Restaurant Spotlight: Alcanfor
A newcomer among the "Argentine hipster fine dining platitos" movement.
Alcanfor is a new restaurant in the up-and-coming Villa Crespo dining scene. A variety of similar-style restaurants have been popping up over the last year. If I had to describe the style, it would be “Argentine hipster fine dining.” Locally, they are known as the new trend of restaurants that have “platitos,” or small plates for sharing. Alcanfor comes from well-known Argentine chef Julián Galende, who was the head chef at Gioia Cocina Botánica, the main restaurant at the 5-star Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt hotel in Buenos Aires.
Alcanfor's menu consists of just six small appetizer plates and four main dishes. The carefully crafted small plates emphasize fresh vegetables and fruits, while the main dishes are based around animal protein, fish and mushrooms.
Our group of four went on a Friday night and made a reservation the night before. The restaurant never filled to full capacity. So at this point, it is not a place where it is tough to get a reservation yet.
The interior is tiny, with around ten tables, and has a simplistic modern feel, with a view of the kitchen.
For our group, the waitress suggested 4 to 5 small appetizer plates to share and one main plate for each person.
Small plates we ordered:
Roasted peppers, goat cheese, capers and balsamic vinaigrette
Confit prawns, avocado, green apple and celery
Burnt cucumber, grapefruit puree, miso and peanuts
Squid, white onion and grapes
And main plates:
Two of us ordered: Cut of lamb, eggplant, lamb stock, and black garlic
Grilled mushrooms, mashed corn with fried seaweed and bell pepper
Grilled fish of the day, zucchini, pil pil and basil sauce
An interesting thing about the main plates is that they come with leftover “waste”, parts unused in the preparation of the main dish. For example, with the lamb dish, instead of tossing out unused parts of the lamb, the dish came with raw lamb kibbeh made from the leftover parts. For the other plates, since I didn’t eat them, I can’t remember what the waitress mentioned were the leftover “waste accompaniments.” I assume these change frequently based on the chefs preferences. This idea is nice but doesn’t automatically translate into tasty food. It's just more of a novelty if that is your thing.
With just 3 desserts on the menu, we ordered all three:
Elderberry penacotta, plums, and cuese ice cream
Figs, cane honey foam, and walnuts
Moist chocolate, Nutella ice cream, and tonka bean cream
Points for originality, no? My wife and I found the “Figs, cane honey foam, and walnuts” to be downright disgusting. But I thought the “Elderberry penacotta, plums and cuese ice cream” plate was fantastic.
As you can infer, these are quite creative dishes. But nobody in our group appeared to be impressed with anything. The presentation, service, etc., were all nice, but our tastebuds weren’t blown away.
The wine list is finely curated, and the waitress was very knowledgeable about wines. The final total per person came out to 60 USD, which is not cheap. This included five small plates (including homemade sourdough bread & butter), four mains, 3 desserts and two bottles of wine. A charge of 1.50 USD per person is added for unlimited water.
Bottom Line: It is wonderful that places like Alcanfor are appearing all over Buenos Aires when less than ten years ago, the only food you could find was meat, pizza, and pasta. Much respect to young chefs for innovating and pushing the boundaries of their craft. This isn’t a place I would head back to. But I can see some people loving these types of dishes. So, if you enjoy creative dishes heavy on plants in a creative way, with a few animal protein options, it is worth a visit to try for yourself.
Alcanfor
Tuesday - Saturday 8pm - Close.
Sundays & Mondays closed.
Reservations here.
Platitos were a bit average… good thing the company was so far above and beyond!