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Time Out
March 30/April 6, 2005

Santa Maria del Buen Ayre
By Ruth Jarvis

Something strange is happening in Broadway Market. With Georgian, Latin American, Turkish, British and Indian restaurants, an excellent French deli, and Italian and Ghanaian food stalls on the Saturday market, it's becoming a real centre for ground-level food from around the world. Now an Argentinian-run parrilla restaurant has arrived, so much the real thing that it might have been flown in direct from Buenos Aires (as, in fact, the grill equipment was).

A parrilla is a wide grill that can be lowered on to coals kept at a slow, flame-free glow, all the better to lusciously cook the variety of meats, tended on it. Parrillas are a way of life in Argentina, both as a way of serving meat and as the default neighbourhood restaurant, where the prices are low, the meat plentiful and the atmosphere familial. Santa Maria del Buen Ayre is a contemporary and appropriately local riff on the theme, its simple décor and chatty welcome suiting Broadway Market's style.

In Argentina, beef eating is tantamount to a national region, and a good steak is seen as a right not a privilege. It's a simple but sensible menu, with nibbles to please those here primarily to enjoy a predominantly Argentinian wine list, some basic meat sandwiches (including choripan sausage baguette, a parrilla staple) and two decent vegetarian dishes - halloumi and aubergine based - that work well over coals. But the point of it all is the meat: five different steaks (all from Argentina), sausages (made in Walthamstow to a house recipe) black pudding (from Spain) and various combinations that include offal (notably sweetbreads) and on-the-bone options.

Our meal started with a generous portion of Serrano ham and two excellent puffed-up empanadas (£4); then on to an improbably light and subtle black pudding, sausages and steaks (8oz fillet £14; rump escalope £9) that were full of flavour and moisture, though slightly better cooked than anticipated. They were accompanied by chimichurri, a herb and garlic sauce that's the essential accompaniment in Argentina, particularly for the good-value chorizo steak that every parrilla menu offers (here it's £14, but enormous).

The desserts (made on the premises) use a lot of dulce de leche, South America's ubiquitous milk fudge, notably in a very good cheesecake and most indulgently piped around a crème caramel. Sound a bit much? Strangely, over a couple of hours, with the meat lean and the Malbec mellow, not at all. There are few worthwhile Argentinian restaurants in London, and this one's a purler.

Email: info@buenayre.co.uk - Tel. 020 7275 9900