El Patacón — Restaurant in Municipio de San Carlos de Bariloche

Out of curiosity, we stepped into this Bariloche restaurant: a log cabin-like establishment on an elevated, well landscaped area on the main road.

The FOOD IS HIT-OR-MISS, the cook seems to forget to remove dried uneatable leaves from the stew AND used horribly sour pickled mushrooms in the casserole.

The MENU is long, though navigable. There’s a section called “Autor Sugerencias” or “Chef Creations”, which is a thing to try.

🤗🤗🤗 The RINOÑES FORTIFICADOS is an outstanding creation of lamb kidneys braised in Malbec sauce… a lovely and large portion appetizer.

👎 The MORCILLA is prettier than it taste… it is VERY SOFT, MUSHY instead of packed and solid… VERY MESSY TO EAT… though good seasoning .

🤗🤗🤗 The CIERVO CAZADORA (cazuela of venison) is a superb stew of venison…. BUT THEN THERE’S SEVERAL DRIED BAY LEAVES THAT THE COOK FORGOT TO REMOVE!!!

Bay leaves are good seasoning for stews, BUT they should either be cooked in seasoning cage or muslin bag OR picked out before serving. These things are bitter when accidentally chewed… they are NOT MEANT TO BE CHEWED SO PLEASE DO NOT SERVE THEM.

👎👎👎 The CAZUELA de OVEJA CONSERVA tastes good until SOUR PICKLED MUSHROOMS are chewed…. THEY DESTROY AN OTHERWISE GOOD STEW!!!….. why are they even used??? There’s plenty of fresh mushrooms or simple brined one!!!!

Service is confusing… throughout dinner 3 waiters were going around … we’re unsure who is ours!?!?

The restaurant has an otherwise very good ambiance, all in keeping with a log...

Wow! This place absolutely blew us away. Food, service and the design/vibe of the building itself were absolutely incredible. We went VERY early by Argentinian standards (6:30PM, blasphemy!) mainly because we have a 14-month-old in tow. And so we were just about the only ones in the restaurant and I’m pretty sure we had one of the chefs as our server because the other staff hadn’t fully started their shifts yet. But he was incredible. Absolutely meticulous, TRUE professional - from making sure our little guy was taken care of, to ensuring I had a totally gluten free meal (celiac) and my wife had vegetarian. Didn’t mind speaking to us in English (nuestra español necesita trabajo). Plus the food itself was incredible. I was legitimately sad when my tenderloin was finished. Our son wouldn’t stop eating. My wife even got dessert (she NEVER gets dessert!).

We walked out of the place (with the door held open by our server/the chef, obviously) and almost didn’t want to sully how good the experience was by talking about it. But I figured I needed to leave a review. Legitimately had the most wonderful dining experience of our entire month trip...

Fab place, amazing food, quite expensive being in Argentina. Me and my boyfriend ended up there after a terrible experience in another place, the waiter was so kind and even showed us the kitchen with all kinds of meat they have. Incredible quality! We ordered two dry aged cuts, the taste was unbelievable and the preparation exquisitely on point.

Prices were expensive, we are used to this in our country but after paying they tell us the tip was not included in the bill. A bill of almost 150 US dollars for two pieces of meat, some coke and fries? Anyway we tell them we don’t have cash money (the only way they said they accept tips in) and one says fine, then another comes right before we left and insistently asks us to do it by card.

Why don’t they ask for a tip in the bill if not included in the first place and why being so insistent?… we would have happily added a tip if they would have been honest...