Beer and Burger

Over the last few weeks I haven’t been to any new places. To tell you the truth, I just haven’t been in the mood. I’ve wanted guaranteed quality food and beer I could rely on. So the team and I have recently ventured out twice each to the Daniel O’Connell and the Argentinian Bar Grill.

The Argentinian Bar Grill is our 4 1/2 star top rated pub meal in Adelaide at the moment. And nothing has changed except perhaps some improvements! Yep, that’s right, the meals have become even more polished with crispier chips all around and improved seating in the bar dining area.
At $15 for a quality international beer (Quilmes) and an extraordinarily tasty burger filled with think succulent steak, if you haven’t tried this place you have to go now! It is the best quality value meal and beer you can currently get in Adelaide that we can find. I’m upping the rating: 4 and 3/4′stars.

The Daniel O’Connell has also been maintaining its quality output. The 2 times I’ve been I’ve had a Beef Schnitzel Parmy. I think it is one of the best tasting in Adelaide. It is a decent size and thickness and has a great flavour filled batter on it. And the battered fries … how can you go past those. The price is a little more than at the Argentinian; but for $20 you get a very large schnitzel, chips, salad and a pint of Cooper’s Pale Ale. The price is actually $20.10 but if you’re nice to the barman the 10 cents will disappear.
The other guys with me have been enjoying everything on the menu from Pies to Burgers and even the Yiros they offer.

The Daniel O’Connell deservedly maintains its 4 star rating and is a great place for a meal and a few beers.

Argentinian Bar & Grill
46 Port Rd Hindmarsh 5007
(08) 8340 9331

I’ve known about this place as an Argentinian restaurant for quite some time, but it was only this week that a friend brought to my attention a newspaper advertisement cut out. The cut out was advertising the “argiburger” with a free schooner of Coopers beer for $13.90. This looked very promising indeed and a few hours later we arrived at the Argentinian Bar & Grill just opposite the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel and right next to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
We entered the front bar area and briefly checked out the beers in the fridges and on tap (A great selection of imported beers are available) and a quick glimpse of the bar menu. My mind was made up though and I ordered the burger and beer. As I did I was stopped by the friendly bar staff and asked if I would like to pay an extra $1.10 for an Argentinian Bottle of beer that sells by itself for $7. Yes, yes I would like to give you more money. The beer was called Quilmes and is quoted as being Argentina’s favourite beer. I’ll have to ask Argentina if this is true and get back to you, but as far as taste goes its a pretty damn nice beer so I’m sure its someones favourite.

The front bar area isn’t very large for groups of people eating. There are a couple of nice soft chair areas to sit around, but in the centre of that is really only a coffee table so its a bit hard for more than a couple of people to eat off of. There are plenty of stools and high stool tables to use around the place, but once again these tables are really only for 2 or 3 people. We just spread out a bit once our food arrived to solve this problem and went back to the softer seating after.

Our Meals arrived after about 15 minutes and so did a bottle of Argentinian special sauce. If your familiar with Argentinian restuarants where 1Kg T-bone steaks are often served, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This sauce is fantastic and is a must for the meat in your burger. Once you actually get your burger and lift the lid of perfectly grilled crispy bread you’ll notice that your burger isn’t actually a burger. It is some awesome grilled steak that acts as your burger patty. They don’t hold back size wise either, mine was nearly an inch thick in one spot and the 2 large halves they provide are more than enough for most meat eaters. In fact if you just felt like a great steak and chips meal you could get rid of the bread and salad and still be extremely satisfied!
The chips come with their own special seasoning salt which is great. They weren’t sizzling hot though, but very good overall. Once I sauced my burger I got right into it. All I can say is awesome! Fantastic perfectly cooked steak that I hardly had to chew. The onions and tomato on the burger complimented it perfectly and the fantastic roll with built in grilled cheese just topped it off. The only small thing I can pick on was the large clump of fat hanging off one of the pieces of steak, but this was easily removed…. some people love that anyway!

Some of the other guys purchased the Calamari and the Chicken Salad. Both of these guys raved about their meals also!
If you haven’t noticed, I love this place. Mainly for the fact that they have such trouble providing average bar meals… they can’t do it. It’s all restaurant quality for bar prices.
The most surprising thing to me was the fact that by the amount of people in the front bar area hardly anyone knows about this place. I kind of hope to keep this place not too busy so its great for our group, but on the other hand I want everyone to see how good this place is!

Overall the Argentinian Bar & Grill is the probably the best place I have reviewed yet. The food was awesome, the service excellent and very friendly and the price for what you get is fantastic.
I’m only going to give this place a four and half star rating out of 5 leaving the small glimmer of hope that something even better might be out there…. but its a virtual 5 star meal on a 3 star budget, definetly one to check out (I went twice this week!)

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