Mercado Buenos Aires — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Worst experience in this place in years!! This place used to be one of our favorites. I've been driving from Calabasas to this restaurant many many times, Pilar (from Argentina) used to be our server and then when she left we got Jeanette, both amazing and very attentive. I have to say that Jeanette's specialty coffees are the best! With the years this place started to go down in quality and menu options they got rid off many original argentinian dishes but still wasn't a bad idea to dive all the way down there and enjoy whatever was left on the menu and try their wine selections that sometimes were very good for the bottle's price, I never minded the extra $ 7 they charge for opening a bottle to enjoy it with my meal even when was purchased there during our mealtime. Today the whole story and good memories with family and good food were vanished with the TERRIBLE SERVICE that the stars of the night (Pablo and Edgard) gave us. We got into a busy restaurant and we saw both of the servers chatting with a couple, (both of them saw us coming in and at the same time turn down to keep talking with those other clients) neither of them greeted us but as we know the place we helped ourselves and found the only available table by the window, as I said it was busy and by the "grocery store" area was only 1 table left . At that time of the day, sunlight comes totally on top of that area because there is no blinds or anything to avoid this little issue. In few minutes Edgard, our server , came over with a tablet on hand and asked «are you sure you want to sit here?» referring his question to the sunlight that minutes after we weren't able to handle and we decided to move to the table next to us that got open few minutes before. We didn't care and pushed to the side the coffee dishes, check and dirty napkins because we thought that any of the restaurant crew members would come to clear those things. A lady came but didnt clear those items, simply dropped our appetizer despite that saw me pushing dirty dishes to the side to e able to accommodate ourselves and make room for our drinks, but she didn't care about it, sure! she's there to run food. We ordered our steak medium rare and as usual it came over cooked (they serve it in this iron hot plates that over cook the dish if not delivered immediately) so we couldn't let Edgard (our server) know about it because he didn't come back even to pick up his check or the dirty items,from the people sitting there before us. A lot of time went by so by the middle of the meal I decided that it was enough waiting for someone to come and clear the dirty dishes from the table and went to ask our server to take care of it. He came over and blame the busser because he went to take his break in the middle of the rush hour and he couldn't handle to come and check our satisfaction, he and the other server were totally overwhelmed, the manager came to clear the table and Edgard came to clear our empty dishes and offer dessert, we told him that we were thinking about it and told him that we'll let him know. Well after several minutes of waiting for him to order dessert my wife had to stand up and ordered our dessert to the guy on the counter who is there for take out orders. Few minutes later Edgard dropped off dessert asking if we ordered it. He dropped the check and didn't come back to.pick it up we went to the cashier to get help but everybody was running circles like chickens with no heads. I noticed owners want to step up giving a little make over to the building face and giving tablets to the servers, but if you don't have a professional team it won't happen. I'm thinking if really is worth the time driving to a place that don't care about their customers and just because the place gets packed they are going to "make bank" anyway. Hopefully this situation gets solved because the quality of the food we care and Iike the people working there and even the owner has been pretty attentive recommending good wines during our many previous visits...

Come for the Food, but get it to go. They charge you more for the desserts, empenada, etc if you're eating it there.

May 2023, Sunday at 1pm. Chaos, hustle and bustle, noisy, echoing madness. Order by phone, and get it to go! The food is great, but...

What a waste of floor space. Yes, it's open and airy, plenty of room to walk around. They should get rid of the booths, and just use regular table and chairs. They could easily seat another 20 people in EACH of the 2 dining areas.

Service: they have 1 waitress, who is 9 months pregnant running around for 8 tables in the dining area up front. To the left, there's another 8 tables with 1 waitress. It seems like there's 1 more waitress who floats between the 2 dining areas where needed. There are 2 bus boys, 1 "host?" and 1 manager for the entire place.

Parking? On Sunday? Lol. Non existent. The restaurant is in one of the busiest strip malls on Sepulveda. You have to park on side streets, or wait for-e-ver for a space.

If you make it this far, past the 20-25 minute wait for a table:

Food: Delicious. The chimichuri sauce is fresh, bright, snappy, greeny/grassy with a punch of garlic and sour. The red tomato sauce feels like an Italian bruschetta. It's smooth, refreshing, cooling.

Empanada filling is "stewed" to meld all the flavors. Very savory, umami, slightly salty. The meat one feels like ground beef, the chicken ones have chunky texture.

Desserts: the tiramisu is my fav. Pricey for a slice though.. $10 yikes. The chocolate mousse on vanilla cake topped with a strawberry is divine. Not too sweet, very chocolaty, moist. The napoleon was good, if you're into those. It's like an Alfajora and a Napoleon together. Cheesecake tasted the slightest bit over cooked in the oven.

The bread is fresh, soft, chewy. It's like a freshly baked french baguette. Quality is there.

Manolo and the Argentina platters: meats are cooked how you like them. I usually do medium, otherwise the steak can become tuff.

The meats/steaks are great. Tender, juicy. a. Beef ribs (big) have a big beef flavor, and includes a nice hunk of meat, like its own steak. b. Cut the Hanger steak against the grain to keep it tender. Otherwise it's chewy if you cut it along the grain. c. Sausage and Blood sausage: has a unique spice flavor.. is it cumin or allspice, mace? If there was any fennel, I didn't notice it.

I'll be back, when it's less noisy, to pickup an...

What can I say about this place is just Great!, Food is Delicious, the atmosphere is great and the only bad thing I could say it that is not near my place and you'll be lucky if you find a parking spot in front of the restaurant.

WARNING! - If you are not a Meat eater THIS IS NOT YOUR PLACE! I'm not even sure if the serve Vegan dishes, because I go there for the meat, they have pasta and other dishes but I never paid attention to that section of the menu.

Here are my Tips! BE PATIENT Iif you are starving don't get frustrated if yo can't find parking in the small shopping mall, you'll be lucky if you find one, if not try to park on the Sepulveda Blvd side, or on Covello St. I once parked 5 blocks away from the place, It was a 5 mins walk and when I got there I was hungrier than ever, also at the end of you dinner your digestive system will thank you after walking back to your car.

Once you have successfully parked your car, go to the front if the place is full make sure to write your name down on the waiting list, I've seen people cut to the front of the line that when I'm hungry that makes me mad as hell.

As soon as you get to your table, I suggest you order an 'Empanada' they have Ham & Cheese, Meat, Chicken, Cheese, spinach, corn, tuna, cheese and onion, or sausage make sure to top it off with some 'Chimichurri'. Make sure not to eat a lot of the recently baked bread with butter, you'll be stuff before your main dish arrives. ;)

After devouring the Empanada take your time to select the piece of meat you'll like to try and if you're a good eater you'll be licking your fingers.

Enjoy!

About my experience. I discovered the Mercado Buenos Aires back in 1999 when I was working in Van Nuys, the very first week my co-workers took me to lunch and since then I've been a 'regular', or at least I try to dine there as often as I can.

Back in the days the 'deli' area was bigger and they have less tables, We usually ate during the weekdays so it wasn't too crowded, on weekends you might have to wait up to an hour to get a table but trust me the wait is worth it. Hope you like this place as...