All Entries in the "Oldsmar" Category
Restaurant Review: Argentine Steakhouse by Latin American Grill
On Tuesday night, Dereck and I went to the Argentine Steakhouse by Latin American Grill (3780 Tampa Rd # D2, Oldsmar, FL 34677, (813) 855-0332). If the name is a lot to swallow, you won’t be prepared for the meal itself which is overwhelming both in scale and taste. I’ve eaten a lot of meat from a lot of places, but very little of it lives up to the sheer abundance and decadence of what is offered at the Argentine Steakhouse. Argentina is a meat loving country and the Argentines eat more meat per head than any other country. This is evident at the Steakhouse.
When we arrived, it took a little bit of time to find the place. It’s tucked away in a corner off Tampa Road/Hillsborough behind the “Oldsmar Cop Shop” bar and next to a Hungry Howies. Also, be sure to call ahead to ensure they are there. They have Mondays off and I’ve called other times and not gotten an answer. I assure you that the trouble of making the call and driving out to Oldsmar is worth it if you’re a carnivore like myself.
When we walked in, we were greeted by the manager, who sat us quickly and brought out our drinks. This place doesn’t have fountain soda, only cans, so you pay for every drink. Seating is reasonably comfortable and there’s a good flow of traffic in and out. Music plays, but isn’t overwhelming so you can still conversate over your meal. It’s a humble and accepting environment with photos of customers adorning the walls between soccer uniforms and decorations from Argentina.
We decided to go with the mixed meats plate, which is a combination of 7 different meats on a grill, served with two sides and two salads for $35. The menu says this takes 35 minutes to cook, but we found it was out inside of 20 minutes. I’m always happy when I’m under promised and over delivered.
The first course of the meal was a traditional bread with an oily and bitter tasting spread, a combination of garlic and other herbs. It was a good compliment to the bread, giving it a depth that I wasn’t expecting.
Secondly, we were brought out our salads. They were pretty standard garden salads with a nice dressing which was creamy and sweet on top (such as a honey mustard might be) but with a balsamic vinegar finish.
Finally, the main course arrived. A cup of black beans and a large plate of rice came out first. The rice itself was cooked just right, making it light and fluffy and easy to spoon out onto the plate. I find myself having a love-hate relationship with rice lately, mostly because cooks tend to overcook it or make it very bland. This rice was prepared well and had a good flavor index that is a bit oily, a bit savory and a good base for the rest of the meal. The black beans were a bit minimalist compared to the rice, but a decent sized portion was served and the taste was spot on.
The meat grill was everything I had hoped for. A combination of chicken, blood sausage, roasted pork sausage, skirt steak, flank steak, sweetbreads, flap steak, short ribs and pork chops sat atop a charcoal lined table grill. The meats could be smelled before they even got to our table and they continued to sizzle like a fajita grill as we dug in. It’s important to note that most any facet of this dish could have been a meal on it’s own and still been very good. We were fortunate to try a bit of everything.
The chorizo sausage was a really nice first bite. I’m not usually a fan of sausage, but this was nicely roasted with clean grill marks, a robust taste and just enough fat content to make it delicious. Usually, pork sausage is either too oily or too dry. This was a good middle ground, really packing a lot of flavor into something I don’t usually enjoy.
The blood sausage was what blood sausage is supposed to be. The sausage itself was cooked well throughout and had that robust flavor you’d expect from blood sausage. I’m not a fan of it unless I’ve been drinking beer, but I can account that this is the way that blood sausage is supposed to be cooked.
The chicken was a little overdone for my tastes, but still quite good. One thing I’ve learned about grilled chicken is that it only takes the slightest lack of attention for it to go very wrong. These guys saved it from getting to that point, but it was still a bit more overdone than I like.
The pork chops were amongst my favorite parts of the dish and on par with the chops I had at Carmines. With so many people doing pork chops wrong, I’m glad to find a place that makes them tender with lightly crispy edges, savory all the way through without being too salty or overwhelmed with herbs and spices. These were as close as I’ve had to perfect pork chops in a while and are neck to neck with Carmines.
The flank steak, a specialty at the Argentine Grill, was also a superstar of the platter. Seered to lock in the juices and tender all the way through, the flank steak broke apart as I picked it up with the fork. Now that’s tender! I’ve had flank before in dishes like fajitas, but it’s usually dry and flavorless. This flank was a good cut, a good combination of flavors and melt in the mouth delicious.
The skirt steak continued down the path of delicious meat. The way they cut the skirt lends to this, as it helps seal in the oils and juices that make this lower price cut perform like a much higher end piece of meat. The skirt was also seered hot and fast, leaving a nice pink side clearly defined from the browned edge.
The sweetbreads, a food I’d never eaten before, were a succulent and delicious cut of meat. This was Dereck’s favorite, and will definitely be something I re-order when I go back. As our host explained to us, the sweetbreads are the neck muscle. There is very little use from these muscles in the field, so they stay tender and flavorful. The taste profile was that of a top cut from veal. This was definitely a winner.
The flap steak was a bit of a side note compared to the rest of the selection, but it was a decent cut of meat. Flap steak, like flank steak or skirt steak, can be easily overdone and dried out. This cut was succulent and moist throughout, locking in flavors with a hint of salt.
The short ribs were the last bit of meat that we ate. A bit tougher than the rest of the meat, the barbecue taste really shined through on these. Leaving the bones intact helps hold in the natural flavors which definitely added to these. I’ve eaten a lot of ribs in my day and these were well within what I’d call “decent”, though not groundbreaking by any means. Then again, compared to things like the sweetbreads and the rest of the meal, there was a high bar to compare to as we were getting full.
We finished the meal with fried plantains, which were nothing short of heavenly. I don’t usually like plantains because they’re typically either overly fried or mushy inside. Argentine Steakhouse got them just right, hot and sweet on the inside with a golden crust. To quote Dereck, “I could eat these every day.”
This is one of the few places were Dereck and I have gone and not brought food home. Even though we were given more than a big enough portion, we were both so happy that we continued to eat until we were miserable. This steakhouse is highly recommmended, especially considering the price point (about $40 for 2 people), the quality of service and the exceptionally tasty meat dishes.
LocalShops1: Hyperlocal shopping for the Tampa Bay Area
One of the things I’ve always found interesting about the web is how easy it is to get to powerful databases of information. What I’ve always found annoying is trying to find that information specific to a region.
For us Tampa Bay residents (and those in the surrounding counties of Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota), you may find some help in the hyper local shopping site, LocalShops1.com. They are committed to promoting locally owned, independent shops. The mission of this site is to be a place where shoppers and business owners can come to network, on social and business levels to exchange ideas, post sales, become involved in the community. Out in the “real world,” they plan lots of fun community events, charity fundraisers and store parties.
About to celebrate their 1st anniversary, Local Shops is focused on highlighting high quality businesses in and around Tampa. This site does what other yellow-pages style sites do, but in a cleaner format and each business is hand selected and reviewed for inclusion instead of an across the board inclusion that many directories do. Signing up is FREE, and can be done here:
http://www.local-shops-1.com/LocalShops1/membership-options.html
There’s lots of good news coming out of this organization. They recently began embarking on a $250,000 advertising campaign with the Tampa Tribune, WFLA, tbo.com, Tampa Bay Magazine, Tampa Bay Business Journal and Genesis radio stations 1040 and 820. They are in the midst of a complete redesign of the website to make it easier to use. In August, they are launching “1Card”, the ultimate discount card for local business.
Cigar City Brewing Launch Party at the Oldsmar Tap House
I love a good microbrew, and the last decade has brought hundreds of exceptional contenders to the table. A lot of these operations are just a couple of guys in a basement experimenting with new flavors. Some of them are the Sam Adams of the microbrew world, taking a name amongst the big boys both in distribution and recognition. The Cigar City Brewing Company put together a dozen new tastes for their launch party, held on Saturday at the Oldsmar Tap House (300 State St. E. #107, Oldsmar, FL 34677), drawing a crowd that packed the house with beer lovers of every form.
I got there as early as I could, pulling in just after 2PM. The place was already packed. The Tap House combines the best of beer worlds, offering a comfortable setting in a nice new building with lots of exotic beers on tap while still holding a lot of the charm and ease of “Ye Ol Pub”. The barmades are gorgeous, the beer is both fresh and cold and they have a snack menu including sausages and sandwiches for those who wish to soak up their brew in food.
The Cigar City guys put on a good show too. They staggered the tappings so that everyone gets to try a bit of each beer as long as you were willing to sit. At $6/glass, this isn’t cheap beer and you have to really long strong, pungent brews to enjoy this as much as I did. For the most discerning of tastes, they offer both cask and tap versions of many of their brews. Some have a preference, some are just here for good beer. I’m one of the latter.
From the get-go, I was surrounded by beer lovers who gladly shared their experiences both at this and previous beer gatherings. They made recommendations, they made conversation and everyone was genuinely in love with the moment. That’s a sign of good beer friends, and I was thankful to have them.
I started out with the Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale. I loved maduro-wrapped cigars, so I knew a lot of what I was getting into. The beer was surprisingly creamy, I’m guessing as a product of the oatmeal. It had a starchy nose and a bit bitter sip, but it was pleasant and reminded me of the cigars of the same name. As far as brown ales go, this was a stronger example than I expected but was a good start.
For the second tapping, I had a glass of the Jai Alai IPA (India Pale Ale). This was a sweet and fragrant beer. When I smelled the rim of the glass, pronounced rosemary and sage filled the air. It was really something else. The taste was sweet with light, as an Ale should be. None of the beers offered were what I’d call a “light beer”, but of the strong tastes offered, this was the lightest and one of the better overall beers.
Third, I had the “Highlite”, another version of the IPA. The taste was much the same, though I noticed more foam and a slightly stronger nose to this one. A good taste, very soothing and probably my favorite brew of the day.
The ORIBA, Oatmeal Rye Indian Brown Ale, was my least favorite choice. This wasn’t something I liked at all, as it was actually too bitter, too strong and had an almost ashy resonance to it. They serve it in 4 oz. half-servings, and it’s a good thing they did. Having a whole glass of this very strong beer would have knocked off the whole experience and that wouldn’t have been fair to the rest of the selections.
The Bolita Brown was the last beer I had as I was running out the door for the next event. It was a good Brown Ale, complete with that coffee-and-cream after taste that I look forward to. This went down smooth and had a magnificent smell to it. I rate this with the first IPA for overall quality in taste, smell and presentation.
I ended up leaving at 4:15, just in time to have several others quarrel over my bar stool in the still-packed ale house. Total price for my beers was just over $20 and I left feeling satisfied and happy, though not drunk or worn out like cheaper beers usually make me.
Beer events like this come and go, but it’s good to see the Cigar City guys making such a good showing. I’ll be stopping by their brewery in the coming weeks to pick up some bottles of the IPA and the Bolita, as these have a permanent place in my heart and in my fridge.