It was a fun task, to try to figure out which special restaurants we’d treat ourselves to in Buenos Aires. I liked the sound of PuraTierra, at number 50 on the list of Latin America’s Best 50 restaurants of 2016. Authentic market-based Argentinean food created by Martin Molteni, they serve up ‘an exploration of South American flavours with particular emphasis on Argentina. Chef Martin Molteni cooks with local produce, rediscovering pre-Columbian ingredients and prehistoric techniques such as clay-fired oven cooking’. It was also easy enough to make a reservation through their website.
The tasting menu was eight courses and we had matching wines, though I quite like that they had two different sets of matching ones from which you could choose. We went for the cheaper option.
UNO.
Such a pretty dish. Loved the crispy bits of plantain.
DOS.
After falling in love with the guanacos in Patagonia, big flightless birds, I feel bad if I ate one. But the tartare was delicious and look at the presentation. This really was fun presentation, a cornucopia of tasty, mostly vegetable delights.
TRES.
This was a highlight, and I wouldn’t have predicted I’d say that about sweet breads. Beautiful texture and very tasty.
CUATRO.
CINCO.
SEIS.
SIETE.
OCHO.
Matching wines
This was a lovely and memorable meal, all in all. Beautiful presentation, mostly savoury and rich flavours, and some unusual ingredients. Aside from the sweet bread, I’m not sure there were absolute wow moments, but it was all great. The wine was refilled, which is unusual for matching wine for degustation, and I was VERY happy by the end of the night from so much beautiful wine (all interesting, all tasty). And then the cherry on top of the ice cream (appropriate since one dessert featured cherries and the other ice cream): all up, it was 2,160 pesos, which is less than $200 Australian for BOTH of us. That is outstanding value for what we got. And this was a very nice introduction to fine dining in Argentina!