Folklore Argentine Grill

Hey all, there isn't a thread for this new restaurant yet, only a few mentions in the O&C, C&G thread.

This place has been in the works for some time, from the owners of Tango Sur in Lakeview. The owner, Sergio di Sapio, and his family own the building, so there was apparently no rush to open ASAP. The interior is quite warm and welcoming, with a mix of dark wood and angle-iron. It's not a huge place, with tables in the front section by the bar, and another small dining room around the bend.

GF and I live about 1/2 mile away, but it's taken a month to find time to get over here for dinner. We went in Thursday night, and at 7pm it was already full, so we dined at the bar.

Traditional menu (very similar, if not the same, as Tango Sur) featuring steaks, pastas, and salads and appetizers. They have a nice selection of beers, including Quilmes, an Argentine lager. It was quite refreshing after a long day's work! The Mojito is outstanding, the best I've had in recent memory. They also serve the other expected cocktails, but GF got the "Mango Picado" which is basically a mango margarita with the addition of Cholula hot sauce. A great mix of sweet, tart and spicy. The wine list consists entirely of Argentina, Chile and Spain. Very well-priced, from about $5-6 a glass, to around $90 for a few high-end reds.

We got some empanadas and a Spanish tortilla (with spinach) to start off and they were tasty and savory. The beef empanadas (they serve a few different kinds) were flaky and crunchy with moist meat inside, served with chimichurri sauce. The tortilla was very traditional as well, a tall moist slice chock-full of fresh spinach.

We decided to share two entrees, the fettucini with Argentine tomato sauce, and the skirt steak. The steaks come with a salad, and we were served two basic house salads a few minutes prior to the entrees arriving. Also traditional, they were made of crisp iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato and white onion and oil & vinegar on the side.

The steak was cooked amazingly well - we ordered it medium-rare, despite the bartender's suggestion of medium. It was perfectly cooked and had a crunchy/carbony crust. We figure it was due to the outer membrane being left intact. Whatever, it was dang tasty!

The pasta was cooked well, just more than al dente, and a flavorful (non-meat) tomato sauce was liberally tossed in.



We opted out for dessert, but not due to cost. The total for 1 beer, 3 cocktails, 2 glasses of Carmenere, 2 apps, and 2 entrees was about $85. Nice!

Folklore
2100 W Division St
Chicago, IL
773-292-1600

here's the link to the Metromix listing

thanks for the review! I had this bookmarked, I think from Check Please

I ate here last night. I was really hoping for something better. The interior is very cool and hip. The food was mediocre. The empanadas were very good. The beef much more flavorful than the chicken. The provoletta was a joke. (see my photos of real provoletta http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15636&p=253189&hilit=buenos+aires#p253189
It was a slice of very thin cheese, baked on a plate with some dried oregano on top. It was deplorable.
Salad was authentic, which isn't saying much, argentines don't really go for salad.
The meat was another disappointment, I had the El Filet which turned out to be two pieces of huge filet, and a wine sauce. It was tasty as were the spinach mashed potatoes. The meat was worth the price of $25, but it was not a tender melt in your mouth cut.
The other steak we had was over cooked and flavorless, I think the grilled strip steak, we brought it home, I guess I'll make steak tacos out of it or something.

Dessert was dulch de lechless......Very disappointed with that. We had some kinda of dry layered cake.

I had high hopes for this place, I really wanted it to take the place of Mas for us, and there are no steak places in the neighborhood. I'll give it one more shot.

nicinchic wrote:Salad was authentic, which isn't saying much, argentines don't really go for salad.
The meat was another disappointment, I had the El Filet which turned out to be two pieces of huge filet, and a wine sauce. It was tasty as were the spinach mashed potatoes. The meat was worth the price of $25, but it was not a tender melt in your mouth cut.
The other steak we had was over cooked and flavorless, I think the grilled strip steak, we brought it home, I guess I'll make steak tacos out of it or something.

The salad is definitely true to style, very basic but not at all bad. Our server (bartender) suggested medium on the steaks to help render the fat, but we opted for medium-rare and the steak arrived just under medium. I feel that they over-cook slightly so always err on the side of bloody. We couldn't finish ours, and had great steak tacos the following day.