George Calombaris’ Hotel Argentina serving fiery Latin American fare
George Calombaris has rebranded his Hellenic Republic restaurants after a couple of tough years. Can the first one — Hotel Argentina in Williamstown — get the celebrity chef’s brand back on track?
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Think Argentina and a few things come immediately to mind.
Hulking big slabs of steak and empanadas and chimichurri, dulce de leche and gnocchi and Malbec are all a rightful source of national culinary pride.
Hang on a minute. Gnocchi?
First arriving in Argentina in the mid-19th century, today almost two-thirds of the population – some 30 million Argentines – have some degree of Italian ancestry.
Gnocchi is traditionally eaten across the country on the 29th of the month – Dia de Noquis, or Day of Gnocchi.
Traditionally paid monthly, money was tight in most households by the 29th with little left in the pantry but flour and potatoes. These were turned into an inexpensive, but filling meal for the family with the tradition carrying on today, with families gathering on Sundays or the 29th to gorge on fluffy pillows of potatoes, usually in a tomato-based sauce.
(Fun fact: noqui is also slang for a worker – usually in a government position – who does little or no work but receives a wage and thus turns up at the end of the month.)
At the Hotel Argentina in Williamstown, however, gnocchi is not just a once-a-month dish and, to be honest, I’d happily eat a bowl of it here every other day.
Artfully tender dumplings with just enough bouncy chew come tossed through a terrific sauce generously strewn with meaty prawn chunks, the buttery braise sweet with onions and pops of peas, with finely sliced cavolo nero adding verdant texture to the crunch of pangrattato atop.
It’s a $29 bowl of happiness reason enough to turn up.
The old Hobsons Bay Hotel was the first of George Calombaris’s Hellenic Republic chain to break free from Greece: Williamstown is now Hotel Argentina; Matt Wilkinson opened Crofter in the original Brunswick site a week ago and the Kew outpost has become La Vita Ristorante.
Helmed by ex Hellenic Republic head chef Dan Szwarac, who arrived in Melbourne from Buenos Aires almost two decades ago, they didn’t even need to change the colour scheme of the light-bright handsome two-storey space as the white and blue of the original carries through the rebadge.
As has the multi-generational family friendly focus of the eatery.
This Friday night first sitting is packed with little tackers tucking into baby corn “corn dogs”, spit-roasted chicken and thick-cut chips with parmesan and blowing out the handful of candles on their cake. Fabulously friendly staff deal with the inevitable chaos of kids and clean up post-dinner destruction with unfailing good humour.
Great floor staff – young, engaged, switched on – has long been a hallmark of this restaurant group and remains true here.
Small plates and veg dishes feature throughout the fairly extensive menu that still has the large wood-fired oven and grill at its beating hearth.
From it, wodges of soft, sweet potato with caramelised gnarly and chewy bits are an easy veg pledge, especially as they’re teamed with dollops of thick crème fraiche and covered in a blizzard of finely shaved goat’s cheese with bite. Decadent and stupidly delicious ($16).
Also good is the fluffy-fat Spanish tortilla, where the traditional potato and onion omelette is served with smoked yoghurt for a lick of creamy fire that’s nice ($14). Ditto crunchy, chewy rainbow chard fritters with a garlic cream sauce ($16).
But for those willing to go a little further off-piste, Szwarc’s Latin American love of offal is where two of the best dishes are found.
More peas and breadcrumbs add pops of sweetness and crunch to a bowl of lamb sweetbreads, the creamy orbs pan fried in butter, with vermouth lifting the richness with bright herbaceousness ($18).
Swapping the usual poached veal girello for slices of grilled tongue, his take on vitello tonnato, however, is inspired.
Smoky and properly chewy, the tongue comes covered in a subtly creamy tuna sauce and topped with a cross hatch of plump white anchovies. Crunchy fried caper blooms and a scattering of finely chopped chives and this reimagining of a classic almost deserves its own Dia de Tonnato ($17).
It wouldn’t be an Argentinian restaurant without steak and a handful are offered off the grill, along with whole and filleted fish, butterflied prawns and a burger to keep the broad church happy.
Our 300g of sirloin ($39), though erring to medium-well rather than the requested medium rare was nonetheless still tender with a nicely caramelised crust, its accompanying chimichurri dark red (rojo) rather than the usual parsley-heavy green.
To drink with, a short sharp selection of mainly local wines with a couple from Mendoza will set you back about $12 glass/ $60 bottle, with pots and pints of beer and cider also on tap.
On Fridays through Sundays there’s an empanada bar upstairs, where Boca Juniors might be playing on the flatscreens but where the real action is coming out of the oven.
A half dozen flavours are offered – you’ll get all six for $20 – and they’re all pretty delicious. The criolla (beef, onion, egg, olive) is as traditional as the spinach, feta and ricotta tongue-in-cheek. “empanakopita”.
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A plate of these and an icy Quilmes beer out on the balcony on a mild summer’s eve?
Welcome to the Hotel Argentina. You can check out any time you like, but you may never want to leave.
HOTEL ARGENTINA
28 Ferguson St, Williamstown
Open: Daily from noon
Go-to dish: Gnocchi
SCORE: 14/ 20