We have been looking forward to this “excursion” since we booked it.  Our last night on the Oosterdam, but overnight in Buenos Aires, so why not go out and have dinner outside?  And at a Closed Door Restaurant through HAL ShoreX to boot.  Sounded perfect.

First of all, a little explaining on the concept.  Closed Door Restaurants are the rage in Buenos Aires.  These are essentially “secret” restaurants that you have to hunt down, by scouring social media or knowing someone who knows someone, trying for reservations and addresses.  Normally the location will be revealed at the last minute and will be little more than a chef’s kitchen or dining room.  They have been going on for years, as the cost of doing business accelerated for brick and mortar restaurants and likened to the speakeasy of old – a “known” secret, slightly on the illegal side of business operation. 

One of the more famous – and long lasting – is Treinta Sillas, or 30 seats, by Chef Ezequeil Gallardo, which is where we are going tonight.  Located in the Colegiales neighborhood, you’d never guess there was anything here between the graffitied doors and walls.  We are super excited, but a little leery as we have noticed there are 2 tours with Closed Door restaurants tonight – one with a Tango show and one without.  We have the one without which meets later…..which should have given us our first clue.

We arrive at our meeting point, which happens to be the Rolling Stone lounge, and there are only 2 other people there, a really fun and funny gay couple who we immediately bond with.  We sit in the lounge getting to know each other. And sit. And sit.  Finally, our ship Shorex guys take us out to meet our shoreside guide, who is waiting for the van to take us to the restaurant.  And waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  There is a shuttle from the ship to the cruise terminal where the van could have waited to pick us up, but they are trying to get the van inside the port to come directly to the ship and the port authorities won’t approve the van.  Thus, the delay.  As we are standing out on the pier, watching one shuttle go to the cruise terminal, then another, we are starting to get a little frustrated – plus we are realizing that the other 26 people went to the Tango show and we will be meeting them at the restaurant.  Of course, now we are almost 45 minutes into our wait when the van finally appears.  We’ve asked our guide to make sure that the 4 of us sit together and she assures us she has called ahead.  Great.

Then….the drive.  OMG.  Seriously – we have no idea where this van guy was going, and while we got a great view of the fully lit Monumento de los Españoles (donated by the Spanish community in 1910 to commemorate the May Revolution) we are still in that van driving around in what turns out to be circles for another 30 minutes.  We made the most of it with our newfound friends, laughing and giggling and just having a blast.  But still. By the time we get to the restaurant – it is 8:15!  With a tour start time of 7. 

Ok, big deep breath, at least we are here, and our “restaurant” guide is waiting for us at the unassuming door to the restaurant.  Entering into the small space, though, we find all 26 others already seated and drinking…..and not a seat together in the place.  30 seats remember?  Well that equates to 6 tables of 5.  Each table already had 4 people seated, except for one that we found with only 3 (where we plopped asking one of the woman to move, who did so begrudgingly).  But the boys?  They were separated for the whole evening.  Totally unacceptable – we felt so bad for them!

We actually lucked out, and after the grumbling move, we ended up thoroughly enjoying our 3 companion’s company.  They had indeed been sitting there for about 45 minutes waiting for us, which stunk for them as well.  The logistics on this were just bad.  But, the wine was really good – and helped with the conversation and the evening (there was probably a little more wine than was good for us!).

The meal was very good – although who knows exactly what it was.  There was no presentation, no explanation, just plates put in front of you.  We started with little eggroll-like empanadas.  Beef I’m guessing.  Then burrata on top of some sort of sauteed vegetables, sort of like ratatouille maybe?  Then steak with sweet potato mash which was very good. We finished off the night with a fab meringue dulce de Leche.  We must say though, the atmosphere totally lacked.  It was in a little place, of course, and cram packed with the tables. And while the service was good, it was definitely not the level that we were expecting.  I guess we were thinking it would be more like an Azamara Chef’s table than just a regular dining experience.  All in all – a good dinner and lovely dinner companions, but not the best logistics overall.  But we all laughed and had a good time, and continued to do so on the bus ride back to our last sleep aboard the HAL Oosterdam.