Torino Bar & Bistro

*Update: so Chile is not as easy to drive to as I expected, and I got turned back at the border and had to go back to Argentina. So I came here again. It was exactly the same level of service and food quality as the night before. Had the lamb ravioli, the Torino ceviche, and artichoke salad. The salad was the only thing I can’t rave about, and it was still really good. The other items, absolutely brilliant.*
Four hours after a massive lunch at a nearby restaurant, a lovely friend and I didn’t really want to eat dinner, but were looking for a drink. My friend said she saw a place the day before she wanted to try for drinks, and this was it.
When we arrived, I saw a chalkboard with the word empanadas, so I figured we’d have a couple drinks and a couple empanadas. The place is clean, it is well-​lit, it has a color scheme, and the staff is super (super) professional. While abroad, my friend insisted we eat local foods as much as possible; not the kind of food you find in a place that looks this way, and I was surprised she suggested it. I was suspicious it would be a repeat of the last place we went with non-​local cuisine (which was a canned food disaster), but was hoping the drinks would at least dull the pain. That gal has intuition.
So we ordered drinks and empanadas. …There were no empanadas. Pizza was offered. Not into it, so I started looking at the menu. Not wanting to eat the bread, drink a drink, and bail, we ended up picking out some starters: the Torino Tiradito (kind of like raw ceviche with sushi salmon) and prawns tempura. They weren’t too expensive, and sounded decent without being too much food.
The drinks arrived, and were pretty good. Then the food arrived. This was a monumental moment. It looked perfect. It was the moment I realized that this isn’t some crappy place catering to tourists looking for overpriced food from home, it is a legit high quality restaurant trying to make beautiful and delicious high-​quality food. And succeeding!
The Torino Tiradito was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, with super fresh flavors, it was like sashimi meets ceviche. I don’t know how many times I commented on how good it was while eating, but likely after every bite. The fish hadn’t sat in the brine long enough to change texture, but the brine was citrus and tart. The flavors fused into something far better than sashimi or ceviche.
The prawn tempura were less mind blowing, but still memorably delicious, and different than any I’ve had before. The breading wasn’t as crispy as I’m used to, and the dipping sauce was something like the sauce used in honey walnut shrimp at a Chinese restaurant. It was excellent in every way, and we both had to force ourselves not to inhale them. It seemed a little like there was coconut or vanilla in them. Weird, but so skillfully combined that it worked perfectly.
After eating the two starters, we were stuffed, and really sad we couldn’t eat a full meal there. The chefs are brilliant, the food was a masterpiece, and the service was all perfect. I hate to say it, but after trying half a dozen restaurants in San Martin, this one was easily the best. It isn’t authentic classic Argentinean, but it isn’t trying to market to homesick tourists, either. It is just pumping out amazing cuisine to whoever wants to come in and eat it.