Porteño

Aunty Dob is visiting this weekend so we had to take her somewhere that serves something better than the muck they dish up in Melbourne. So where better than Porteño? Porteño has become one of the hottest places in town and, conveniently, it is one of the closest restaurants to our place. We'd travel a lot further to eat there though. A lot.

CABALLA AHUMADA CON
PALMITOS Y SALSA GOLF
Smoked Mackerel, Palm Heart,
Avocado & Pickled Celery

ENSALADA PALERMO VIEJO
BBQ Eggplant, Peppers, Cauliflower
with Tahini and Quail Egg

CALAMRES ASADO
BBQ Calamari with Chickpea Sofrito,
Preserved Lemon & Watercress

MORCILLA
Blood Sausage with Red Peppers in Garlic

CHANCHITO A LA CRUZ
8 hour Woodfired Pig

Porteño or how we got out to a restaurant in the evening with Georgia for the first time

It can be done. Feed and change Georgia before we leave and choose somewhere nice and close to home. Porteño is only 10 minutes walk away so if we have any disasters it is a short trip home and everything will be hunky dory.
Weeell, sort of. Georgia did get a bit grizzly a few times during the meal but not enough to be major pain. It was only after we'd ordered dessert she needed to be taken outside for some settling. I quickly wolfed down my share of dessert and left the rest for Michelle while I took Georgy outside to chat with the doorman. I settled Georgia, Michelle settled the bill.

We had to take turns nursing and eating a few times. It was worth it to get a decent feed. Last time we were here I raved about the suckling pig. This time, if anything, it was better. The Morcilla, blood sausage, was decadently rich and creamy.

CEVICHE PERUANO
Kingfish Ceviche, corn, cucumber, sweet potato and bottarga

ENSALADA PALERMO VIEJO
BBQ Eggplant, Tahini, Pearl Barley and Preserved Lemon

Spanish cider

CHANCHITO A LA CRUZ
Woodfired Suckling Pig

MORCILLA
Blood Sausage with Red Peppers in Garlic

REPOLLITOS DE BRUSELA FRITO
Crispy Fried Brussel Sprouts with Lentils and Mint

I was wearing my new Grinderman t-shirt and one of the waitresses was a fan (of Grinderman - not just my t-shirt) and she said the night of Grinderman's Sydney gig at the Enmore the band ended up here at Porteño for dinner and drinks. And speaking of celebs. Celebrity patissier Adriano Zumbo was eating here tonight too. Obviously man can not exist on macaron's alone.

So we haven't been totally scared off doing it again. As a matter of fact I can't wait.

Porteño is at 358 Cleveland Street Surry Hills.

Note for Grandparents and interested persons. Click HERE for new Georgia photos.

Porteño

From the same guys who brought us our favourite tapas restaurant Bodega we now have the very new and very popular Porteño. Porteño is a stylised as an Argentine grill house. As far as I can tell that is true but that is like saying Bodega is only a tapas joint. Terry Durack gives it a score of 16 out of 20 right off the bat. That will be enough for them to be awarded two Hats in the next Good Food Guide. It will be well deserved too because some of the stuff being served here is as good as it gets. The suckling pig for example is as about as good as I've ever had. Pilu at Freshwater and a restaurant in Madrid that claims to be the oldest continually operating restaurant in the world were the previous champions for suckling pig. Now I think we have a three way tie.

The lamb was divine as was the veal tongue and pork pate. We didn't try the morcilla blood sausage this time with Michelle being in the family way and all but next time... It isn't all about the meat though. Argentine grills are renowned for their meat, and Porteño is no exception, but most of their vegie dishes are excellent too. A couple of the vegie dishes are down right sublime especially the deep fried brussel sprouts. The egg plant was yummy too.

We'd heard the team from Bodega were going to be opening a new restaurant here some time ago so we had fairly high expectations. We were confident enough to even drag along the in-laws to a place we'd hadn't been before and that had only been opened for about a month. It didn't help matters much knowing they had the same no bookings policy they have at Bodega. That meant we had to rock up early. We got there at 6.30 and the place was already pumping but they managed to find us the last table for four available and right under the gaze of a portrait of Eva and Juan Peron.

Sarah, our hostess and co-owner of Porteño, is as delightful and cheerful here as she was at Bodega considering she probably has to deal with three times as many punters in an area you could drop four Bodegas in. She probably sets an impossibly high standard for her staff to follow but having said that our waiter was pretty good. So with great service and awesome food and it is only 7 minutes walk from home will we back? You betcha.

My pictures of the food are crappier than usual - in the words of the immortal Homer Simpson, "Can't talk... Eating"

Porteño is at 358 Cleveland Street Surry Hills.

Terry Durack's SMH review.