# La Lucía, day one in Mendoza.

A phenomenal burrata, a T-bone and a tomahawk with the perfect char, and a bold Gualtallary Malbec from the wine cellar to stand up to them.

By David Dat Nguyen · 2026-11-04

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.

![The burrata we started with](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-aa3d39d2f522b50e-v1/2268.webp)

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.

![The tomahawk, carved off its long bone](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-3b0af556730410e0-v1/2400.webp)
![The menu's cooking-points chart](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-752ec7d847cb95bb-v1/2268.webp)

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](https://lalucia.ar/) calls its Josper grill the star of the kitchen. Josper is a Catalan name with a story: according to [El País](https://elpais.com/gastronomia/2023-07-25/josper-los-hornos-mas-codiciados-del-mundo-salen-de-cataluna-y-se-venden-en-125-paises.html), 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.

![In the wine cellar, a few of the bottles we were shown](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-3333a396dba8de0f-v1/2400.webp)

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.

![Our pick on the wine list](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-35e4f80eebf0a45f-v1/2268.webp)
![La Linterna 2016, poured](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-37abfd0293a31beb-v1/2400.webp)

The label names a single parcel: N°5 at Finca El Tomillo. According to [Bemberg's technical sheet](https://www.bembergestatewines.com/pdfs/fichas/Technical_Sheet_Linterna_Malbec_El_Tomillo_2018.pdf), 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.

![The front label](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-c0c322f5589ea689-v1/2268.webp)
![The back label](https://images.goodstodeclare.com/la-lucia-77e90a1a920279ba-v1/2268.webp)

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