Gaucho

September 9, 2013.


It's our blog's 1st anniversary and we decided to celebrate by trying out a new restaurant! (As if that's totally new to us.) Anyway, we ate at Gaucho Cocina Y Vinos Argentinos at Robinson's Magnolia. It was only through blog hopping that we came to know about this place, which was odd since we always frequent Robinson's Magnolia. Gaucho is located at the third floor of the al fresco area of the mall.

Gaucho is an Argentinian restaurant. Although we have already tried Argentinian/ South American cooking before in Cocina Juan, we were still quite excited to eat at Gaucho upon reading the positive reviews. Kim was personally excited to the baby lamb they serve and I was just excited to eat, haha.

We haven't been to any authentic Argentinian restaurants before, so we can't expertly say that the interiors were proper for the theme. The checkerboard floors, pastel colored walls, and stuffed animal heads hanging around the dining area all together made the ambiance interesting but remains cozy. 

 

The place is actually bigger than it looks outside since it has 2 floors and a very spacious round dining area, which we found out that is transforms into some sort of a dance floor every Tuesday for their Tuesday Milongas where everyone is free to tango. The main attraction for everyone though is the glass enclosed fire pit! Everyone is free to see and watch different meats/ animals get roasted. (Pardon for the vegetarians.)

For started we ordered the Chorze de Cerdo.

 

The chorize was roasted in olive oil and garlic. It was very aromatic, and tasted good. But there were parts of it that tasted a little burnt. Another thing is this was really very oily, and this is coming from a very unhealthy eater.

Kim was excited for her lamb, but to her disappointment they only start serving it at 7PM during weekdays (wholedays during weekends). We got there an hour early for dinner since we were really hungry. Kim had to settle for a different dish. In place of the lamb, we ordered the Falda a la Cruz.

Falda a la Cruz. 550php.

The Falda a la Cruz is US Beef Shortplate. This is from the El Pozo De Fuego (Slow Roasted from the Fire Pit) part of their menu, just like the lamb Kim was looking forward to. Everything from that part of the menu came with chimichurri sauce, organic pickles and unlimited steamed or garlic rice that can be shared. The beef was juicy and just had the right amount of fat on it, considering shortplate is usually a little tough and very fatty since it comes from the belly. The chimichurri was a great partner to the beef, as is always the case with grilled meats.

We also ordered Pollo Asado.

Pollo Asado. 360php

The Pollo Asada is a roasted half chicken. It's roasted in a coal brick oven, with just olive oil, lemon and garlic. It came in a clay pot and was swimming in some of its juices. This has got to be the most tender chicken we have ever had-- the meat can literally be taken of the bone! We tried putting chimichurri sauce on it also, and it works!

We'll surely try to come back here to get a taste of the roasted baby lamb they have. And I'm sure there's more to the menu that we would love to try including some of their desserts! Hmm, maybe we'll try to drop by on a Tuesday and see how people tango.

Gaucho Cocina Y Vinos Argentinos

3rd Floor Al Fresco, Robinson's Magnolia,

Quezon City

(02) 654 3184

https://www.facebook.com/gauchomanila