Asado - South American Style Beef on 6th

Asado has been 6th Avenue’s hottest new restaurant since it opened several months ago. Our friends have all provided positive reviews, but we haven’t made it in for dinner until tonight.

First impressions were quite good.  The dark interior is industrial western – straight-lined furnishings with a heavy use of steel, wood, leather, and cowhide.  The bar is separated from the dining room by Mondrian-like black metal hanging shelves filled with liquor and wine.  I’ve always liked open kitchens and the sparks flying from the wood burning grill made this one all the more exciting. 

Throughout the evening, the service was attentive, yet subtle and unobtrusive.  We appreciated that the servers did not become another personality in our already large party.  Instead, they appeared exactly when needed and our water glasses were always full. 

So what about the food?  The bread was a bit forgettable.  We started with the ceviche and the lamb and beef empanadas.  We ate a lot of good ceviche in Costa Rica, but Asado’s was possibly the best we’ve had in recent memory.  The empanadas were much better than expected with a very subtle pastry that highlighted the tender meat inside. 

Everybody at our table liked their entree choices.  Every cut of meat and fish was somewhere on the table.  The beef was quite good (but we’d expect that from a place with cow murals). The polenta underneath my beef was amazing.  The purple mashed potatoes and lentils seemed quite satisfying for a few at the table.  One challenge seems to be doneness.  I had been warned that the beef was often slightly overcooked so I ordered mine one click rarer than I normally do.  It turned out exactly as I liked it.  Laura ordered hers medium and it came in somewhere between medium-well and well done.  Ignoring a few slightly overdone steaks, the food was extremely good. 

The folks that had dessert were extremely happy with their choices.  Me, well… I have this little nut allergy and every dessert on the menu included nuts.  I could’ve had a scoop of ice cream, but that didn’t sound appealing.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to a dinner where there wasn’t a single dessert I could eat.  It was a bit disappointing.  I drank my coffee and found some mochi ice cream once I got home. 

As the evening progressed the restaurant filled up and the volume in the dining room went up.  There’s a fine line between lively and loud.  Tonight it seemed to be on the loud side.  The other downside of running at capacity seems to be smoke.  The wood burning kitchen put out a lot of smoke.  At first we thought it was our location next to the kitchen, but the smoke hanging around all the lights made it apparent that it was everywhere.  By the time we got home our clothes and hair were permeated with the smell of Asado. 

The bottom line is that we were very happy with our dinner.  The food was very good.  The wine was good.  The atmosphere is warm and cozy.  The service is perfect.  Still, something seems to be missing.  The smoke was a bit much, but that wasn’t it.  Maybe it was lacking the snap of real freshness.  I don’t know.  We were happy.  We’ll be back and maybe it’ll be gone or we’ll figure it out.  We’ll definitely be back.