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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tegui

Last weekend marked some big milestones for Jon and I, I turned "almost-thirty" (29) on Saturday and we celebrated our second wedding anniversary on Monday (that celebratory restaurant post is still in progress). Both events were reasons to celebrate, therefore, reasons to try new restaurants. We took a recommendation from our friend Federico, a great source of recommendations, and tried a new restaurant for my birthday, a place called Tegui (Costa Rica 5852, Palermo Hollywood). Our evening started with the craziest cab driver of all time; he talked to himself the whole ride, honked furiously at cars in front of us that had no chance of moving, and eventually threw out his transmission and we had to exit the cab. Don't worry, he still charged us for the ride. We found another, non-crazy taxi and arrived at the graffiti-covered wall pictured to the left. Luckily, Federico knew how camouflaged the door was, so he sent us a photo in advance because if we didn't know what the front door looked like, we wouldn't have felt comfortable ringing the doorbell. Yep. The restaurant has a doorbell. This door opens to a whole other world on the inside.

The restaurant decoration is a mix of ultra modern glass and renovated apartment building. We opted to sit on the small patio, which was comfortable even in late fall since it's heated and covered. The downside to sitting on the patio is that the chairs are semi-patio furniture style, and not nearly as comfortable as the padded chairs situated at the indoor tables.

As we walked to our table, the hostess politely asked if we would prefer English menus, and we happily accepted them. The menu had an interesting setup, it was priced by the number of courses you chose, either 1, 2 or 3 regular sized courses or 6 mini-courses consisting of 2 items from each section of the menu. The catch with the 6-course menu is that the courses are chef's choice, and although everything we ate was wonderful, there were a few ingredients that we were not interested in sampling, so we went with the 3-course menu. What we didn't realize was that the menu was supplemented with all sorts of other goodies that came as part of the dinner. The first item we were served was a small cone filled with whipped goat cheese and some other deliciousness. Next, we received our appetizers, I had the cheese souffle (pictured on the right) and Jon had the corn pudding. Both items were on the sweet side, the corn pudding came with a caramelized top, a la creme brulée-style, but they were both delicious.


Peter Cottontail, on my plate
In addition to the items we ordered we also received a plate of mini-pancakes accompanied by two delicious spreads, and the delightful item served in a shot glass (pictured on the left). Our meals were great as well, I actually ordered the rabbit (which I've never done before) served with a goat cheese spread, pureed carrots and orange slices, and it was really good (even though I thought about the fact that I was eating a rabbit the whole time). Jon had the veal tenderloin which was, of course, delicious. Our meals ended with two decadent desserts, both of the chocolate variety, and both quite good. The only tarnish to our perfect meal was the fact that it took us two requests and 40 (yes, FORTY) minutes to receive our check at the end of the meal.

Tegui round-up: Probably the most chic restaurant we've been to in Buenos Aires. The food was interesting, delicious and different than any other dining experience we've had in the city. The service was great (minus the absence of our bill at the end of the meal) and we felt comfortable to ask questions and take advantage of recommendations. Great place to go for an occasion, such as celebrating 29 years on Earth, but a little on the expensive side for a frequent trip.

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