Argentina: Restaurant Review - Azafran
Everything we read, and everything we heard said we had to try Azafran restaurant in Mendoza. Frommer's calls it "charming" and the service "convivial." Trip advisor places it #1 out of 28 restaurants reviewed in Mendoza and rates it 4.5 out of 5. Viva travel guides raves "it’s hard not to enjoy Azafran."
The premise can best be described as an upscale deli with an emphasis on wine. There is a wine room where you go to pick your own bottles, in lieu of a wine list. They specialize in cheese and meat plates as a starter, and the place is certainly very busy.
Perhaps it is because of our expectations, or it may be that we prefer a different style, but we were not thrilled. It wasn't awful, buy any stretch, but it came nowhere close to the hype.
The service was cursory and unprofessional. I had to point out repeatedly that the water glass they gave me was cracked, they just kept putting it back in the wait station and one after the other servers kept trying to give it back to me. They don't believe in giving you new silver between courses, so like a lowly diner they just throw your dirty fork back onto the table.
The food was passable, but not much better. The potatoes for all the world tasted like they were instant. They may well not have been, but they sure did taste that way. I had potatoes stuffed into an onion, and my wife had them stuffed in the ravioli. Despite the different descriptions they tasted remarkably similar, and unremarkable.
We had a camembert baked in puff pastry with jam, but the cheese was bitter and was only made better with the addition of the jam. Alas, there was at best a drizzle of jam for looks, hardly enough to make the dish palatable. It was served with a bed of bitter greens. Someone likes bitter a whole lot more than I do.
My first choice of appetizer was not available so I settled for a trio of empanadas. They were ok, but despite their exotic descriptions, blood sausage, sweetbreads and a onion and sausage filling, they were not much more interesting than the ubiquitous offerings from every other restaurant. The presentation was on a cutting board which did nothing to enhance the experience.
No doubt we would have enjoyed the charcuterie plate better, as that is one of our favorite types of nibbles, but we have that almost every night at home, so we wanted something different.
The menu selections I had read about sounded quite enticing, but the night we were there none of them were to be seen. Instead we opted for steaks, which is what they do best here in Argentina. They were fine, but nothing special, and not as good as the steak joint around the corner from us. The one nod to making the fillet more interesting was a slathering of goat cheese. Perhaps if the afore mentioned potatoes had not been so disappointing the main courses would have had a better reception.
The wine room was fun to look around in, but there were people seated in there, making it hard to get to some of the wines, and it made me feel like I was interrupting their night. I ended up to rushing to making my selections, instead of taking the time the fine collection warranted. The wine steward was charming and graciously confirmed that my choices were ideal. He then disappeared and allowed a more clumsy assistant to stumble through the service.
The din of the diners and the people looking around at the shelves of products behind our table did nothing to improve the ambiance, nor did the door that wouldn't close and let in the cold night.
My research promised me choices like deer, lamb or rabbit ravioli in champagne sauce, none of these were to be seen. They didn't even have anything remotely like the sweet potato puréed in a light cream sauce I had read about.
We had high hopes, spent a pretty penny, and really wanted it to be a special night. Instead it was passable and nothing I would go out of my way to recommend.
The premise can best be described as an upscale deli with an emphasis on wine. There is a wine room where you go to pick your own bottles, in lieu of a wine list. They specialize in cheese and meat plates as a starter, and the place is certainly very busy.
Perhaps it is because of our expectations, or it may be that we prefer a different style, but we were not thrilled. It wasn't awful, buy any stretch, but it came nowhere close to the hype.
The service was cursory and unprofessional. I had to point out repeatedly that the water glass they gave me was cracked, they just kept putting it back in the wait station and one after the other servers kept trying to give it back to me. They don't believe in giving you new silver between courses, so like a lowly diner they just throw your dirty fork back onto the table.
The food was passable, but not much better. The potatoes for all the world tasted like they were instant. They may well not have been, but they sure did taste that way. I had potatoes stuffed into an onion, and my wife had them stuffed in the ravioli. Despite the different descriptions they tasted remarkably similar, and unremarkable.
We had a camembert baked in puff pastry with jam, but the cheese was bitter and was only made better with the addition of the jam. Alas, there was at best a drizzle of jam for looks, hardly enough to make the dish palatable. It was served with a bed of bitter greens. Someone likes bitter a whole lot more than I do.
My first choice of appetizer was not available so I settled for a trio of empanadas. They were ok, but despite their exotic descriptions, blood sausage, sweetbreads and a onion and sausage filling, they were not much more interesting than the ubiquitous offerings from every other restaurant. The presentation was on a cutting board which did nothing to enhance the experience.
No doubt we would have enjoyed the charcuterie plate better, as that is one of our favorite types of nibbles, but we have that almost every night at home, so we wanted something different.
The menu selections I had read about sounded quite enticing, but the night we were there none of them were to be seen. Instead we opted for steaks, which is what they do best here in Argentina. They were fine, but nothing special, and not as good as the steak joint around the corner from us. The one nod to making the fillet more interesting was a slathering of goat cheese. Perhaps if the afore mentioned potatoes had not been so disappointing the main courses would have had a better reception.
The wine room was fun to look around in, but there were people seated in there, making it hard to get to some of the wines, and it made me feel like I was interrupting their night. I ended up to rushing to making my selections, instead of taking the time the fine collection warranted. The wine steward was charming and graciously confirmed that my choices were ideal. He then disappeared and allowed a more clumsy assistant to stumble through the service.
The din of the diners and the people looking around at the shelves of products behind our table did nothing to improve the ambiance, nor did the door that wouldn't close and let in the cold night.
My research promised me choices like deer, lamb or rabbit ravioli in champagne sauce, none of these were to be seen. They didn't even have anything remotely like the sweet potato puréed in a light cream sauce I had read about.
We had high hopes, spent a pretty penny, and really wanted it to be a special night. Instead it was passable and nothing I would go out of my way to recommend.
posted by Wineguy at 6:29 PM
3 Comments:
We own a small boutique hotel in Mendoza and we have sent many of our guests to Azafran. They typically come back raving about the experience and the food, so this reviewer's bad experience may be the result of an off night or expectations that were set too high, or both.
While some of his criticisms are generally valid, one must take into account that standards of service in Argentina are not necessarily what they are in other places. And this doesn't mean that it's bad, just different. If you can't handle different, don't travel.
I appreciate your comments. However, please note that others in the wine and hospitality business have also expressed their disappointment in Azafran.
I am a trained chef and manager who has spent decades in the restaurant and wine business, among other things, training staff.
While what you say about different cultures is certainly valid; some minimum standards apply. The quality of service should be commiserate with the quality and price of a restaurant. Don Mario which is a simple steak house around the corner from where we are living has better meat and better service at much less than half the price.
Your comment "f you can't handle different, don't travel" is disingenuous, as not only are we well traveled, but we are on the tail end of a year long trip around the world, and have been traveling extensively all of our lives. We know what to expect, and Azafran did not live up to expectations.
I mention that it may have been an off night, such things happen, but just because others enjoyed it doesn't make it good.
I think Azafran is not a good choice in Mendoza at all, I think is expensive for the experience that you could have. Is quite pretentious.
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