Malbec

We went to the Argentinean restaurant, Malbec, to celebrate Dad’s (my father-in-law’s) birthday on August 1 (his actually birthday is August 3).  It’s located on Green Street a few blocks east of Lake Avenue in Pasadena.  We took the opportunity to use the Gold Line light rail to get there.  We had ridden it before but only to one stop.  This time we went through nearly all the stops.  As we rode northeast out of downtown it was a bit difficult to figure out exactly where we were.  The names of the stops gave some clues such as Southwest Museum, and Highland Park.  It was still fun, though.  The train was full but not too crowded and we were able to find seats together.  The Gold Line runs at and sometimes slightly above ground level so the views are pretty good on both sides.  I was surprised by the number of green trees such as palms among the houses and buildings in the neighborhoods.  As we neared the Highland Park station, we recognized Avenue 52, a street near which the parents of a friend live.  Mission station is near the restaurant called “750 ml” in South Pasadena.  We went there last year to celebrate my wife’s raise (good old days).  We were soon in Pasadena and after going through an industrial-looking stop and the Memorial Park stop, the Gold Line went down the middle of the 210 freeway.  We got off at Lake Station and climbed the stairs to get to Lake Avenue above the freeway.  From there we walked 0.6 miles in 20 minutes to get to the restaurant.  As we walked south on Lake Avenue, we passed Wolf Burgers, the headquarters of Indymac Bank, the Washington Mutual building where my sister-in-law used to work (not at WAMU), and a couple of Countrywide buildings.  They were a couple more reminders of good days now past.

Malbec is located in a storefront space away from Old Town Pasadena.  The buildings are only a few stories tall and they include law offices and a jeweler.  We arrived at around 6:15 pm well before our reservation time.  The place wasn’t very crowded with maybe 2-3 tables occupied but like most good restaurants we’ve visited, this would change.  Malbec has benches along the east wall with tables and chairs, circular booths along the west wall, and tables in between.  They also have tables set up outside.  It’s a medium to large space with dark red walls, a long, high bar in the back and numerous bottles of Argentinean wines on shelves in one corner.  On the walls hang large framed black and white photo prints.  The lighting is dim for atmosphere and smooth jazz plays over the speakers.  When we came in I noticed some Spanish language magazines on the host’s desk just inside the entrance.  They seated us at a coupled of tables along the east wall near the corner with the bottles of wine and a tower fan.

The first page after the cover of the menu had their specials that included appetizers, salads, and entrees such as New York Steak and Corvina a la Mediteranea, or Chilean Sea Bass with a Mediterranean sauce of olives, tomatoes and capers with asparagus on the side.  A personal coincidence was that I was reading a book that said that people fished for corvina and tilapia near the Salton Sea.  It was nice that they listed the specials with their prices right there on the menu so there are no surprises.  The regular menu is ample and complete with sections for appetizers, salads, sandwiches, entrees, beverages, and desserts.  The entrees include great variety including pasta dishes, steaks, chicken, one salmon entrée, Argentinean specialties, and a wide variety of side orders.  We noticed that the beverages include Alhambra and “Negra” Alhambra beer.  The menu has the dishes in their Spanish spelling such as noqui for gnocchi, though the Italian influence is unmistakable.  Our main waiter, Santos, was very nice.  Twice during the evening he told us we were “a beautiful family.”  He admitted that the meat they served didn’t come from Argentina but was still top quality.  He also said that he was Mexican.  I overheard him introduce his son, who also worked at Malbec, to another table.  They provided a decanter for the wine we brought.  My wife thought the decanter looked like a large playing piece for a boardgame.

We placed out orders and they brought us some Argentinean-style bread in small slices with some “dipping area” of chimichurri sauce: a sauce of oil, green herbs, garlic, and pepper.  With anticipation we watched them serve large steaks to another table.  Our orders soon arrived.  I got the Suprema, a thin-fried breaded chicken breast topped with an arugula salad.  It was delicious and the chicken and salad went well together.  It was only lightly fried and not greasy at all, fully cooked but not dry.  It was also quite large, about the size of a small plate.  I only finished half of it and doggy-bagged the rest.  My wife had the Napolitana: chicken fried and breaded steak topped with tomato sauce, ham, and melted cheese with mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side.  She greatly enjoyed it and like my entrée it was so much food that she doggy-bagged about half of it.  She enjoyed it even more as a leftover a couple of days later.  She also enjoyed portions of the rib eye steak entrée that mom shared with her.  For dessert, Santos had them assemble samples of some of the dessert choices on a long, narrow rectangular platter.  It included the Copa Helada or three flavors of artisan natural ice cream from Fosselman’s.  The three flavors were the standard chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and they came with sweetened malted granules.  The sampler also included Panqueques de Manzana:  crepes filled with caramelized apples and pastry cream topped with vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche sauce.  The third dessert in the sampler was the the Flan al Caramello that came with whipped cream and dulce de leche as “dipping area”.  They garnished the panqueques and the flan with a couple of sliced strawberries with caramel sauce.  My wife enjoyed portions of all the dessert samples.  Her favorite was the malted granules that came with the ice cream.  They charged us $15 for the dessert sampler, less than the sum of the individual prices of these desserts.

Santos said the he hoped our visit was the beginning of a long friendship.  Overall, it was a great celebration of Dad’s birthday (allegedly his 43rd.)