Helga — Restaurant in Rosario

I love grilled pizza. Helga advertizes pizza a la parrilla libre and on Monday thru Wednesday it's half-price, which on that day was 110 pesos, or less than $3 USD. I mean, come on, doesn't that sound like a good deal?

There were plenty of good toppings listed, too, such as anchovies, corn, blue cheese, and a lot more; and they had Imperial IPA on tap. The efficient waiter warned me that pizza libre meant that I would have a lot of food. Yes, of course! Bring it on.

What came out was not pizza a la parrilla as I'm used to. When I've had it and when I've made it there are visible grill marks, of course, on the bottom of the crust, well-browned in spots but not evenly, crispy and often with big char-bubbles. The pizza can be formed in an oblong shape which better fits an Argentine grill, or it can be smaller and round, close to what Americans would see as individual pizzas. Usually the toppings are at most very warm rather than hot and the cheese is usually dolloped on not spread evenly. The pizza cooks so fast the cheese doesn't have time to brown at all. But that's just part of the style. Some cooks will cover their grilled pizzas with a lid or something to help melt the cheese or wilt the basil or other greens. Many don't take this step. This pizza looked and tasted like it came from an oven.

Helga's pizza was small and oblong with no visible grill marks. Instead the crust was well-browned evenly along the bottom. No char, no bubbles, no smoky flavors, which is pretty much the main effects one wants in grilled pizza.

It did not look like a crust that had sat directly over coals on a grill or grate at all. It was so perfectly oblong that my guess was it was pressed into an oblong pan (not floured and rolled) and maybe, maybe the pan was put on a parrilla and baked that way. Maybe.

It was decent verging on good pizza, even though for sure the dough could have been given more time to develop flavors, but it just was not what I was hoping for. Still, for just under 3 bucks for all I could eat, it's hard to be too ungrateful, especially since the toppings were mostly good quality. (The blue cheese was a little odd, though.)

On another negative note, the IPA had a metallic taste and I believe I was supposed to be charged happy hour prices for it but wasn't.

To top it all off, there was an 18 peso table charge, which most travelers and many Argentines hate. Add it to the price of the food and stop doing this. Seriously. Then you can claim you don't don't charge a cubierto, turning a negative into positive. Simple!

Service was above average, especially for Argentina. My server had recs, warning, and tips, checked back on me unobtrusively twice (something which rarely happens in Argentina) and when I asked for the check asked me if I wanted the rest of the pizza to go. I'm not sure I've ever had a server ask me that either here. But the bar is so low for service here that anything good out of the ordinary feels like a nice surprise.

Finally, my Mama Mia! pizza tasted better the next day after I lightly toasted it in a covered frying pan to heat it up....

This place was terrible. First of they ripped us off. They over charged 20 pesos. Which is not even that much. But when we complained they made it seem like they were doing us a favor. We even showed them their menu. Then they came back and only removed 10 pesos even though they added 20. Also they wanted to charge us 28% if we used credit cards. That is not even legal in Argentina. If you are a...

Really tasty food. Well priced. Liked that they have woodfired pizza and also some dishes that include the meal with desert and a drink. Cozy inside. Our waiter, Sebastian, was excellent and he made us feel really at home...