My recently-visited-for-the-first-time restaurant reviews

Let me start the review with the happy ending to our pathetic Xmas eve. Christmas has never been a big thing in our home. My mom´s excuse is that since her mother died (in 1970!!!!!!!!) she lost the joy of it. However, truth is she never had her own Xmas, and neither did we. Then she opened a shop (in 1981) meaning Xmas Eve (in Uruguay you actually celebrate Xmas Eve and Xmas day is for recovering from the previous night´s excess) became the end of a very busy day. Then my brother opened his shops, and things got even worse. Couple that with my mom´s aversion to buying presents, ("Here, go spend $50 on each one" she would tell me on the 24th at 4pm pushing some money into my hands) and my refusal since last year to be the family last-second gift buyer, and things could hardly be worse.

But although in the end everything turned out OK, as pathetic Xmases go, this year we outdid ourselves. My mom´s insistence that I had to go to Punta for dinner "because at least we´ll all be together" overlooked the fact that a) there was no food at her house, and b) she had made no reservations. So at 10 PM we launched our tour of restaurants in Punta del Este, Barbi driving and cursing, Mom and I laughing at the ridiculous situtation. We started by the harbor, where there was not a single table to be had. The new Blue Cheese was closed, on Pedragosa Sierra, so I decided to try Floreal, a Punta classic that we never go to which was also packed, everyone looking so nice and well dressed and happy while we looked worn-out and hungry.

Finally, we decided to give a try to that restaurant we had passed that seemed to be half empty and which none of us had ever heard of. We were met at the door and explained the "system" which is pretty similar to a rodízio, the Brazilian steak houses where meat is brought in a never ending succession to the table. However, our host stressed the "very fresh variety of salads" and we were sold. Plus, it was 11 PM and had no other choice.

Well, the evening confirmed my brother´s comments when he arrived that "This is supposed to be the best meat place in all of Punta del Este." The salads were indeed fresh, and different from the usual fare in Uruguay. The home-made flavored breads were delicious, the meat was outstanding, and things had been done to it beyond slapping it against the parrilla (chicken with blah blah herbs, etc). The meats also came paired with bbqued fruits and vegetables, such as the pork matambre with bbqued pineapple and pears, which was outstanding. The french fries with scrambled egg on top were super crispy and delicious, and everything else, up to the desserts which included barbequed nectarines, was fantastic.

It cost something like USD100 per person, with wine and champagne, and although it was not cheap, it was worth it and I´m sure no more expensive than most places for that night or New Year´s Eve. We´ll go back and fast for the whole day, because at some point we had to send the waiter away without trying something that looked wonderful, some fried huge ravioli with ruccula and mozzarela...
Avenida Pedragosa Sierra yLa Paloma 480898-488260

We had another excellent dinner about a month ago in the hills over Las Flores, at Carumbé, which means turtle in some native language. It´s a little restaurant and tiny, 2 -room inn where chef Juan Pablo Capdepont cooks his high-end fare. I was a bit deceived, told by my friend Inés who was having a romantic weekend getaway at the inn that the food would be "criolla" or Uruguayan creole. Far from it, but the suprise was nonetheless positive. The food is of the fusion type, and all of it (we were four for dinner) was outstanding. I had curried rabbit something something, some cheeses, and the dessert I can´t even remember because we had two bottles of wine. Again, not cheap, probably USD50 per person, but well worth it. The place itself is very homey and cozy, with a view of the kitchen, and the chef´s wife and the chef himself do all of the table service. There are about 5 or 6 tables, so better make a reservation. According to my friend who had the brunch, it´s worth driving from Montevideo for. She said Capdepont claims to have opened the inn just to have an excuse to prepare brunch.

Carumbé, on the hills over Playa Verde, Ruta 73 at the Tarariras stream. No children allowed (043) 27093. Rooms are USD120 per night.
(Update, sadly chef Juan Pablo Capdepon died on Sunday, Jan. 13 in a car accident.)

And now to Piriapolis. We have been exploring the "neighborhood" quite a bit, trying out different places. The problem is many of the places in Piriapolis are of the everything on the menu variety, so you can´t get a feel for how good a place is until you´ve had both the parrilla and the pizza and the real food. We like Terranova, a corner in the same style of fare as La Pasiva, but which won us over with an excellent chivito al plato and olímpico sandwich. The pizza on another occasion was completely bland, not recommended.

At La Rotonda we had excellent cordero. Greasy and stinky and tender, the way I like it. A huge chunk. The salad was generous and had lots of ingredients, although in the classic Uruguayan style which is basically a pileup of vegetables and other food which then you have to turn into an edible salad yourself in another dish. Lots of work. Still, very reasonably priced, attentive if somewhat rough service, and we like it for what it is, a basic Uruguayan style eatery.

I´m a disaster as a reviewer because I don´t remember even the name of another place we went to on the rambla, not on a corner. We gave it points for being open on a Tuesday when most places were still closed. The decor was very Heidi style, with little wooden window-frames, checkered table-cloths, etc. It had a DVD playing of some really good Brazilian music show, which I loved, and the waiter was super. The food was OK, not great, and the price was a bit expensive we thought in relative terms, vs food quality, but still, sometimes ambience is a lot and that day it was the perfect place to be, watching the sunset after a storm. I´m sure we´ll go back.

The most recently visited place is Trattoria Da Piero, on the Punta Fria waterfront. It was jam packed last night, with large families (the three generation thing is big in the Piriapolis area, and lots of babies and toddlers screaming, a stroller gridlock, etc. Not my favorite kind of scene, but we were drunk from a caipiroska pre-dinner, so we dealt with it OK. The menu made us laugh, fusion gone mad, such as "entrecot con vegetales al wok con crema y tandoori" which had drunken me cracking throughout the dinner. I ordered a chicken "en reducción de bondiola con pure de papas y rucula" which was as tasty as it promised, but unfortunately the chicken came undercooked, and returned to me tough as a truck tire. Barbi´s plancha del mar, a fish and seafood medley looked cute and he says it tasted OK. My recommendation for this place is to go very early and sit on the terrace overlooking the sea, not inside where the big family action is. Prices were reasonable and staff and owners very eager to please, which gets points from me always.

On a decidedly negative note, last night, on our third attempt we finally found Tartaruga open. This place, in Punta Colorada, has an enviable location, on the tip of a point in the road overlooking a little lighthouse (not house, just a lantern on top of an iron structure) with sea views, etc. Cute wooden structure also. It used to have a great menu, about three years ago. However, they started reducing the menu season by season, to a point where now it is a plastic laminated single page of seafood and pasta, only two salads (they used to have a great selection of four or five) no beef or chicken dishes whatsoever, and the attittude of a 3-star Michelin rated place.

"Can you add carrot to the salad?" I once dared ask last year. "The chef does not allow anything off menu" was the answer, as I surveyed a completely empty restaurant, with us the only customers. I laughed last night when a lady in the table next to us dared ask for garlic and parsley on her fish. "The chef does not...." came the swift reply. In the end we chose to have a couple of capiroskas and drive to Punta Fria for dinner.