Maffia — Restaurant in El Chaltén

Whoever said that the food here is good is lying.

I got a salad here. Sure I guess we can call a pile of shredded carrots and cabbage with 4 leaf fronds that has been completely undressed and completely unmixed, a salad.

The spaghetti and meatballs??? Fuggedaboutit. They make their own pasta from scratch here. Don’t. Barilla makes better pasta. There was no bite to the pasta, and it was more like a thin strip linguine (for those pasta shape die hards out there, idc but others do). Sauce? Unseasoned. No basil or parsley or anything could be tasted. Just like a watery tomato sauce, couldn’t taste onion or garlic either. Parmesan cheese? Tastes like they have the un-aged stuff.

The meatballs. Mama Mia. They were the size of gumballs. They were kind of dry, seemed like no breading was used to help bind it, it was just straight up meat. Oh and you can also bet that if the sauce was missing seasoning, the meatballs were too. No caramelization so the consistency was like they boiled them or something.

The sauce did not emulsify. It did not stick to the pasta.

I eat, make, and cook pasta a lot. This…..is someone trying to make the dish from like a recipe that has been put through google translate 10 times instead of from their nonna.

I immediately passed on the desserts.

Don’t come here if you enjoy good pasta.

The service was also strange. Our waiter introduced himself, which is nice. Then like a minute later he told us his nickname and that we should call him that instead. Bruh just introduce yourself as your nickname, what are...

Overhyped and overpriced.

Came because recommended but worst meal in Argentina. Reserved a table for 6 at 7.30, made to wait 25 mins with no apology. Waiter was rude and clearly couldn’t care less (we have both English and Spanish speakers in our group, so wasn’t a translation issue) - we asked for a wine list and were told “The wine is on the wall” and that we had to stand up after being seated to go back to the front of the restaurant to pick a wine. Seriously, why no list?

Food was OK but not brilliant compared to other places in El Calafate (La Tapera was excellent). One of our group was served a sauceless dry pasta and when asked for a sauce on the side was told not possible (seriously?). When this pasta was left uneaten, the waiter asked why and we explained it was dry and basically inedible. He said “Ok” and offered no compensation or alternative. Other pastas were reported as average but not great by our group.

All around really terrible service - very surprising given our otherwise positive experience so far - and food was vastly overpriced compared to the other great options in this town.

Don’t believe the hype. Would absolutely...

The food was delicious and came fast. The problem is that when we arrived (without a reservation) we were told politely that the only option is to share a table of 4 with 2 strangers. We agreed. We came for dinner and both us and the other couple were rushed to make an order, to finish our dishes and when the other couple finished and were asked if they want a desert, they said no, so the waiters asked them to pay and free the table because there are more people in the restaurant that is about to close in an hour. We (and them) set there in total for 35-40 mins. We came for a dinner and were not expected to be rushed to pay and leave. We haven't had a chance to sit for a second and dogest, enjoy the atmosphere and relax. They were rushing to push another table instead of us. That's the only reason we rate them at 3 and not 5. Also it's expensive, but we knew when we...