Il Gran Caruso, Buenos Aires, Argentina - September, 2006

We opted for Italian at Il Gran Caruso in the Puerto Madero area our last night in Buenos Aires, and once again enjoyed a fabulous meal. While I’m on the subject, I must say that we had the best food in Buenos Aires that I’ve ever experienced on vacation before…even better than what we found in Italy…and at unbelievably low prices. We started with an appetizer of empanadas (mainly because I had an uncontrollable desire to eat empanadas whenever they appeared on any menu). The restaurant boasted the most beautiful salad bar I have ever seen (at least that’s what they called it…it was really more like an antipasto bar). There were thick slabs of buffalo mozzarella, thin slices of proscuitto, corn relish, beautiful olives of all sorts, salami, marinated artichokes and mushrooms, and a bounty of other treats…all wonderful and super-fresh. I couldn’t pass that up, and it did not disappoint. As an entree, I selected a curry risotto with chicken and langostinos (which was fabulous), and the dawg had cannelloni stuffed with wild mushrooms, onion, and pancetta, and followed that up with an order of lamb chops, which he proclaimed to be sublime. Everything was so good it was ridiculous, and we washed it all down with a bottle of Argentinean “champagne” and another of their wonderful chardonnays. Even with dessert, the tab only came to around $125 US. The restaurant was beautiful, the staff were warm and attentive, and the food was outstanding.

The amazing antipasto bar at Il Gran Caruso:

I dug in like a lumberjack!

Underdog discovers the Argentinean equivalent of ruffies in his pancetta, mushroom & onion-stuffed cannelloni:

http://www.grancaruso.com.ar/