Parilla deathmatch II: La Cabrera vs Rio Alba

In our last parrilla deathmatch, Rio Alba handily trounced Don Julio. Since that time we have returned to both restaurants and confirmed that this ruling was, in fact, accurate.

In this edition, the champ Rio Alba takes on a new challenger: La Cabrera. Time Out calls La Cabrera "undoubtedly one of the most popular restaurants in Buenos Aires right now," a fact that we can attest to by virtue of the dozens of people who wait outside for a table each night, for what seems like hours. Fodor's gives it a red star and calls it "Palermo's best parrilla." (Wait, didn't they also say that Rio Alba - which is located in Palermo - is "the best parrilla in Buenos Aires. Period."? Now that's deathmatch hyperbole if ever it's been heard!)

You can read our comments and see pictures of Rio Alba here.

Now on to La Cabrera which did, in the interests of full disclosure, have one significant advantage: we were there as the guests of a relative of the owner. So we did in fact receive the "deluxe treatment" - however, other tables' food looked equally as good.

First, nothing at La Cabrera is small and dainty. Everything - from bread to papas fritas to meat - is family-sized and comes with zillions of tiny side dishes of things like potato salad, olive paste, hummous, grilled eggplant, and so on. Here are the papas fritas, for instance:

We were there with 2 vegetarians who made a great meal out of things like papas, homemade pasta, and this caprese salad (which I didn't try, but which was gone by the time we left). As you can see, the size of the food here is no joke:

Do not order too much at the beginning of your meal, or you'll never get to the meat!! And the meat - especially the lomo (filet) and mollejas (sweetbreads) - is the best we've had in Buenos Aires so far. Here is the lomo, which was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and insanely tender:

Here is the bife de chorizo. It's massive but quite frankly lacked some of the flavor that we're used to from Rio Alba, and was a bit overcooked (perhaps because it is a flat piece and not a big chunk, unlike Rio Alba's bife which is more similar in shape to a brick):

Are you getting dizzy from all the side dishes yet? At the end of your meal don't miss the lollipop tree which is set on your tabletop to choose from - a fun touch:

In sum, although we found Rio Alba's bife de chorizo to be superior, overall the food at La Cabrera just can't be beat in terms of flavor, variety and sheer inventiveness within the parrilla paradigm. The ambiance at La Cabrera is a winner too: warm lighting, brick walls, wood rafters and beams, specials hand-scrawled on blackboards, hanging mobiles of tin planes, and so on. The service was friendly and went at a breakneck speed (although of course our meal lasted 3-4 hours).

Here, you can see some of the decor behind me as our friend Frauke gets ready to have the waiter take a group photo.

Here, by contrast, is Rio Alba's interior:

Rio Alba's austere cafeteria vibe with formal older waiters (complete with napkins draped over their arms), extremely bright overhead lighting, and delicious -- if monolithic -- food is less expensive than La Cabrera, and you can always get in without a reservation. In short, we like Rio Alba, and we're not afraid to say it. But we must declare La Cabrera the winner of this deathmatch (at least on a provisional basis until our judges conduct more follow-up visits).

(Rio Alba is located at Cervino 4499, at Oro. La Cabrera is located at Cabrera 5099, at Thames.)

Comments

[Christian Kracht]

Though we have not been to "Rio Alba", in terms of swankiness, style and parilla prowess, Frauke and I believe that "Don Julio" easily tops "La Cabrera", which we found overpriced and touristy. The condiments accompanying the meats we found tasted like they came out of a large plastic white bucket. The bread and salad were luckluster at best & the only nice thing was the extremely good company and the tall lollipop tree. La Cabrera I fear has fallen victim to its own popularity; the meat is almost no better than at "Club Eros", for instance, which is 400 % cheaper. Two options that we recommend: "La Brigada", over in San Telmo, or our perennial favorite: "Mirasol", in La Recova. The bife de lomo at "Mirasol" is quite astonishing, almost shocking really.

[Joy]

Well then! And where are we going tomorrow night? Mirasol, perhaps?