Barra Nueve: nine seats and one way of doing things

(TEST STORY — invented restaurant, used to test publishing. Delete afterwards.)

The first sign that Barra Nueve is not a delivery kitchen with tables is that there are no tables. Nine stools face a pale wooden counter, one chef, one assistant, and a menu that fits on half a page. The second sign arrives with the first bite: the rice is warm, not cold, which means somebody is seasoning it every half hour instead of pulling it from the fridge.

What we ordered

The counter menu is twelve courses and costs ARS 41,000. It opens with a clear mushroom broth that draws no attention and turns out to be the best possible start: it clears the palate and slows you down.

The amberjack nigiri was the bite of the night. It arrives with the sauce already brushed on — no soy dish, and rightly so — and with the fish just below the temperature of your hand. It collapses before you get to chew.

The tempura prawn roll is the weakest course and it clearly exists to please whoever expected something else. It is well made, but next to the rest it feels like it came from another restaurant.

We closed with black sesame ice cream made in house. Bitter on the finish, no excess sugar. A grown-up dessert.

The small thing that counts

They tell you where each fish came from without being asked, and without the lecture. Thirty seconds a piece, and you keep eating.

The service

Two people for nine guests, so they set the pace. If you are in a hurry, this is not the place: dinner runs two hours and there is no shortening it. In exchange, you never wait for a plate.

Ask for the far left seat. You watch the chef's hands head on instead of side on.

What does not work

The price is high for Córdoba and they do not pretend otherwise. The sake list is three labels and none of them is explained: they name them and move on, so you end up choosing by price. And the single bathroom sits at the back of the kitchen, which with nine people gets awkward.

Also: they take reservations only through Instagram and only reply in the afternoon. Getting a seat is more work than it should be.

Is it worth it?

Yes, if you care about the fish and not the volume. This is a dinner, not a sushi outing. Go looking for quantity or for something to share and you will leave feeling you paid a lot for very little. Go to watch each piece being built and it will be over too soon.