roast duck, no?
Blood sausage with red peppers in garlic
Shamefully my camera photo of our Asado beef ribs turned out shocking, so here’s my Instagrammed version –
O’Connor grass fed Angus beef short ribs
And don’t forget the 8 hour slow cooked lamb up top. Man, I’m so hungry looking at my own photos #firstworldproblems
Anyway, we also had some sides!
Shaved fennel salad with apricot, black olives and amontillado dressing
Crispy fried brussel sprouts with lentils and mint
What we did NOT have at Porteño was dessert. Remember what happened last time? Well they still haven’t changed the menu so I wasn’t about to have that again. Instead, we trundled along, full and happy, to Tokonoma on Crown Street where we proceeded to order one of every dessert and a whole bunch of drinks.
By the way, dinner was in celebration of my friends’ birthdays ~ the wonderful Ita and Mariano, whose birthdays are two days apart and their wedding anniversary in between. How cute is that? Birthday or not, they still ended up serving us
Porteño
358 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
(02) 8399 1440
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