Naan
Naan
Eclectic
It was another day in Bariloche, and I was tired from a long day of hiking through mountains and forests, trekking to waterfalls and glaciers, and riding hours on buses. I really needed to recuperate with some great food that night, so I did something a little insane and decided it was a good idea to have 2 dinners. I’d done it once before with horrible results, at El Boliche de Alberto, but I hadn’t learned my lesson apparently. I was so hungry, though, that I really could fit it in, so I headed over to Naan that on a recommendation from Frommer’s that night for my 2nd stop.
If Naan sounds like an odd name for an Argentine restaurant, it is, since I saw almost no Indian food at all during my four months there. But, it’s fitting, because Naan is just so odd in so many different ways.
First, it was located in someone’s home in the middle of nowhere and was extraordinarily difficult to locate, especially at night. There were only five tables, so it was rather small and intimate. Yet the service was still incredibly slow, since it was really run by only 2 people—1 cooking primarily and 1 serving primarily, but each involved in both aspects. They even used child labor, having their children serve dishes and clean the tables at times. Imagine being served by an 8-year-old child! I’m not going to sit here and judge that as some type of culinary sin, nor am I one to really care that the service wasn’t perfect, but it really does something to the vibe of the place when you get served by little kids. On the one hand, it’s surprisingly adorable. On the other, you just wonder where the hell you are—really? 8-year-old children? You can do that? Shoot, if I could use kids as waiters and not pay them, I’d open my own restaurant and get an army of children—talk about cutting cost! Needless to say, never have I had the odd pleasure/annoyance of being served by a child, and it just felt like I wasn’t even in a restaurant.
As for the interior, though, it’s actually quite nice. As I said, it’s in the middle of nowhere, in a residential neighborhood, boding rather ill for the restaurant. But once you get inside, it’s a complete change of heart. While it’s just a home, it’s rather spacious, and the small number of tables gives you a nice feeling of intimacy and privacy, with a rather nice view of the surrounding lake and of Bariloche. You also get the homey vibe from it, so it’s pretty comfortable. Very simple, but very clean and well-organized.
Finally, the strangeness continues with the food. It’s an eclectic restaurant, drawing on the experiences of the owners, who have traveled the world and tried out numerous different cuisines. Thus there’s a very interesting variety of foods that you typically don’t find in Argentina—quesadillas and guacamole, Vietnamese spring rolls, etc. If this variety had been executed properly, it would have been very nice, given Argentina’s monotonous cuisine, but unfortunately in Naan’s case, it takes a turn for the worst. In general, there's an overabundance of flavors and ingredients that just don’t do much or even clash. The portions are gigantic, with numerous flavors, but the components just aren’t integrated all that well. Moreover, some very simple things are done very poorly. While the sautéed king crab was great, for example, it just shouldn’t be matched with overly salty spinach and tough rice. If you can’t even cook rice the right way, that really reflects poorly on the restaurant’s quality.
Overall, Naan, for all its recommendations, was a huge disappointment. Variety is not always better, and Naan is the perfect example of that.
Unfortunately, I don’t have detailed notes of exactly what I ate, but here are my recommendations on what to eat and what to avoid:
Hits (Recommendations): Sautéed king crag; bread with olive oil, cheese, olives, and crab; potatoes in general; the guacamole
Misses (Things to Avoid): Chocolate mousse (the whole dessert was a wreck and lacked flavor), quesadillas, rice, spinach
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