Casa Felix

Much of the food here is steak, potatoes, pizza, and pasta. The steak indeed, is some of the best steak I’ve eaten, perhaps ever. But after awhile, it becomes a bit monotonous. There’s a sense that there isn’t much imagination in the average Argentine restaurant. It’s good, but even too much of the same good thing gets old.

And then my friends and I went to Casa Felix. This is a “closed door” restaurant, also known as a private restaurant. It sounds a bit exclusive, but on the contrary, it was a very intimate, laidback setting, for a close group of friends. There’s no sign on the door, in fact, it’s not really a restaurant. It’s the cook’s house. Diego Felix, invites people into his house creating the most imaginative meals in all of Argentina. For starters, he has a garden in his back yard where he collected fresh herbs for our meal. We had an Argentine/Mexican fusion dinner, starting with marinated beats wrapped in zucchini, a mint sorbet palate cleanser, a main course of white fish tamale with Mexican mole and guacamole mango garnish, and dessert was a type of flan with mate dusting (Mate is the popular “tea” drunk in Argentina and Uruguay and parts of Brazil.) Such flavors! Fresh fruits and veggies! My mouth was going into shock after being confined to boring gastronomic isolation. We will be back.

1/16/2008