Cocina Sunae

There is nothing better than having a home-cooked meal.

Or is there?  Because having a home-cooked meal prepared by a professional chef sounds even better in my opinion!

Puerta cerrada (closed door) restaurants are really popular in Buenos Aires and I have been very excited to dine at one of these.

Now don't get me wrong - I love a good Argentine steak as much as the next meat lover (cooked jugoso, obvio).  But all of us had been craving some really good Asian food so we decided on Cocina Sunae in Colegiales.

It is the charming home restaurant of Christina Sunae - who brings authentic Asian cuisine to Buenos Aires from her Philippines heritage and years of restaurant experience.

Danny and I were on a double date with Nick and Lucy (who are travelling Latin America by motorbike) - two of my favourite people that I have met here in Buenos Aires whilst studying Spanish together (at Expanish, if you're interested).

A round of ginger cocktails for the table, por favor!

And a bottle of Torrontes from Cafayate to have with dinner.

Bookings are essential for all closed door restaurants.

At Cocina Sunae, there is a set menu (with three options for the main course) that changes every weekend.  Each tasting menu is a mix of dishes from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Tonight, we started with Tom Yum soup.

More like Tom Yummy soup ;)  Hot and sour with prawns, lemongrass, galangal and mushrooms.

Followed by a Filipino Talong salad.

Roasted eggplant puree with cherry tomatoes, red onions, avocado, coconut vinaigrette and plantain chips.

The boys loved this dish.

For the main, Lucy couldn't go past the Pad Thai noodles.

Nick ordered the Massaman beef curry.

And Danny and I ordered the Escabeche.

Pan fried fish with turmeric sweet and sour sauce, ginger and capsicum.

All of the dishes were absolutely delish - cooked to perfection, bursting with exotic flavours and a little bit of extra sweetness for good taste.

And nothing was too spicy for this Danny's sensitive tastebuds.

But wait, there is always room for dessert.

Vietnamese banana fritter with homemade green tea ice-cream and tropical fruit.

What do you call two banana skins?

A pair of slippers!

We joked around all night, shared travel stories and made exciting plans to go sail across the Atlantic together one day.

Actually - Nick and Danny plan to sail across the Atlantic together.  Lucy and I would prefer to fly over to meet the boys for island hopping in the Caribbean afterwards.

Finally, a meal with an English couple isn't over until we've had tea.

Who knew that you could enjoy such a lovely evening behind the doors of an ordinary house in the suburbs of Buenos Aires?

Details: Cocina Sunae (Colegiales, Buenos Aires - address confirmed upon booking)