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Seeing red

Truly rare steaks stand out at this new spot in Old Town
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 21st, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Standing the heat: The grill line at La Casa Argentina turns out perfect steak.
Pop culture has been pretty rough on Argentina. Honored with a stirring musical, the country got stuck with Madonna as its sentimental icon in the film version. Argentina’s premier soccer star, Diego Maradona, scored five goals in the 1986 World Cup — then scored a lot of cocaine. War criminals like Martin Bormann supposedly spent their “retirement” sunning in the outdoor cafés of Buenos Aires. And British tabloids spent a few days mocking the nation after a little incident in the Falklands.
Through it all, the people of Argentina could rely on one thing: a constant supply of glorious red meat.
Beef is almost the country’s raison d’etre. Its primacy is evident in many forms at La Casa Argentina, the new South American outpost on Dlouhá. Broth distilled from bone and fat resonates with pure flavors and feels silky on the tongue — an auspicious starter, in that good broth should never expand far beyond its origins. Despite an amateurish, chewy outer shell and an ill-considered tapenade, large portions of straightforward ground beef just about to rescue a disappointing empanada starter.
But the steak truly stands out. The tenderloin arrived perfectly rare, a sheath of blackened meat ringing beautiful crimson. Somehow — a matter of training? line cooks imported from overseas? — the chefs overseeing La Casa’s grill avoid the common Central European temptation to burn flesh beyond recognition and happily serve mounds of cinders. Cooked properly rare, the fibers don’t necessarily melt on your tongue, but they do ease apart, gently. Meanwhile, distinctly dense flavors engulf the palate, muting everything but the sensation of masculinity, rough-hewn and refined, intense and cautious. Emerging on a different plane (and forgive me if this monologue begins to sound like something from Amadeus, but it’s been a long time since I’ve lingered over a good rare steak) are bursts of salt and pepper, along with fledgling heat from a dash of chili. Surely, to paraphrase F. Murray Abraham’s Salieri, this is grilled by the gods.
La Casa Argentina

Dlouhá 35
Prague 1–Old Town
Tel. 222 311 512
Open daily 10 a.m.–2 a.m.

Food
Service
Atmosphere
Overall
Or to put it another way, it’s one hell of a steak. No wonder those lucky Argentines consume more beef, per capita, than anyone else.
For all that, there are two problems. First, some toque-wearing scalawag slapped a large pat of herbal butter on top of the steak. If allowed to sit, pungent fists of garlic and supporting flecks of green will overwhelm a perfectly prepared and seasoned piece of meat. Fortunately, it’s a simple matter to just cast the offending matter aside with a quick flick of your fork. Second, the steak arrives with five sauce options, each one a merciless predator waiting to pounce and devour everything an aficionado loves about rare beef.
Despite its association with strength, the flavor of steak is not very resilient. So what self-deprecating impulse motivates a kitchen to bring raw red meat to its peak then set out lethal substances that encourage guests to slaughter its creation? And it’s not just red meat. Four of the same sauces accompanied an order of grilled pork ribs on my second visit. Once again, the meat was something to celebrate: tender, bearing concentrated wisps of smoke and a contrasting baste of syrup and pepper — a trifecta, each flavor nudging past the other repeatedly, en echelon.
From the Menu
  • Beef broth 68 Kč
  • Empanadas 145 Kč
  • Beef tenderloin 200g 375 Kč
  • Grilled pork ribs 245 Kč
  • Grilled corn 85 Kč
  • Espresso 59 Kč
  • Pilsner Urquell 0.3 L 70 Kč
Why put in all that diligent work and skillful seasoning if you then ask guests to wipe it out with a powerful béarnaise? Sauces are meant for inferior or overcooked cuts.
Unfortunately, few other dishes are on par with the main-course heavyweights. Sides and desserts are adequate, but not spectacular. The room seems to be the result of some brief tornado, spinning color and debris everywhere. It’s a restless space, complemented by tango dancers and the constant hum of servers (who still manage to pass up diners waiting to pay).
But the meat, oh the meat. That’s where La Casa Argentina says “Gotcha.”

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (21/02/2007):

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