I don't recall who recommended this place, or maybe it was just that it came up because of a little…read moretwist. There's a small chain of stores here called CeliGourmet, that offers up gluten free (there's the "celi", for coeliac) breads and pastries. And, awhile back, they opened up a restaurant, offering dishes made with their gluten free products, called La Pastroneria, El Salvador 6026, Palermo. Given the name, it's not surprising that their focus is kinda sorta on pastrami, or pastrón, as it's called here. Now, with three of us at the table, there were a few options - in addition to a few sandwiches (two sizes of pastrami, chicken, smoked salmon, veggie), there are also pizzas on the menu. We decided to stick with sandwiches, and order up a large of their pastrami, since that's their claim to fame, and a regular smoked salmon, and just share them around the table. Let's dissect once again.... The bread on the sandwiches is touted as their gluten free pletzlach (a flattened bread roll topped with poppyseeds and onions). There are no other options. It's dense and crumbly, and completely flavorless. Seriously, there's supermarket grade gluten free bread that's better than this. The smoked salmon is fine. The pastrami, is not. I'm not sure I even want to guess how they made it - it's certainly not smoked nor spiced. Maybe just brined and then slow cooked until it's a stringy, dried out, and once again flavorless, slab. Kind of like an overcooked pot roast. The sandwiches and platters (which are the same offerings as the sandwiches, just without bread), all come with the exact same accompaniments - pickles, coleslaw, and baked potato. On the pastrami we got a few pickles, and some lettuce and tomato. On the salmon we got a ramekin of cream cheese, and some lettuce and tomato. No coleslaw in the house, they simply hadn't made any. I mean, there's really just one side that's on everything on the entire menu, and you haven't made any of it? Sure there was the baked potato, topped with no, not sour cream as claimed, but just whipped cream cheese - probably something commercial like Casa 'n Crema or Mendicrim. I don't recall the exact prices - I think the large pastrami was something like 270 pesos, the regular salmon, about 220. But, a pass all around.

This is an excellent gluten free place. I had some great pastrami sandwich, which came with so much…read morefood. Potato, gluten free bread, red cabbage and pickles. I also had cuscus starter which was excellent. This is an excellent place to meet. The staff are great and friendly and very quick to look after you. I shared the pastrami sandwich and there was a lot of meat and food for two people easily. We washed it all down with some good house wine.

Ugh. This is one of those typical Argentine restaurants that makes me miss NJ, bad…read more The good thing about this place is that it's very centrally located. A student of mine picked it as a meeting spot for a class. I got there an hour early to prepare, but I was hungry so I decided to look at the menu. Wow, pretty pricey! A small pizza is the equivalent of like $12. There was a lack of vegetarian options, but that's typical here. I decided to go with plain ol' spaghetti and tomato sauce which seemed like a safe bet, at a reasonable price of about $8. As soon as it came out, I was disappointed. I could see it was drowning in water which I immediately drained. I could also tell from first glance that the spaghetti was way overcooked to the point of being mushy. Aren't these people decended from Italians? Is al dente not a thing here? The tomato sauce was okay except for that it lacked salt. So after draining out a good cup or so of water and then dousing the whole thing with salt, it was semi-edible. Still, not the best experience. Especially since one of the older servers scolded me because my backpack was apparently blocking an entire staircase. The service generally sucks here, though, too. Once again, I really miss New Jersey. I miss al dente pasta, good attentive service and having more than 2 meat-free options at restaurants. I'll stick to cooking at home for a while.