Boca Juniors

A Fair-Priced Steakhouse Aimed at Soccer Fans | Eater NY

"If you're a soccer fan who also enjoys devouring large quantities of red meat, this Elmhurst clubhouse-style parrillada named after Club Atlético Boca Juniors may become your favorite hang. The exterior is swathed in the team's blue-and-gold colors, and inside the walls are lined with posters, framed jerseys, old schedules and memorabilia while TV screens show recorded and live games from around the world. Founded nearly 20 years ago, the restaurant specializes in huge, smoky meat assortments served on grills still cooking at the table—an experience rooted in the gaucho tradition of grilling grass-fed beef. We ordered the parrillada para dos ($76), which arrived with tightly packed beef short ribs (several bones per slab), skirt steak (our table's favorite), two pork sausages, two crumbly blood sausages, several sweetbread lobes and a heap of chitterlings; it comes with a choice of two sides, and we picked mashed potatoes and a Russian salad (like American potato salad but with mixed vegetables and chicken). We also added a sirloin churrasco ($39), tender and striped from the grill, paired with yellow rice. To add vegetables we had the Boca Junior salad ($29), a carefully arranged bowl with hearts of palm, shrimp, what seemed like an entire avocado and boiled eggs, dressed only with olive oil and balsamic—an excellent starter. The menu also includes over a dozen pastas (including linguine with seafood and Argentine gnocchi in pink sauce) and many chicken or steak cutlets with tomato sauce, cheese or a fried egg. We skipped dessert, and as we left the after-dinner crowd was filling the place, cheering historic soccer games and enjoying empanadas and choripan. With a round of Quilmes beers and an automatic 18% tip, our total for four was $235 (about $60 per person), which felt like a bargain for a fun, meat-forward steakhouse." - Robert Sietsema