La Nieta 'e La Pancha

A Welcome First Impression

Food

Service

Atmosphere

At the edge of quietly residential Guemes and a stone's throw from the buzzing night life in Nueva Cordoba lies La Nieta.  Given that dinnertime in the country doesn't hit before 9pm, dining under skies and stars on the upstairs terrace promised to be a welcome respite from the hot summer day.  And because it was my first night in Cordoba, I could not resist ordering one of the crown jewels of Argentine cuisine - bife de chorizo.  

Perhaps it was too ambitious to pair ambience with one of the most common local dishes, but fortunately, those hot summer stars happened to be smiling upon me.  Armed with only with the absolutely essential vocabulary for ordering steak (jugoso means medium or juicy), I ordered the bife with modest expectations.  What came back was a thick slab of beautiful meat in a velvety light sauce with a perfect pile of papas fritas (french fries).  I have since ordered the bife de chorizo a number of times in restaurants around town, and while all manage to pull off a decent piece of grilled meat, none has had the flavor of my first night dinner at La Nieta.  The steak was perfectly done and seasoned with herbs (which I did not experience elsewhere), and the sauce added just a little bit of something special to tie the whole dish together without drowning the steak, giving it exceptional flavor - a tasty welcome from Argentina.  

I went with a large group, but various factions splintered off in the direction of Nueva Cordoba in search of la vida noche.  The restaurant easily accommodated us with one long table and didn't mind when a few of us decided to linger for several hours at our original table.  We talked leisurely about life in Argentina and in other countries and almost spent the entire night there enjoying the open skies and light summer breeze.  When we finally wrenched ourselves from our table, the proprietor unlocked the downstairs doors and even hailed a cab for us.  A quietly delicious introduction to Cordoba.