La Lucía, day one in Mendoza.

On our first day in Mendoza, we had to have the steak, and no place was better than La Lucía. It’s a steakhouse right downtown on Avenida Sarmiento, and that entire street is full of phenomenal restaurants. I’ll be posting a few more of them.

We started with the burrata, and it was phenomenal. I could not believe how great of an appetizer it was.

Close-up of a mound of soft white cheese under a creamy yellow sauce, with mushrooms, green vegetables and crisp red shards on top — The burrata we started with.David Dat Nguyen

But we were there for the meat. We ordered the T-bone along with the tomahawk to share, and both were phenomenal: just the perfect amount of char, the perfect amount of salt, and you could really taste the meat. Everything was done medium rare.

Sliced tomahawk steak beside its long rib bone on a cast-iron grill plate, pink inside with a dark crust — The tomahawk, carved off its long bone.David Dat Nguyen

Menu chart titled 'Puntos de cocción (cooking points)' showing a stack of steak slices from rare to well done, with Spanish and English labels — The menu's cooking-points chart. Medium rare is jugoso.David Dat Nguyen

The menu is really beautiful, with everything arranged and categorized, and one look tells you this is clearly a steakhouse. The grill page is headed “Grill a las brasas by Josper,” and La Lucía’s own site calls its Josper grill the star of the kitchen. Josper is a Catalan name with a story: according to El País, it joins the first names of blacksmith Josep Armangué and grill-restaurant owner Pere Juli, who patented their first charcoal oven in 1969 in Pineda de Mar, a small coastal town in the province of Barcelona. That’s the “1969” on the menu’s logo.

We also got to wander through the private collection in the wine cellar, where we were presented with a decent number of wines. Since we were in Mendoza, we had to go with something decidedly full-bodied and bold that fit the steak and could hold up to it.

Four bottles of Argentine red wine lined up on a glass table in a wine cellar, including Bemberg La Linterna, a Michel Rolland bottle and a Bandini Malbec, with a decanter, glasses and wine racks behind — In the wine cellar, a few of the bottles we were shown.David Dat Nguyen

We settled on the Bemberg Estate Wines La Linterna Malbec, a 2016 from Gualtallary, and it was a phenomenal pairing. It had great tannins to hold up to the meat and a kind of spicy, peppery taste that could stand up to the salt. It was really full-bodied and very well-rounded, with definite dark notes of dark fruit, like blueberries.

A finger pointing to the Bemberg Estate Wines section of a printed wine list, at La Linterna Gualtallary Malbec, $169.600 — Our pick on the wine list: ARS 169,600 on October 27, 2026.David Dat Nguyen

A bottle of Bemberg La Linterna 2016 Gualtallary Malbec next to a glass of dark red wine on a wooden table — La Linterna 2016, poured.David Dat Nguyen

The label names a single parcel: N°5 at Finca El Tomillo. According to Bemberg’s technical sheet, the vineyard takes its name from the wild thyme (tomillo) growing there, high up in Gualtallary in the northern Uco Valley. The back label adds that this Malbec was made with the vineyard’s native yeasts and bottled unfiltered.

Front label reading Bemberg Estate Wines, La Linterna Microterroir, Parcela N°5 El Tomillo, 2016, Gualtallary Mendoza Argentina, Malbec, bottle 3435 of 7342 — The front label: Parcela N°5, El Tomillo, 2016.David Dat Nguyen

Back label in Spanish describing the estate's calcareous, stony soils in Gualtallary, native yeasts and unfiltered bottling, signed by chief winemaker Daniel Pi, 15% alcohol — The back label, signed by winemaker Daniel Pi.David Dat Nguyen

It was such a phenomenal wine, but it played second fiddle to the steaks, which were just perfect.

La Lucía,
day one in Mendoza.

What we ordered.

La Lucía

Hostería Pehoé, across the footbridge.

Worth keeping.