There's more to lunch than boy meets grill
Pro Excellent Argentinian style meat.
Con Details need dealing with for a decent tip.
Pay
€€
Per Person €25. Shared parrilla and dessert. Pint of beer.
Find
Website https://www.prostchamberi.com/
Access Market access is step free, but only by certain right routes.
In Short
Hopes. Some fresh grilling.
Reality. Up there with the best meats we've had in Madrid.
First Impressions. Shabby chic craft beer bar.
USP? Quality meats, well cooked.
The offer in three words. Mighty meat meeting.
Service! Aimiable. Beardy. T-shirted.
Friend friendly? I think I'd move on, unless you want an evening eating cheese.
Rating for dating. It's a goer if you're both meat mad. Now, now. Quiet at the back.
Tip? Rounded up to nearest ten.
Change one thing? No coffee on offer, which is very, very unusual, isn't it?
Revisitability. Good value. Reasonable.
Compare & Contrast
Quality Argentinian meals in an intimate atmosphere at El Camaoti:
″Walking in on a cold and very damp Easter evening, the atmosphere instantly warms you up. It's dim. There's vintage paraphernalia on the walls that looks like it's been there for decades. At least two people are wearing gratuitous hats and the guy behind the bar, who cheerily accepts my Jesús! when he sneezes, has a seriously meant Errol Flynn pencil moustache. Welcome to little Buenos Aires.″
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Set course for Argentina at Prost Chamberi. Open a few years now, when it comes to fresh-grilled meats, Prost looks to have cornered the market. Undeniably helped by the fact it's in a corner. In a market. The meat-heavy, one-sheet menu's got various cuts and options, but to get a spread, we opted for a parrilla. At €36 this is good value for two, with two starters and a decent main platter to navigate.
Things kick off with chorizo, morcilla and provoleta. The Argentine-style meats are excellently cooked; the chorizo is like a paprika heavy British sausage in texture. The provoleta aka the queso cauldron comes with chimichurri and some chorizo cooking juice seasoning. Forgive a fuzzy picture, probably due to excitement but more likely down to pure greed.
The main platter is really, really good stuff. Two cuts of beef arrived, as requested, al punto/medium rare on the principal they'd cook them more, if we asked. We did a little butchery and two offcuts came back well done as requested, although one was on the small side so ended up a bit overdone. The chimichurri was very good, but, importantly, this meat was good enough to not really need it which is the best possible result. It's very good quality meat with very little obvious fat to render. That said it's still very juicy, so there's got to be good marbling going on. Quality, then. The roast potatoes had good herby flavours, but needed more heating time, which we should have asked for.
And so to dessert. Only a couple of options were on offer, and, as I have a new rule:
First impression? Well, not sky high. It arrived as the latest recruit to the "Plonk it on the plate, chef!" school of presentation. Sans berry coulis, sans mint leaf, sans cream splodge, sans anything. Second impression? Thank the maker. It was homemade, moreish, creamy and extremely good, in a "please give me some coulis next time, thanks" kind of way. What? You want it in spectral terms? Hmm..,it's like a blue Madrid sky, flecked with an autumnal cloud or two.
Doing Friday lunch, we opted for pints of Pilsner at a very respectable €3.80 each. Service was quick enough too, even when we were out on a limb, some way from the kitchen and counter in the antique themed annexe.
It's a bit of a mixed blessing that there are no freebie details to enjoy. A shame. It impacts the impact and, let's not lie, the tip. One other unexpected side note. There's no coffee available. A diner near us was advised to pop round to the - decent looking - coffee stall round the corner. Other useful consumer info? Vallehermoso's remarkably quiet at 2.30pm on a Friday, so a good time to visit. Things were livelier by 4 when we were leaving.
But look, bottom line time. Quality meat. Good service. Good priced beer. Prost, Prost!
Pro Excellent Argentinian style meat.
Con Details need dealing with for a decent tip.
Pay
€€
Per Person €25. Shared parrilla and dessert. Pint of beer.
Find
Website https://www.prostchamberi.com/
Access Market access is step free, but only by certain right routes.
In Short
Hopes. Some fresh grilling.
Reality. Up there with the best meats we've had in Madrid.
First Impressions. Shabby chic craft beer bar.
USP? Quality meats, well cooked.
The offer in three words. Mighty meat meeting.
Service! Aimiable. Beardy. T-shirted.
Friend friendly? I think I'd move on, unless you want an evening eating cheese.
Rating for dating. It's a goer if you're both meat mad. Now, now. Quiet at the back.
Tip? Rounded up to nearest ten.
Change one thing? No coffee on offer, which is very, very unusual, isn't it?
Revisitability. Good value. Reasonable.
Compare & Contrast
Quality Argentinian meals in an intimate atmosphere at El Camaoti:
″Walking in on a cold and very damp Easter evening, the atmosphere instantly warms you up. It's dim. There's vintage paraphernalia on the walls that looks like it's been there for decades. At least two people are wearing gratuitous hats and the guy behind the bar, who cheerily accepts my Jesús! when he sneezes, has a seriously meant Errol Flynn pencil moustache. Welcome to little Buenos Aires.″
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Set course for Argentina at Prost Chamberi. Open a few years now, when it comes to fresh-grilled meats, Prost looks to have cornered the market. Undeniably helped by the fact it's in a corner. In a market. The meat-heavy, one-sheet menu's got various cuts and options, but to get a spread, we opted for a parrilla. At €36 this is good value for two, with two starters and a decent main platter to navigate.
Things kick off with chorizo, morcilla and provoleta. The Argentine-style meats are excellently cooked; the chorizo is like a paprika heavy British sausage in texture. The provoleta aka the queso cauldron comes with chimichurri and some chorizo cooking juice seasoning. Forgive a fuzzy picture, probably due to excitement but more likely down to pure greed.
Tasting/pacing note; there's plenty of bread on offer, so it'd be easy to get carried away and risk not being ready for the main. So we'd advise holding your horses because...
The main platter is really, really good stuff. Two cuts of beef arrived, as requested, al punto/medium rare on the principal they'd cook them more, if we asked. We did a little butchery and two offcuts came back well done as requested, although one was on the small side so ended up a bit overdone. The chimichurri was very good, but, importantly, this meat was good enough to not really need it which is the best possible result. It's very good quality meat with very little obvious fat to render. That said it's still very juicy, so there's got to be good marbling going on. Quality, then. The roast potatoes had good herby flavours, but needed more heating time, which we should have asked for.
And so to dessert. Only a couple of options were on offer, and, as I have a new rule:
I don't care what you do to it, Carrot Cake's not a pudding!We had to plump for Cheesecake. But braveheart, dear reader. Do not be afear'd. In case you've been growing potatoes on Mars for a year, Madrid Cheesecake has as many variations as the electromagnetic spectrum has wavelengths. Deathly factory-made grot equates to deadly gamma rays. Delicious homemade warm and slightly soggy slices are like a bright sunny summer's day in Suffolk. In frozen form, it's as cold as an aging railway station striplight. Then there's the stuff made from packets, which is about as much fun as the heat death of the universe. We may be labouring that simile. OK, look, there's loads of it, a lot's rubbish and you have no idea what you're going to get when you order. So expectations, manage thyselves. Welcome to the lucky dip.
First impression? Well, not sky high. It arrived as the latest recruit to the "Plonk it on the plate, chef!" school of presentation. Sans berry coulis, sans mint leaf, sans cream splodge, sans anything. Second impression? Thank the maker. It was homemade, moreish, creamy and extremely good, in a "please give me some coulis next time, thanks" kind of way. What? You want it in spectral terms? Hmm..,it's like a blue Madrid sky, flecked with an autumnal cloud or two.
Doing Friday lunch, we opted for pints of Pilsner at a very respectable €3.80 each. Service was quick enough too, even when we were out on a limb, some way from the kitchen and counter in the antique themed annexe.
It's a bit of a mixed blessing that there are no freebie details to enjoy. A shame. It impacts the impact and, let's not lie, the tip. One other unexpected side note. There's no coffee available. A diner near us was advised to pop round to the - decent looking - coffee stall round the corner. Other useful consumer info? Vallehermoso's remarkably quiet at 2.30pm on a Friday, so a good time to visit. Things were livelier by 4 when we were leaving.
But look, bottom line time. Quality meat. Good service. Good priced beer. Prost, Prost!