Porteno

NileGuide Expert Says:

Order the Suffolk lamb on arrival while waiting at the bar

Address:

Phone:

8399 1440

Description:

What's the definition of cruelty? Take a vegetarian to Porteno. No offence to the non-meat eaters among us; it's just that this South American dining hotspot is a carnivore's delight. The boys from Bodega tapas bar (Elvis Abrahanowicz and Ben Milgate) have transplanted an authentic Argentinian asador (steakhouse) straight from Buenos Aires into Surry Hills.
You can't reserve a table (unless the group is six or more), so after fasting for a few days, turn up, go past the Eva Peron portraits and cowhide furniture and head upstairs to the bar (or waiting room) for a cocktail or a Quilmes beer. Check out the black and white tiles everywhere, the wrought-iron railings, little balconies, dark wood paneled ceiling, upholstered nooks and crannies scattered throughout.
When your time to eat comes, it's difficult to know where to start. There is a pork pate with house baked bread that's the equal of anything French. There's even pickled veal tongue, if that's your thing. Or cured kingfish (a la ceviche) with chunky corn bits and kumera crisps.
But it's the meat we're after, splayed on an angled spit and roasting away over fruitword coals for hours, all right before your eyes. Try Bife de chorizo, a sirloin cut, or beef short ribs. But the main game is the Cordero a la cruz, or wood fired Suffolk lamb. Wow. It's cooked for about six hours before being served on the bone off a wooden board. Crunchy and salty on the outside; sweet, succulent pull-apart smokey shreds of flesh on the inside. It's enough to convert a vegetarian. But if not, there are a surprising number of dishes for them; the remolacha salad (roasted beetroot, witlof, blood orange, radish and walnut) or baby squash and goat's cheese tortilla.
In keeping with the theme, South American wines are in abundance, most from Mendoza, and mostly malbec. Perfect. There are desserts, but you shouldn't have room for any if you were true to your inner carnivore.

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