Morelia

Morelia (Baez 260, Las Canitas) is located in Las Canitas, an area of streets near Palermo Soho that is home to a major concentration of great restaurants. It is also the home of the best pizza that we have had in Buenos Aires. I'm pretty sure that Jon has been to Morelia more than any other restaurant in Bs. As. - he loves their Cuatro Queso pizza, which is saying a lot since he is a meat-pizza kind of guy. This last visit we also learned that they serve a mean fresh pasta dish as well.

It seems that every restaurant in Bs. As. serves a large basket of bread immediately when you sit down to eat. Being American, we generally have no restraint in chowing down on this bread the second we sit, and often get ourselves in trouble when it comes time to eat our meals. Morelia is no exception, although their bread deserves a spot in this post. It is served warm out of the oven and instead of a hard roll, they serve soft, puffy breadsticks. In addition to the bread, we started off with two "little tarts" that were basically a 4" diameter tortilla offered with different toppings choices, we ordered the onion and mushroom and the blue cheese and celery. Each tart was good to split among 2 people for a light appetizer. They were good, but the onion tart came with a huge pile of onions that, for the most part, didn't get eaten.

They serve thin crust pizzas with a zillion different topping options. You can order toppings separately or choose one of their specialty pizzas that have specified toppings. The only toppings that we have gotten that I didn't like was golf sauce and hearts of palm. Golf sauce is some sort of katsup/mayonnaise mixture and I don't particularly like katsup or mayonnaise so the combination is nauseating to me. I like hearts of palm, but they are often dressed in golf sauce as a pizza topping, so in this case, they're on my bad list. Anyways, like I said before, the 4-cheese or "Cuatro Queso" pizza, though simple, is really a must. I'm not even sure what the cheeses are, but I think one of them is an alfredo-style sauce used in place of the traditional tomato sauce. There are three pizza sizes to choose from, individual, small and large. Jon and I decided or split a large pizza with half 4-cheese and half spicy pepper, pepperoni and olive. The large is a good size pizza and we had slices to take home. As a side note, the pizzas are square (they don't cut corners, just like Ledo's back in Virginia. A "slice" of home, if you will.) and my Mom has always sworn that square pizza slices taste better. In this example, I have to agree.

My Mom and Pat both ordered pumpkin-filled fresh ravioli, each with a different flare. Pat went with a tomato cream sauce that was delicious, light and very simple. My Mom went with a slightly more complex dish, a wine and cream sauce with mushrooms and onions. Although their meals only came with 6-7 raviolis, both had a few to take home with us for the next day. The raviolis were enormous. In all honesty, I could have visited Morelia 50 times and not thought to order the pumpkin ravioli. I'm so glad that they ordered the meals that they did, I tried one bite of each and they were both delicious. This is going to create a new predicament the next time we eat here.

Morelia offers English menus upon request and they have a great wine list to go along with their great food. The restaurant has a large indoor dining area and a porch where you can eat outside, but still be slightly removed from the street. The service is good, albeit slow when you need to request the bill.