Malbec Market - Los Angeles

I've reserved. When we arrived, no table was available, so the waiter sat at the bar and offered us drinks on the house. Since we chose a bottle, she converted the drinks to dessert in the house. Service was great. Food is phenomenal, especially empanadas and paella. The music choice was a little strange, but otherwise everything was perfect. This place is officially my new favorite in Pasadena. Don't change anything!

Third time here, ordered different items off the menu each time and all have been quiet delicious. Only side note, maybe because it was a busy evening, the time between our main course and dessert took quiet a while.

I really enjoyed trying the DineLA menu at Malbec Market. They have a cute outside patio area in the front of the store (with heatlamps) but I decided to dine indoors. When you first walk in, you don't really expect much because it does look like a market with refrigerated cases of meats and chimichurri. They also have a whole shelf of wine. The tables inside are fairly small, mostly for parties of 2. They might've had one or two tables that could accommodate parties of 4. Everything that we ordered on the DineLA menu was good though. The portions were nicely sized too (you won't leave feeling hungry in fact, I even had to take some of my food to go). They bring out complimentary bread with flavored oil which was really nice. The beef stew polenta appetizer (Estofado Y Polenta) was really nice and hearty. The beef stew was delicious and the polenta was creamy and buttery. The prosciutto wrapped shrimp appetizer (Camarones Con Prosciutto) was a little salty but it balanced with the bitter and citrusy arugula salad. For the entrees, the Churrasco Madeira was amazing! It was a good sized 8 oz. striploin steak, cooked perfectly medium rare topped with a mushroom sauce. It also came with mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. I also tried the gnocchi with bone marrow (Noqui Con Ragu Y Caracu) which was good but super heavy. The gnocchi was covered in a skirt steak ragu which was like a red wine beef sauce. It was so luscious! Wish I could've eaten more or that it came with some vegetables to balance out the dish but I gladly packed my leftovers. I also ordered a side of the french fries (Papas Provenzal) and they were delicious! Loved the garlic and parsley flavor and they were nice and crunchy. For the desserts, I had the Crepe De Peras, a pear crepe. It was supposed to come with pistachio gelato but they gave it with dulce de leche gelato instead. Nevertheless, the crepe was still good. I also tried the Don Pedro which is just an ice cream sundae, also good too.

The drinks were fine, the meat is kind of ugly. Nice for a Tuesday night

We visited the restaurant on Valentine's Day. The seat arrangement was tight due to the number of patrons on this special day. However, the foods and the service were great so we do not take care of the proximity of the tables. We will visit again on a less crowded day in the future.