Steaks out for summer at Garufa: Argentine Grill: London

By steak Thursday September 3, 2009

THISISLONDON.co.uk By David Sexton, Evening Standard 20.08.09

Until now, Highbury has never had much to offer in the way of restaurants. There’s a Stringray café, a tired branch of Iznik, an OK Vietnamese, Au Lac, which lacks the vigour of those places on Kingsland Road … and that’s been about it.

It’s partly, perhaps, because there are just so many restaurants touting for your money in Upper Street, a short walk away.

And partly because the nature of all the pubs and many of the shops around here remains dictated by what happens on match days (upheaval, let’s call it, politely).
Garufa, though, seems to have broken this hex. At 10 o’clock on Saturday night, after Arsenal had opened their season by thrashing Everton at Goodison Park, it was packed, buzzing with obviously happy eaters, despite being pretty expensive for a neighbourhood joint.

The owner, Alberto Abbate, has a successful track record, having previously opened Buen Ayre in Hackney and Santa Maria del Sur in Battersea.

Garufa, though, is intended to be a full Argentine restaurant rather than just a steakhouse – and it seems far more authentic in spirit than the nightclubby nonsense to be found in the likes of Gaucho.