thymus and freddo

we met 2 people for drinks prior to dinner last night.  readers of our blogs who live in buenos aires.  both work in the tech industry in pr.  as always, it is great to meet people in the city you are in and meet people who read your stuff.  a pleasure.

after, we took a cab over to thymus which is a restaurant in the palermo area.  i had read about thymus but it was driven home after meeting someone in nyc who told me her cousin was the chef/owner behind thymus.  figured, it was a must go. 

the decor is simple, maybe 10 tables.  you can order a la carte or go with a tasting menu in a variety of forms, from 3 to 4 to 6 and the portions reflect that.  we went a la carte.

the first thing out was the amuse bouche.  a small cup of garlicky gazpacho with an olive filled cigar.  chopped black olive paste rolled in filo dough.  nice statement but a tad on the garlic side.

the bread was fantastic.  warm brown bread loaded with walnuts and raisins.  absolutely delicious.  i loved how the served butter and a mound of kosher salt with the butter.  jessica, who didn't come with us last night, loves the salt with the bread.  nice touch. 

for appetizers we went a few different ways.  3 of us went with the shrimp.  delicious tasting grilled shrimp that was almost buttery in taste over a thin layer of mashed potatoes with pulled spicy beef on the side.  not sure the beef and potato worked with the shrimp.  a lot of the food took the creation to a level that i didn't find necessary. 

fred had the goat cheese creme brulle which was rich and quite delicious served with a small salad of greens and a deep fried brioche rolled up and cut on an angle. 

for dinner, i had the chicken.  3 pieces of super crispy chicken that was a tad salty but really well cooked over root vegetable mash and sliced marinated figs with white onions.  didn't love the side, the flavors didn't grab me. 

fred had the lasagna.  deconstructed and stuffed with a rabbit ragu that had braised in red wine.  quite rich and interesting.  presentation was beautiful.

josh had the beef.  the beef was too beefy.  does that make sense? the flavor was just too dense. 

in the end, we opted out of dessert and made our way over to freddo.  a few observations.  i did introduce myself to the chef that i met his cousin, etc.  there was definitely a disconnect but then he realized who it was and he didn't even come over until the end.  he basically sat at the front table the entire time when he had a room full of patrons paying more than the normal argentine meal.  he could have spent some time schmoozing.  conceptually he has some great ideas but they are just missing the mark.  some parts of each dish were delicious where other parts were completely off.  my guess, is give him a few years and a new menu.  he is definitely trying to bring a finer type of dining to buenos aires and for that i give fernando mayoral high marks.

freddo, well, what can i say.  delicious ice cream.  much sweeter than volta.  might have to do another tasting and see which i prefer.