Tango Sur and Que Syrah

I cannot believe that I have been a resident of Chicago for 3.5 years and had never made it up to this famous Argentian BYOB steakhouse, Tango Sur, in Lakeview.

Do not come here if you do not like beef. And these are not small portions of beef either.

They are a BYOB restaurant and do not charge a corkage fee. We stopped by Que Syrah to pick up a bottle to go with dinner. They have a great wall of reasonably priced wines. And they had a large selection of Argentinian malbecs which match perfectly to the Argentinian steakhouse. Plus the two guys working there were very knowledgeable and friendly. They provided us with tastes of an October-themed beer and also with some wine. If I lived in the neighborhood I'd be stopping here often. I kind of want a part-time job here now except I'm afraid I'd be drunk all the time.

The bad thing: this place does not take reservations. And we had a 2.5 hour wait. We put our name in at 8 pm and were not seated until after 10:30 pm. Go EARLY. They take your cell phone number to call you to come back to the restaurant when your table is almost ready. So we went to the nearest bar, Blue Bayou, for 2 hours.

When we were finally seated we shared an antipasto tray of quesos argentinos, salami, jamon crudo, aceitunas y mortadella. I had El Filet for dinner which is filet in a red onion wine sauce with spinach mashed potatoes. My friend had bife vesuvio which is grilled prime steak sliced and filled with spinach, mar del plata cheese, and garlic in a white wine sauce with argentine style potatoes.

Both were excellent. Very good meat. Potatoes were good as well. Portions were huge though so we should have split one entree and had another appetizer instead. My filet had 2 rather large pieces of meat on the plate.

Be warned. Come hungry. And come early. We didn't get home from dinner until 1:15 am.

And don't come at all if you don't like meat.