Caminito Argentinian Grill
WHAT: Caminito Argentinian Grill
WHERE: 1629 N. Halsted St.
OUR RATING: Skip it!
Hidden away at garden level, Caminito Argentinian Grill attempted to transport Storefront City to South America. Unfortunately, while years of Spanish aided us linguistically, the food and space had us lost in translation.
(caminitoargentiniangrill.com)
While, in the past, we’d been told that the space wasn’t anything special (described as dark), we found it to be quite pleasant and cozy, lending to an all-around undiscovered feeling reminiscent of the real Argentina. Nothing could be further from this quaintness than our server. While she may have been Argentinian, she had little to no appreciation of manners, was abrupt and careless and, quite frankly, rude. To top this all off, the meal took a good while to be prepared, which seems unreasonable given what we ordered. Needless to say the tip was light, but if you treat patrons poorly, what do you expect?
(caminitoargentiniangrill.com)
Argentinian food tends to be a blend between Italian and Spanish cuisines, with a general focus on barbecued beef (asado) and pastas. Caminito also serves a plethora of seafood dishes and pizzas, but in an attempt to get the most bang for our buck and try a variety of dishes, we ordered mainly appetizers.
Verduras Mixtas (caminitoargentiniangrill.com)
We started the night off with Empanadas, baked stuffed pastries filled — some with mozzarella and tomato, others with beef. While a good, traditional empanada, there was nothing that made them particularly Argentinian. We continued with Verduras Mixtas, an assortment of grilled vegetables, including sweet peppers, zucchini and eggplant. Nothing special here, just lots of oil to accompany our “healthy” side dish.
Provoleta (caminitoargentiniangrill.com)
Two other dishes that didn’t cut it for us were the Provoleta (grilled provolone cheese topped with green olives and grilled bell pepper, served with toasted bread) and Espinacas Palermo Viejo (spinach tossed in balsamic vinaigrette with gorgonzola cheese, cherry tomatoes and walnuts). Both dishes were less than ideally-fresh, and while the cheese hardened into a chewy gloop, the salad wilted quickly from the heavy-handed vinaigrette.
(caminitoargentiniangrill.com)
Perhaps the only redeeming dishes of the night were the Mollejas (grilled Argentinian sweetbreads with salsa criolla) and our dessert, Panqueque a la Flama (peaches swirled in dulce de leche, wrapped in a crepe, topped with a flamed rum-based syrup and bananas). If we ever came here again (we probably wouldn’t, but bear with us), we would definitely order the mollejas again, as they proved to be a unique dish, delicate yet with a substantially complex flavor. Meanwhile, we probably just liked the panqueque because there was rum, syrup and fruit. Your usual bananas foster-esque crepe dessert.
The prices initially seemed reasonable here, but given the abysmal service, sub-par food and many hungry minutes of languishing waiting to be served said rather dreadful food, they were high. We would have done better to order similar fare at empanadUS or some other cheaper Argentine establishment.
And while we didn’t experience it, there is apparently live music every Saturday from 7-10pm. But we would recommend you save your palate, wallet and ears for another, more worthy eatery that has proven itself.