R and I have been on a quest to find our ‘local’. A place we can frequent, that isn’t too expensive and keeps us going back for more. Living in East London, more particularly Mile End makes this an impossible task. Mile End is a food desert! Unless of course you are looking for fried chicken, then Mile End is your place. I would rather eat at McDonald’s than venture into the land of Mile End fried chicken.
One of the places I love to walk/jog in my neighbourhood is along Regent’s canal, it really is a nice little break away from the chaos that is East London. From Mile End if you carry on North, you will eventually come to the very trendy, yet charming Broadway Market. On many occasions I have found myself passing a busy Argentine Grill called Buen Ayre, intrigued I have studied their steak dominated menu many times and made a pact with myself that I would come for dinner. I was hopeful that maybe this would be the one, that it could it be our ‘local’.
Saturday night R and I had a table booked for 7PM, we were starving and looking very much forward to a nice big steak. We were sat at a table right in the middle of the restaurant, which was a bit awkward so R asked if we could move to cozy one in the back corner. As requested, we were moved and immdiately noticed how friendly the clientel were. We squeezed into our table, expecting annoyed glares and eye rolling. Instead we got smiles and even had the guy next to us say goodbye while he and his friends headed off for some more Saturday night fun. The atmosphere at Buen Ayre is great, very laid back and youthful. The music is loud, but fun and while sipping on a nice refreshing Argentinian beer, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe this is what Aregentina could feel like.
R had the Sirloin and I went for the Ribeye, both requested medium rare, in the meantime we had some starters. Jamon with palm hearts, apparently from the tree, which were tasteless. We also had some spinach and cheese Argentinian pasties, with were clearly homemade and quite nice. And to accompany our meal we of course chose a bottle of Argentinian Malbec, 2005 Malma NQN Malbec, which was a yummy match, with bags of dark berry fruit.
Ok, so I wanted to love this place, and I did enjoy myself and leave with a smile on my face. BUT, if steak is what you do then there should be no over cooking or under cooking of steaks going on. R’s steak was perfectly medium rare. Mine the 1st time came out blue (still cold in the middle), the 2nd time it was rare, then three is a charm the steak was finally medium rare, but black! If you have ever tried to cook meat three different times, you know it is not ideal and results in a piece of meat that is ugly and not very appetising. They also forgot our chips, so there was nothing for me munch on while waiting for my steak to be triple cooked!
Even though we were disappointed with the steaks at Buen Ayre, we left liking the place. The concept of just doing steaks is great, and the atmosphere is fun and inviting. The steaks just weren’t up to scratch, and our eighty quid bill was just a bit too high, so our search for our ‘local’ continues.
