Pick Up The Fork

A Serious Eater's Guide to Buenos Aires and Beyond

Just A Big Overpriced Chicken Sandwich

Posted on

**THE FOOD FACTORY IS NOW CLOSED**


After walking by this Palermo Hollywood restaurant numerous times and reading several positive reviews, I finally decided to see what all the hype was about and check out The Food Factory (Nicaragua 6055), celebrity chef Tomás Kalika’s posh restaurant located right next to the Live Hotel.

Menus with too many rules annoy me.  No substitutions, extra charges for sharing, expiration times on dishes… rules, rules, rules.  It’s a worrisome sign when I need to map out a visual of the dishes available at a specific time.  Yes, arriving at 4:00pm for lunch may be a bit late, but I do not want to read a list of dishes I won’t be allowed to order.  At least make separate menus.

Trio of cracked pepper, butter and sea salt w/ fresh-baked bread for the table

Beyond my menu layout kvetching, nothing I saw really excited me or stood out. In fact, the whole menu struck me as peculiar.  The dishes, very reduced, with no obvious overall theme, was like the Cheesecake Factory’s  menu mated with a trendy NYC modern deli: poached egg salad, roast beef sandwich, salmon paté, oysters, bacon cheeseburger, seafood pasta, grilled rib eye, scrambled eggs… American influenced, perhaps, but I didn’t get it.

Whenever I can’t find anything on a menu that really appeals to me, I will always go with one of the cheaper items – if I don’t like it, at least I won’t be pissed about ordering the most expensive thing. But with very few dishes under AR$50, it made it even harder to commit what to order.  So, after much debate, I went for one of their signature salads “TTF Green Salad” only to find out they were out of one of the main components.  Changing my order under pressure is not one of my strong points, especially with an over-attentive wait staff impatiently breathing down my neck, “Ummm, hmmm, ayy no sé, quiero el… wait no I can only order that until 2pm… umm bueno.. te pido una porción de rabas.” Fried Calamari it is.

For a big bowl of fried food, the calamari was quite good – possibly a bit too much friedness for one person, but at least the calamari didn’t appear to come from a frozen package.  It came with a tartar sauce on the side – usually with fried calamari I prefer a red sauce, because fried on top of mayo-based makes me kinda naush, but I’d recommend this for a starter to share with others.

My eating partner also had trouble choosing what to order and went with TFF Super Chicken Sandwich. I don’t remember the exact cost, but it is somewhere between AR$50-60 pesos – and it was a HUGE mother.

The menu describes it as a grilled chicken breast with Cajun spices, cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, sweet and sour pickles, tomatoes, lettuce and caramelized onions served with a “deep” (as opposed to dip?) of honey mustard and mayo. I didn’t notice any of the Cajun spices on the chicken – it had a nice char but was a bit bland… nothing really special even when eaten with all those toppings.  It was also very difficult to eat, we couldn’t decide whether to cut it with a fork and knife or bite into it like vultures.  The best part was the “papas rotas” served on the side – deeply fried, crispy, lots of grease, and utterly awesome.  What a compliment to the FRIED calamari. I could feel the pimples emerging.

So, would I go back to The Food Factory?  The food wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good either – definitely not worth it for the price. Unless there was a great dish recommended by a credible source, I probably won’t be back anytime soon.

Update Sep 25, 2012: So over a year later, I finally came back to TFF to give it a second chance. After opening a second location in the microcentro and hearing more positive reviews, I figured I’d give this ‘hotel’ café another shot. Bad move.

I ordered 55 peso salad consisting of a very small and ice cold poached egg, two slices of BROWN nasty avocado and a bunch of leaves. What’s worse? The service was very desagradable, they charge a AR$15 cubierto, and clientele looked like they needed a good punch in their smug snotty faces. I was also kicked out at 4pm (I arrived at 3pm, in work mode with my computer), because just that day they decided to close early. 

Author: ForkYou

EAT IT:

Comments

Comments

  1. Wait I’m confused, I thought avocado was supposed to be brown in Argentina? Anyway, I’ve walked by this place too and checked out the menu and I have been salivating over their penne in mushroom sauce dish too, but then they escorted me out because I was so pensive I didn’t realize I was actually salivating on people’s food.I need to review my meds dosage I’m so embarrased!
    Thanks for the good advice Pickupthefork.

  2. I hate this place. I’m a neighbor as well, and as a good Palermo-hollywoodense local que soy I’ve pretty much been to every new joint in this Norte de Juan B. Justo area. TFF sucks, for realz. Many uptight perras and it’s overall a very pretentious enterprise. I’m not sure what it is that makes people go to this place over and over again.The food is standard to say the best and prices are stupid expensive (not that anything in the barrio is cheap, except for Fitz Roll, I suppose). Regarding closing times, I find that in tha hood there’s this awful habit of NOT letting you know what time they’re gonna close. I usually work in cafes with my computer, and it’s happened tons of times that I get in at 6:30 pm assuming that they’ll close at 8, 8:30ish (or 9 in the case of Oui Oui, the one on the corner), and suddenly at 7:10 I’ll have someone come over and say they’re closing at 7:15. WTFF. Is it that hard to let me know *before* I plug in, spread out my trillion papers and order a three step merienda?

  6. One of favorites restaurants in Buenos Aires!!! Great food, service and music! The Chicken sandwich is just great!

  8. I, too, was adverse to eating at The Food Factory due to the name alone and then the prices did look high… However, a foodie friend suggested we eat there one night for dinner and we had a really great experience – a pleasant surprise.

    We were given a glass of sparkling wine because the server felt we had waited too long (not really) before he could give us menus. After ordering 3 small plates to share, we were given a delicious small cup of spicy gazpacho accented with baby shrimp.

    I recall that we ordered a green salad that had blue cheese which was very good and a grilled shrimp dish that was outstanding. I generally don’t eat shrimp in Buenos Aires because nobody cleans it, but they do at TFF. That said, the shrimp dish was so tasty that we ordered another.

    I also need to mention that we enjoyed a bottle of 2009 Gascon Tempernillo for $40 AR – a fantastic wine at a fantastic price.

    We shared everything without any problem. And, even with the steep cubierto of $8AR p/p, we felt that our experience was excellent and the price fair. Maybe it’s better to go in the evening?

  10. I would’ve warned you Allie. I passed by food factory and was salivating over this penne in mushroom sauce that reminded me of the orichiette in hongo sauce at doppio zero (the doppio zero dish is awesome). Anyway, I was so disappointed in that food factory version and it was quite pricey. Plus, no marinara with the calimari also was BS.

  11. I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I surely enjoying every exiguous bit of it. I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. I for real feel strongly about it and love finding out more on this topic. If feasible, as you perform expertise, would you thoughts updating your blog with more data? It indeed is very useful for me.

  12. Would you pay 60 dollars for THAT sandwich? Because that is the equivalent for most of us, local people. I think is overpriced crap.

  13. it looks delicious, but too many rules annoy me as well, and I hate when the staff rushes me to choose on the spot. One of the things I (usually) love about eating in BsAs is that there is this whole ritual around eating and that it’s not just about getting stuffed as quickly as possible – but then, I’ve never eaten in Palermo Hollywood

Trackbacks