Like its big sister, Buenos Aires, just across the Río del Plata, Montevideo is a meat lovers paradise. Beef is king, and often served grilled in a casual setting. Meat-eaters cannot leave Montevideo without enjoyed a grilled meat extravaganza at a paradilla. Like in Buenos Aires, You can find paradillas all over Uruguay, and touristy ones in the Mercado Del Puerto. We choose to go a bit off the tourist beaten path and visited Paradilla La Pulperia in the Punta Carretas neighborhood of Montevideo.

Paradilla La Pulperia, or La Pulperia for short, is an institution in Montevideo that is only open Tuesday – Saturday, 19h – 00h. The actual restaurant is not much more than a glorified bar surrounding the most amazing grill. You will find both locals and tourists at La Pulperia, and you should arrive right at 19h (when it opens) or prepare to wait a while for a table.

We arrived at La Pulperia a little later than anticipated due to a longer than expected wine tasting at the Montevideo Wine Experience, but only waited about 30 minutes for a table. Be sure to put your name on the list and take a number as soon as you arrive. The servers speak Spanish and English. Once our number was called, we were seated right at the bar with a fabulous view of the grill, where almost everything is cooked!

We started our meal with 2017 Tannat and Cabarnet Franc blend from Uruguayan wine producer Filgueira. The wine was very tasty and, sadly, it was probably our last Tannat -based wine of the trip! La Pulperia also serves a few other types of wine, as well as beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

Our first taste was Uruguayan bread served with a chimichurri -style sauce. The sauce was 100%!! I also ordered an appetizer of grilled Provolone cheese topped with herbs and dan ordered molleja (or sweet breads). He got lucky and the chef gave him a complimentary chinchulín, or chiltterling… I cannot attest to Dan’s meats, but my cheese was very tasty!

For main dishes, we shared a grilled flank steak, cooked super rare. I didn’t even get a photograph before we started eating. Needless to say, the steak was amazing.

The menu offers several types of steak, as well as some odder meats… There are also a few side dishes, which are not meat based!

For dessert, because I LOVE Uruguayan dulce de leche (its MUCH better than Argentinian in my opinion!), we split the dulce de leche flan. The flan was served with so much dulce de leche and it was absolutely incredible.

In sum, we had a great dinner at La Pulperia and I would recommend it for a very casual dinner to travelers who don’t mind dining at a whole-in-the-wall. For a comparison to our more upscale paradilla experience in Buenos Aires, read my post here!

STEAL OUR TRIP

Paradilla la Pulperia: Lagunillas, 11300 Montevideo, Uruguay. Open Tuesday – Saturday – 19h – 00h. No reservations. Super casual.