iLatina

Tonight for our goodbye meal to Buenos Aires I booked a table for four at an AMAZING restaurant... iLatina!

They offer a set "7" course menu every night that is supposed to be the best! I made sure they knew our restriction: me: vegetarian, seafood ok; Kate &Neil- no seafood, yes meat! Haha we are a complicated bunch!

We arrived to the restaurant and it was in a beautiful house and very tastefully decorated.

We were seated in our table and the owner, Camilo, came to greet us and introduced himself and mentioned that his siblings and him own the restaurant and that his brother is the chef. He also mentioned that they are Colombian so iLatina and is some kind of Colombian/ Peruvian fusion food.

Every time a plate of food or wine came either Camilo, the server, or the sous chef would come to the table and explain what we were getting.

We started the dinner with an appetizer of white corn arenas with anise and Colombian hogao.

Then came the bread basket that was beautiful! 

It had banana bread, chipá (a cheesy bread from Colombia that made me think of Brasil's pao de queijo), coconut bread, and focaccia with olives! All of them came in 4 pieces and tasted so fresh and yummy!!!!

First course:

Duck confit with tamarind sauce and quinoa salad. 

Since I don't eat duck I got the same but without the duck. The texture and the flavor went along beautifully! I really enjoyed the tamarind sauce and the texture of the quinoa! 

The plate looked simple yet sophisticated...

Second course:

Caramelized prawns with spicy pineapple and fennel.

Can I say DELISH?!?!? 

Omg! The combination of favors was beyond marvelous... The prawns were perfectly cooked and the pineapple added the perfect touch! Yummm... I'm salivating right now!!!!

Third course:

Barú style ceviche with seasonal fish, mango biche, coconut, and lychee.

Wow... Maybe my favorite of the night!

This dish was somehow a deconstructed ceviche- sweet potato on the left, followed by the ceviche, ending with the mango. The way to eat it was to take a little bit of the sweet potato, then add some of the coconut, nuts and fish from the ceviche with some of its juice. To cleanse the palate we then had to eat some of the pickled spicy mango... Mmmmm... This really is food porn! Haha

Fourth Course:

Peruvian seafood casserole with grilled octopus.

I'm really running out of words (and drooling) to explain these dishes... No words would come close to the taste and the feeling these dishes made me feel! 

The seafood "soup" was beyond tasty, I added lime, cut the octopus and mix it all together and it created... MAGIC!!!... The octopus so tender and the soup so flavorful... The lime added the perfect touch... Why can't food be this delicious everyday?!?! Yummm

--Surprise palate cleanse--

Camilo came to drop off a mojito sorbet... Yeap... MOJITO SORBET... how was it?!?! DREAMY!!! oh my, the favors were all there, so fresh, so yummy... I just wanted to cry it was so good!!!! Haha

Fifth course;

Caramelized sole fish with Lemon Zest.

Braised pork in Colombian coffee and sugarcane reduction.

For this course the sous chef came to our table and explained our dish. He also invited us to come into the kitchen and meet the staff at the end of our meal!

I got the fish since I don't eat meat and it was really good. I'm not the biggest fan of "plain" fish but it was tasty and the tomato salad that came with it was delish!

Sixth course:

Ecuadorean cacao truffle with sea salt and olive oil!

Mmmmm.... What can I say about truffle? Being a big fan of sea salt (and loving Laurie's chocolate tart with sea salt on top) I was beyond excited about this dish! The mosh of the truffle with the olive oil was divine and the sea salt on top made the dish just PERFECT  for me!!

Seventh course:

Avocado and aguardiente ice cream.

Well, this was a surprising choice and I wasn't very sure how much I was going to like it.

The ice cream was very creamy and the avocado flavor nor the aguardiente overpowered the dish. It came accompanied with some delicious Caramelized popcorn and it was just perfect :-)

Final course:

Typical Colombian coffee infused with cinnamon and cardamom.

I don't usually drink coffee but I couldn't say no to Colombian coffee infused with cinnamon and cardamom. Maybe I'm not the best person to rate the coffee since I don't have anything to compare it to but it was tasty and alright I would say. On the other hand I can say that the cookies that came with it were really yummy! Haha

By the end of our meal we went to the kitchen to meet the staff and congratulate them for such an amazing dinner! 

The service was exactly what  you would expect from a high end restaurant! They were very attentive, made sure we were well taken care of and the food left us speechless! (They had noticed that we came in a taxi and after paying our bill they said "we have a taxi waiting for you whenever you are ready!" We were surprised!)

Overall, it was probably the best 4 hours I have ever spent in a restaurant! The food was delicious, the ambiance inviting, and the company delightful!!! 

By 1am we left the restaurant happy and excited for such an amazing meal!