Argentine steakhouse La Boca isn’t the be-all, end-all, but it sizzles all the same: New Orleans

By steak Monday August 24, 2009

NOLA.com by Brett Anderson August 21, 2009

In the spring of 2006, New Orleans needed a lot of things. A fully functioning justice system comes to mind. Affordable housing would have come in handy as well.
As it turns out, the city also was in the market for something considerably less urgent but nonetheless keenly desired: a quality steakhouse. In retrospect, it is hard to imagine a more perfect answer to that particular problem than La Boca.

Considering how many restaurants that spoke to New Orleans’ steakhouse history remained shuttered — Crescent City, Charlie’s, Ruth’s Chris, Dickie Brennan’s — beef grilled by well-meaning amateurs wasn’t going to cure what ailed us. And the occasion didn’t call for — and still doesn’t — another steakhouse that requires corporate backing to both build and patronize. The need was for a steakhouse that hinted at progress while providing familiar comforts.

La Boca continues to satisfy these criteria and then some. Borrowing from the Argentine steakhouse tradition, the restaurant has given New Orleans a taste of something new without losing sight of what diners really want when they venture to a steakhouse: steak. The rub at La Boca is that very few of the steaks will be mistaken for what dad threw on the grill.