🍽 Eating Out | Tres Bocas

Bringing home the bacon

 Pro Consistent quality

 Con Chamberi prices

Panceta, aubergine & guacamole.

Pay

€€€

Per Person €35-40. Shared; drinks, starter, main. Solo; mains. Gratis; apertif, digestive.



Find

Website http://tresbocas.com/

🛈 Dietary Came and asked us about allergies.

Access Couple of steps up from street




In Short

Hopes. Argentinian treat?

Reality. Portions on the smaller size.

First Impressions. Welcome to the Indigo Lounge

USP? A starter worth seeking out.

The offer in three words. Touches of Argentina.

Service! Aimiable.
V-friendly? Three courses are doable.

Rating for dating. It's got nooks and crannies. Probably a goer.

Change one thing? Mahou for Quilmes.

In Pictures
On Google Images



What's the story?

Supporting locally means trying new places sometimes, in place of old favourites. Without our old stand-bys, do we have a new favourite?

The starter was the undoubted highlight of this trip, and scores a big tick. Excellently juicy panceta, with some unexpectedly delicious aubergine - I'm not the biggest fan - and equally surprisingly, a guacamole garnish plus a soy-based sauce. That sounds like it might not work, but this was delicious. A bit of development and there'd be a main course to be had and it wouldn't be out of place in a top-end kitchen. We liked this a lot.

A buey/ox burger was the right size portion and still very tasty and moreish welldone. It was a bit overwhelmed by caramelized onions and seemed to have gained some setas/mushrooms that weren't on the menu. The brie topping worked well though. A good combination of flavours for sure, it would still have benefitted from some kind of sauce I think.

Ojo de bife confused me. It was well cooked rare, very nicely seasoned, but that cut doesn't look like ojo de bife to me. I'd have said entrecot if someone showed it to me. Ready to be corrected though, of course. If it was or wasn't it was a smaller cut than I'd been expecting. Chimichurri was on hand, but in a rather small pot.

Both mains came with some excellently seasoned potatoes in a mini frying basket (tick!), although again, a dipping accompaniment would have been welcome.

A dulce de leche creme brulée, with vanilla ice cream & white chocolate needed a touch more of the leche and bit less of the dulce for us. An enjoyable finish, it didn't blow us away, but certainly looked pretty.

A Mahou to start off plus a nice bottle of Ribera at €19.50 were followed by a tasty and powerful chupìto. Service was friendly, personal and, understandably pleased to have customers. Decor is a slightly confused mix of cocktail-night lounge bar shiny and, with books in wooden crates spread about here and there, boho.shabby. It's like a Chamartín afterwork went for a night out, picked up a Malasaña bar and, by the next morning, the inevitable had happened. At €76 for two the bill's more Chamartín than Malasaña too and would be beyond some pockets, it's true.

VFM ★★★ Food ★★★☆ Service ★★★★