Let’s get one thing straight – El Gaucho’s Argentine roots begin and end with this concept chain restaurant’s name, and where it sources its steak. So don’t come here with cravings for an Argentine open grill Parrilla experience like we did. But if it’s mouth-watering steak you’re craving, here you’ll be sure to quench it.
El Gaucho could be compared to an Austrian who has mastered the tango. But this dance is done on the grill. In the kitchen, the boisterous bunch of cooks practice in the art of Argentine-style grilling – marinade only with salt, turn meat only once – with all of them trained by the restaurants head Grillmeister, Christoph Widakovich.
“I’ll go get the Fleischbox,” says Peter, the baby-faced manager, after I ask which steak he’d recommend.
While the name, Fleischbox, conjures up images of a wrestling cage in which two burly, moustached men go at it, Peter turns up with a plastic see-through box filled with different cuts of steak. He describes each of them in detail. I ask him his favourite and I agree to it as I just want to see the meat cooked and on my plate – the sight of raw meat gives us the creeps.
Peter comes from a family mad on meat who’ve opened El Gaucho restaurants all over Austria, and one in Germany.
Under Gaucho Beef in the menu (All of their steak out of Argentina) you’ll find all the popular cuts in the Argentine barbecue, including the sacred, piece de résistance, churrasco cut (a tender boneless piece of meat, sliced thinly).
Accompanying this list is a selection of the Rump, the Porterhouse, the T-Bone and Rib-eye of a Dry Aged Austrian cow. If you like your slab of juicy, grilled animal with something on top, you can ‘pimp your steak’ with toppings, such as garlic prawns or soft shell crab.
