l’Ecole

Creative, Feature — By DiegoM on May 7, 2010 at 3:32 am

L’Ecole is a cozy little restaurant located in the heart of Palermo Viejo. They are best known for their very reasonable priced set Menu that includes an appetizer, main course, dessert and a drink of your choice (including a 1/2 bottle wine) all for only $57 pesos. They also have a regular menu from which you can order if you want more variety.

We went on a Friday night (without a reservation), and although it was busy, there was a nice table waiting for us. I really liked the atmosphere in the restaurant, and what appealed to me more than anything was the amount of space between tables, meaning we didn´t feel like we were eating with another couple, which is far too common in other busy restaurants.

We both ordered the set menu, as a number of the items were very tempting. The style of food available could be described as creative, featuring plates that combine flavors and dishes that you don’t usually find in Buenos Aires.

The wine that came as part of the set menu was a Cafayate Malbec, which was very pleasant. I was happy to learn that we weren´t served some cheap table wine, which could easily have been the case giving the low cost of the set-menu. While we were waiting for the order, they brought us fresh made bread with a herbed cream cheese, and the bread was excellent – fresh and flavorful. Here is what we ordered and what I thought of the food:

Appetizers:

Homemade Foccacia with strings of cheese, herbs and fresh tomatoes – very plain, could have used a lot more cheese, tomatoes and herbs, to give it some flavor. It was slightly underdone, and lacking taste.

Breaded Calamari with a sesame and ginger sauce – these were decent, the calamaris were fairly fresh, and the sauce had a nice flavor, though it was a thin liquid, and would have been better as a thick sauce.

Main Course:

Vegetable Risotto with a crunchy cheese thing on top – it was ok. They were standard vegetables such as peas, corn and carrots, and the rice was flavorful.

Chicken strips breaded with cornflakes and sesame seeds, a ginger dressing, and with coleslaw on the side – also just ok. The chicken was somewhat crunchy, but not particularly flavorful, even with the sauce on top. The coleslaw was good, nice and light, instead of a mayonnaise, it was more like a thick vinaigrette.

Dessert

Trifle with little meringues, dulce de leche ice cream and fresh strawberries A little over sweet, and the combination of flavors just wasn’t right.

Apple Streudel with Filo Pastry – Filling lacked flavor, pastry could have been better.

In general, nothing really stood out (although the bread to start was quite good). None of the food was flat out bad (although the foccacia was pretty close), but all dishes were missing something to make them good, flavors just weren´t quite right, not enough of this or that, etc. The servings weren´t huge, but the combination of three plates was more than enough. The service was decent – our food came out quickly, and other than forgetting the cream cheese that comes with the bread, we were well-served. I was even given a second dish of risotto, because supposedly the first one was too small (although it would have been plenty for me).

All in all, I wasn´t overly happy with l’Ecole. Nothing was bad, but there are so many great restaurants around, that a mediocre meal just doesn´t cut it. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind the set-menu is extremely cheap. $57 pesos for an appetizer, main course, dessert, and half a bottle of decent wine is cheap anywhere in Buenos Aires, not to mention in Palermo. Add to that a nice atmosphere and dishes that are somewhat nicely prepared (albeit lacking in flavor), this may be worth visiting for some people. I, personally, would prefer going to a more expensive restaurant, spend a little more money, eat less food, but leave with happy thoughts of the great meal I had.

Bottom Line: Great price, not such great food.