Brasserie Petanque

Brasserie Petanque.

San Telmo.

Defensa 595

4342 7930

This experienceis a very mixed bag and I wish it did not have to be so. Brasserie Petanque is French, in the style of Alsace, I guess. A tavern with some pretty darned good food. I particularly enjoy the charcut, a mix of sausages and saurkraut and potatos and some lively mustard. There is a full bar and and a lot of traffic outside so you don't have to worry about catching a cab back. The wine list is decent and not expensive with a Santa Julia Vognier at 24 p and my main at 26 p.

The problem was with the bill and the lies that came after. As with Nixon, it is not in the deed, but lying about it. When the bill was brought, it was for 72.50 but did not add up to that. There were three additions at the table between me and my dining companion who is not in the least bit foolish. The bill added up to 70.00. We pointed this out and they brought another bill, this time for 72.50

Again, and with an adjustment, 2.50 more pesos had been added on as cubierto (cover charge) For whatever reason, chief among them, that the employees were ripping the place off, and the manager for the evening, I guess, was sitting in the table just ahead of us, I pointed out to him that we had gotten a different bill than we started with. The hostess, vigorously denied that it was possible to change anything and that we had not gotten a second bill. Had we not added up the bill three times by two people, I would have let it go. But this kind of lying thieving corruption by the hostess really offended me. I doubt the manager was the owner and he had been drinking heavily all the time we were there. He said "The computer doesn't lie." At this point, the battle was lost. He was either drunk and / or incompetent. No, the computer does not lie, but employees do and they had gotten into the system for some small continuous graft, I suspect. Why else would someone deny something over such a small amount. The hostess insisted that she had not changed the bill but she had.

Frankly, I regret the decision to raise a fuss, because I cannot go back there and a good charcut is a terrible thing to waste.

In this case GDAP (General Dickhead Accounting Principles) were applied
but management rejected the conclusions. It may be a bit naive to think that management even wants to know.

Petanque.

Is one of the smartest places of San Thelmo. I love having with or without girls my last glass of champagne there at night but also day. I love the atmosphere and quality. I know the resto since the beginning and it works absolutely fair, beeing overcrowded sometimes, but I always had fun and a perfect service.

Asking the owner last times about the claims mentioned in the post above and insulting waiters and / or managers hardly, the owner remembered perfect, what had happened:

The "stormy" situation obviously was caused, because this user did not want to spent much money with his company, so he shared his two plates and, as the menue tells, this will be charged extra (of course as a running resto counts with his available seats, 2 pesos for blocking two and paying one is small change)

May those who like french food and the flair of a Brasserie enjoy the place and plate sharers will shurely find other locations to spent their money.

Bullshit. The issue was that they changed the bill and then claimed that they had not. The owner or manager was too drunk to deal with the situation. He was contemptuous and expressed it. Now he says that I did not wish "to spend much money". Well, what's wrong with that? The bill, by the way, was 71 pesos , which is not particularly small. My company was not very hungry and only wanted a salad. Neither of the plates were split. My memory is also "perfect" on that. Blaming or bad mouthing the customer is so unprofessional and crude, hardly the mark of a "smart place".

An update 3 years later.

I would definitely pass on this one. My bill was 79$P (with tip) for a soup and a good steak although the bearnaise sauce was definitely sub-par (either from a jar or a powder) And this is without wine.

Klown

$ 79 pesos with tip included at the current exchange rate of 3.65:1 is about $ 21 USD.

You think that is too much for a steak dinner at a good French restaurant in Buenos Aires?

Wow. Just wow.

Regards,

BM[QUOTE=Klown]An update 3 years later.

I would definitely pass on this one. My bill was 79$P (with tip) for a soup and a good steak although the bearnaise sauce was definitely sub-par (either from a jar or a powder) And this is without wine.

Klown[/QUOTE]

Please!

Petanque is the best french brasserie (you are used to that word?) In this city.

In any other "french" place they will overcharge you.

A "brasserie" is allways a mixture between good food, reasonable price and fun.

Perfect ambiente and the best waiters.

Petanque is perfect San Telmo.

Enjoy it.

If you don't like it. Go to Palermo and overpay, if this makes you feel big.

You do have a point Badman. Although I read a post on here about a gent refusing to give a chica 150$ and basically being cheap at sticking to 100$ (basically haggling for less then 15$US if we follow your logic)

I guess I just am critical of French places, being a canuck from Montreal who has been to Paris a number of times. This is not a "Brasserie" by the way but a "Bistro". A brasserie is generally much classier than this and is more centered on beers (Brasseur literally means Brewer) A bistro is a small restaurant serving simple french food such as steak / fries and other french specialties. The stuff they gave with the bread (no it was not butter) was simply foul too.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasserie[/url]

Just by the way, have you anything else to report in this monger's forum or do you just want to bring down a resto you did not like / could not effort.

[QUOTE=Spassmusssein][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasserie[/url]

Just by the way, have u anything else to report in this monger's forum or do you just want to bring down a resto you did not like / could not effort.[/QUOTE]Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I simply think the food quality was inferior (except for the steak itself) for the price charged.

For some good (and very cheap) French in downtown Toronto:

[url]http://www.leparadis.com/[/url]

The Table d'hote (I. E. Menu) is 20$C (15$ US) Downtown Toronto is generally much more expansive than BA on the whole. I just mention this to make the point that converting the amount paid somewhere in BA to US$ is pretty much irrelevant since you are comparing apples to oranges.

-"to their own opinion".

Should we start now american / english language-lessons or should we concentrate in mongering?

And nope.

I will NOT fly to Toronto.

This is an excellent and yummy place. I'm going there 4 years and never had a bad meal. Great bistro style food, simple and delicious. They actually know & understand wine from an international perspective.