Buenos Aires

As usual, I'm planning my next trip. This time it's going to be Buenos Aires. Does anyone have dining recommendations - casual, upscale, any types of food, any neighborhoods. Thanks.

Been a while, but I have some friends there, so I'll try to get the update. In the meantime, you could do worse than Cafe Tortoni for the BA version of a "tourist trap" that is actually loved by most everyone and has good coffee. Ice cream in Recoleta near the cemetery is an easy call; good pizza place there as well, los Inmortales. In Palermo, I liked Campo dei Fiore for risotto. The steak places were all good, though I'd have a hard time telling them apart. For the real deal, rent a car, drive out to the pampas and try a roadside churrascaria. Unlike, say, Brazil, I think you are asking for trouble if you stray from steak, Italian and Spanish. BA is cosmopolitan food-wise if you define "cosmopolitan" by the '06 World Cup quarterfinals. And take a good look at some vegetables before you go.

In Googling for the old faves, I saw this LATimes piece, barely 24 hours old. Good advice. I'll try to get more of an off-the-beaten path perspective also.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-arg ... -headlines

The Recoleta neighborhood has amazing character. Recoleta is filled with art deco buildings, little cafes and winding streets. Stay at the Alvear Palace if those room rates are in your budget, otherwise stay at another hotel in Recoleta. I can't remember the names of the places where we ate. I will blog back when I jog my memory. Our BA friends took us to an Argentinian grill on a pier, in the neighborhood of Puerto Madero, which is new and a little touristy.

April 2, 2006 NY Times had an article on BA
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/t ... kC4mwFRfSQ

It's been awhile but I remember La Cabana as being a fun, traditional steak house. Beef is certainly what you want in Argentina. Make sure to have a good Malbec with your steak.

http://www.lacabanabuenosaires.com.ar/w ... a_home.jsp

Bobo, a charming, somewhat upscale and small hotel in Soho, has a restaurant with some of the most creative, freshest food i've had. Check out bobohotel.com for a menu.

We were there a couple of years ago but Sucre was the best meal that we had. I highly recommend it.

I would suggest getting the Time Out city guide for Buenos Aires -- my wife and I visited for about a week over New Years 2004-05 and I found the restaurant recommendations in that guide to be great. While we did have the one obligatory beef blow-out at Cabaña Las Lilas (which was a bit "touristy", but excellent -- see an NYT write-up on it, among other places, by Johnny Apple here), we actually ate at quite a few ethnic restaurants -- Thai (not Ameri-Thai but not Spoon/TAC authentic either), Moroccan, Indian, etc. One Argentine place I really liked was called Cumaná, which I believe is in Recoleta or Barrio Norte. It is a restaurant focusing on northern Argentine specialties, many of them baked in a stone oven, and is an excellent value. Some write-ups and additional information on Cumaná can be found here.

i spent a year there in 03-04. my favorite place is gran bar danzon. very cool vibe, the couches and candles type, upscale lounge-y bar with restaurant. ask the bartenders for great wine recommendations. (at places like this, everyone speaks english. the population at large, not so much) also in the bar category, i loved million, in an old mansion with lots of rooms and floors, and a beautiful outside patio and terrace. and bar 6 in palermo viejo is a v. cool place with great food and creative cocktails. everything is so cheap! great local music scene. san telmo is a fun local neighborhood, very historic with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. be careful at night though.
PM me if you have other questions.

We had dinner at Tomo Uno and it was fabuluous. Wonderful room, great service, modern food. And the wine list was great! The wine waiter will try to steer you toward cab, since they don't believe we really know reds there! But stick to it: ask for some of their reserva malbec listings. Wow! We never see them in this country, they're all consumed in country.

We also went to a neat old Mittel-europa style coffee/pastry/conditori in the heart of the pedestrian zone, but for the life of me I can't remember its name.

You'll have a blast!

Geo

I note that Cabana las Lilas is owned by the same folks who own Baby Beef Rubaiyat, Sao Paulo's famed steak house. All of the beef for both restaurants is raised on farms in Western Brazil and Central Argentina that the restaurant owners manage.

The wonderful grass fed beef has a graininess and fatiness that you don't find in even the best American prime aged beef. In Brazil, due the the exchange rate, you can have a great meal with multiple courses and wine for $40-$60 US.

Point of clarification: While I have eaten at Rubaiyat many times, I have not eaten at Cabana las Lilas. Cabana Las Lilas does get high marks from many of the tourist services.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/So ... -BR-1.html

LTH:
Mrs. JiLS and I will be traveling to Buenos Aires at the end of May for a nine-day visit. I have read and taken notes on all the posts in this and other BA/Argentina threads, but would like to see whether anybody has an update, a further suggestion, a warning, or such. Also, we plan to take a ferry over to Montevideo for one day/one night during our trip, so if anybody has recommendations there, they would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, LTH!

While in Buenos Aires in late November we visited several steakhouses, enjoying La Cabrera the most - due to the value, wonderful meat, service, and ambiance. Aside from that restaurant we enjoyed Bar Uriarte in the Palermo Viejo area, mostly for their take on modern Argentine-Italian dishes; the ojo de bife was just decent.

We loved staying in Palermo Viejo, renting a condo from ApartmentsBA, a firm owned by a guy named Michael Koh (oddly enough he was recently on a show called "House Hunters International" looking for a vacation home in Uruguay). Very professional service and beautiful accommodations, for a fraction of the price of the hotels, which charge North American prices, even with the excellent exchange rate.

Sorry - back to food talk - - After five or six days my wife was flat out tired of beef...so we tried a highly recommended sushi restaurant called Osaka, in Palermo Hollywood...quite a big mistake - the place was very much a "scene" and just strange. Strange choices for sushi, maki, etc. (I know, I should be more adventurous, but Italian flavored tomato sauce drizzled over maki is no good). On top of this, nowhere throughout the restaurant did it say that they only accepted cash; finding an ATM was not easy as Palermo Hollywood is still somewhat up and coming.

Since cash is frequently easier to use in BsAs, be careful what sorts of bills you carry - 100 peso notes are frequently counterfeit and it takes a bit of learning from a Porteño to understand the identifying differences in the watermarks. Not sure if this is a new development, but cabbies love to try to switch your 100 peso note for a counterfeit one and say they have no change.

If you have the chance, take a few days in or around El Calafate; the people are wonderful and the scenery is unsurpassed.

Bar Uriarte.
1572 Uriarte.
Buenos Aires.
54-11/4834-6004

Osaka
Soler 5608
Buenos Aires
Tel: 4775-6964

La Cabrera
5099 Cabrera.
Buenos Aires.
54-11/4831-7002

Buenos Aries is great. Just go the dock district of Puerto Modero. There are many fabulous restaurants. I wish I could remember the names, but this gringo had embibed with too much wine

Appears two thread on Argentina and BsAs are going, here are my faves:

Stayed mostly in Palermo but for steak places I also reccommend, La Cabrera, we ate at the El Norte location, La Brigada in San Telmo, and by far the best steak was at Estilio Criollo, in Palermo, I would consider this my "GNR" of the trip. It was fantastic. This place had the best provoletta, empanadas, steak and ravioli, charcuterie (complimentary) the enitre trip. They also were the only parilla that cooked the steak perfectly. Also, in Palermo, maybe one of the best restaurants and dining experiences I have ever had in my life was Cluny.
Another place we really enjoyed but couldn't get an evening reservation was Sarkis. Had a wonderful lunch. Fantastic Armenian food, and they do have one English menu, but keep both, if you want to order skewers of lamb, chicken of beef.

We stayed at the Bo Bo boutique hotel, and they also had a very good menu, and we had a nice dinner there.

La Cabrera
Cabrera 5127, Palermo

La Brigada (San Telmo)
Estados Unidos 465

Cluny
El Salvador 4018 , Palermo

Estilio Criollo
Serrano 1458, Palermo

Sarkis
Thames 1101, Palermo

Bo Bo Hotel http://www.bobohotel.com/
Guatemala 4882, Palermo

Have a great trip, JiLS. I spent a week in BA in March and absolutely fell in love with the city, in no small way because of the great, affordable food I encountered there. We were wandering around a lot and unfortunately I wasn't religious about keeping track of restaurant names.

I had good beef several places, but my favorite was the bife de chorizo at Rio Alba, apparently a big tourist spot. We went late in the evening and the place was almost totally empty.



If you like cats and/or plants, be sure to check out the Jardin Botanico in Palermo, a beautiful place to wander around. We kept going back, and eating lunch across Avenida Santa Fe at the Cafe El Galeon. Nothing fancy I think it might be a chain), but really reliable for sandwiches and, for me, anchovy pizzas:



as well as meat-and-cheese platters:



Beware of a little steakhouse in Microcentro called L'Alliance. It's a weird kind of reverse tourist trap owned by this fast-talking Texan. It advertises a New York Times award that I'm 99% sure doesn't exist. He pitched his food as authentic Argentinean beef, but in actuality he's serving fatty, Outback-quality cuts to Westerners who don't know any better. It's rare that I stand up and walk out of a meal...but this place left me no choice.

Río Alba
Cerviño 4499
cross-street: Oro
11-4773-9508 (phone)

L'Alliance
Av. Cordoba 945
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
+54 1 4327 3016

JimInLoganSquare wrote:LTH:
Mrs. JiLS and I will be traveling to Buenos Aires at the end of May for a nine-day visit. I have read and taken notes on all the posts in this and other BA/Argentina threads, but would like to see whether anybody has an update, a further suggestion, a warning, or such. Also, we plan to take a ferry over to Montevideo for one day/one night during our trip, so if anybody has recommendations there, they would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, LTH!

JiLS-

Please post back with pictures, if you will. I am tentatively planning an end-of-the-year trip there and would love to hear of any recent experiences. (I am also considering Mexico City, in no small part, due to your reports . . . )

We had a wonderful time in Buenos Aires, and once things calm down a bit at work, I'll post more fully. The big surprise: best meal was an all-fish lunch at Nemo, a neighborhood spot in Palermo near the zoo that we were very lucky to find.

In the meantime, the little fellow from Cabaña las Lilas, below, was right on the money:



OOPS! Crap ...



Well, they caught that one. And it was delicious. So much for transparency. More to come.

I'll have to disappoint aschie30, as those two shots of my steak at Cabaña las Lilas were the only pictures I took of our food, the entire 9 days Mrs. JiLS and I spent in Buenos Aires. Here are a few non-food pictures you might like, though .



This fellow actually resides in a dining establishment in San Telmo, El Hipopotamo, which has the signal distinction of being the site of the worst hamburger I ever ate in my life, topped with the worst ketchup I ever ate in my life. Do not eat at El Hipopotamo. Just drink a beer, look at the statue and move on. Here's a picture of the outside, so you can spot it and be warned:



And then there's this guy, Mr. Buenos Aires; I bet he doesn't get fooled into eating a lousy El Hipopotamo hamburger, ever:




Anyway, back to the food. I might as well jump right to the highlight mentioned above, Nemo. This small and attractive bistro sits in a ritzy neighborhood that feels a bit like the Streeterville of Buenos Aires; if only Streeterville served a platter of fish like this place. We sort of drifted in on a Thursday afternoon around 1:00 to an almost empty restaurant, which rapidly filled to bursting with locals and business lunchers during our stay. Not knowing what to order, we ordered, essentially, everything. Namely, the chef's plate, consisting of an entire kilo of fish, eight different varieties, with rice and other basic sides tossed in (onion soup was pretty tasty, although the overabundance of sweet, sweet onions might be a bit much for some tastes). But back on point, this was all about the fish. The fish were arranged in a semicircle on the huge platter, a pescatory permutation of a wine tasting, with flavor arranged from light (a delicate white fish) to strongest (Atlantic salmon). River fish and other fish galore in between, all prepped perfectly, some with salty crusts, others with a healthy dose of butter. It was tempting to turn it into a fishy free-for-all, race to the FINish, etc. But this meal was best savored slowly. And it was nothing much to look at, which I'll use to rationalize my failure to photograph the meal, but damn, damn, DAMN. That was some fine fish. Do go to Nemo if in Buenos Aires, won't you?

Getting back to Cabaña las Lilas, where we had a wonderful Sunday dinner, with very professional (if rushed) service. I'll blame the rush on the fact that we came in at 8:30, right before the 9:00 crowds (we confirmed what the guidebooks say; B.A. diners do eat dinner 2 hours later than Chicago diners, so 9:00 is always hopping). We took full advantage of the combination of exchange rate and low, low wine prices, with a cab- and malbec-based Bordeaux blend, of sorts at about 400 pesos ($US135) ... that will be a stunning, knock-out wine in about five years. Unfortunately, this monster cab blend, ripe with promise, was still wound tight as the sphincter of a nervous black hole. The flavors and nose only barely opened up during our 90 minute dinner. In fact, too-young fancy wine was a common problem in our dining experience in Buenos Aires, one we handily resolved by learning to order cheaper stuff throughout most of the rest of our trip.

Mrs. JiLS started with a "tropical" salad that included various fruits and nuts and a generous heaping of shaved hard cheese on top, which was healthy, tasty and probably the choice of the wise. I, however, went with the my gullet, and fell for the sweetbreads. Oh, what a fall. As the platter was smacked down, I peered about anxiously to find the party of Roman gladiators that clearly were the intended recipients for this appetizer. Where are the tiny sweetbreads, I squeaked, barely audible. Here were sufficient slabs of succulent sweetbreads to roof a mid-size barn. Sorry I have no image of this Lucullan lollapalooza, but I don't own a wide-angle lens. Suffice to say, the 15% of this appetizer I could eat was marvelous, and I had to pull back when Mrs. JiLS begged me through tears not to leave her a widow at an early age.

Keep in mind, along with the things we ordered as appetizers, we were served eight or more varieties of bread and a table full of olives, cheese, cured meats and other appetizers (a salmon terrine to die for topped the list for me).

When that steak arrived, I was not very hungry, actually, but this was why I had come to Argentina, and I wasn't going to let myself down on this. Fourteen ounce ribeye, media rojo, and absolute perfection. A different sort of perfection from the prime/dry-aged variety we treasure here, and in fact, the restaurant's website touts the meat (rightly or wrongly) as USDA Choice, not Prime. All I can say is, I will never look at any steak again the same way. It taught me a whole new category of steak, actually, and I wish I knew of a local place doing the same thing. Maybe the grass-fed beef served at some spots here in Chicago would bear a resemblance. Mrs. JiLS had a similar reaction to her lomo (tenderloin) steak, and we were well satisfied here.


No pictures of food, but here's a great Russian Orthodox church in San Telmo:



And here's a friendly mutt we met while crossing the street to use the restrooms in the World's Least Hygienic McDonald's (bit of a sewer gas issue, actually)



(The dogs in Buenos Aires are especially good dogs.)

JiLS--

Ah, man, you're killing us up here in Montreal! Debbie—the renowned Other Dr. Gale—and I spent a week in BA a couple of years ago. I ate sweetbreads, most especially grilled sweetbreads, wherever possible, and they were possible just about anywhere. Waaaaay too large a portion, as you so cleverly point out. But, when it's cool weather or you have a 'fridge in the hotel room, what the hey! doggie-bag it.

And the steak. What can one (or two or three) say, beyond what you've said?? Lomo is probably the best steak I've ever had in my life. And, unfortunately, I can NOT seem to find anything, ANYthing, even remotely resembling it in either the US or Canadia. What a fate: to have tasted perfection, and have it then drop away under-behind the wings of a jet plane.



Geo

Montevideo

On Tuesday, Mrs. JiLS and I took the 3-hour BuqueBus hydrofoil boat to Montevideo for a day and a night. We had a wonderful time in this quiet, calm yet somehow still cool, sub-equatorial Indianapolis to Buenos Aires' Chicago. Our only regret was being here so short a time as only to begin scratching at the door. But we had two fantastic food experiences in the capital of Uruguay.

First, lunch in the Mercado del Puerto. Others have written on this festival marketplace of grilled meats, but let me add my experience. First, it's impossible to go wrong here. Although horribly commercialized and full of hawkers trying to drag in the gringos (and, by Gum, I am the ultimate gringo target for these sorts), the food is really fine. We randomly deposited ourselves at the bar of one of the parillas and began sucking down liter-sized bottles of Stella Artois (why don't they sell those here?), and threw caution to the wind, ordering the mixed grill. Well, first of all, for those who haven't been to one of these countertop parilla's, behind the counter to the left, they have a large rack/staging area for tons of raw meat, and to the right the grill, a large, almost horizontal rack for the cooking, and a vertical cage behind it, filled with burning logs. As the logs burn, the coals are scraped under the grill, and more wood is added at the top, like a flaming hot paper shredder. And that simple apparatus grilled up a huge pile of chorizo, blood sausage, steak, rib meat and tripe. In fact, the cook accidentally piled our neighbor's lunch on our plate, such an absurd superabundance of flesh that we all, literally, did a double-take, looked in each others eyes, and laughed, before the redistribution of wealth occurred. Although highly commercialized, you can really taste the history here. Plus, there is a great gift shop (no, really; it is a great gift shop).

The second highlight? Our nightly pre-dinner snack (gotta have a snack at 5:30 if dinner is at 9:00!) at The Shannon, consisting of french fries doused in a remarkable mushroom cream gravy, with Warsteiner on tap. Perhaps it was the timing (both of us were cold and exhausted from many hours of walking), but it was a very fine dish, for us, at that time.

Here are some pictures from Montevideo:







(Note: "Solis" does not refer to the sun, but rather to the name of the sailor who came to Montevideo and was eaten by the natives. Or so said our tour guide at the theater.)

Jim-

Sorry I'm a little late here, but great reports. I still plan to go towards the end of the year (fingers crossed), and your posts have only encouraged me to go more. I can't decide though, if I should avoid El Hipopotamo like the plague, or if the curious side will get the better of me, and I'll try it despite your dire warnings.

Kennyz wrote:Bobo, a charming, somewhat upscale and small hotel in Soho, has a restaurant with some of the most creative, freshest food i've had. Check out bobohotel.com for a menu.

I just wanted to add a post script on Bobo, because we did eat a very fine dinner there, just not as memorable or worthy of noting here. We had the tasting menu, and I'd put it somewhere between Sweets & Savories and Naha in quality of menu and execution (at about 1/3 to half the cost, at current exchange rates). In some ways, this was a "comfort food" meal for visiting Chicagoans, but for that same reason, I wouldn't necessarily plan around it, as there was nothing distinctly Buenos Airean about the meal or the setting. That said, we'll probably stay in the hotel on our next visit, given its fantastic location (live and learn; we thought downtown would be more exciting).

Just returned from a week in Buenos Aires, first time there and loved it. Very interesting place. All that past wealth and exuberance, faded into a splendid decay after decades of economic chaos. Kind of a chilling foreboding of what our great cities might look like a hundred years from now.

First day was spent in San Telmo, taking in the market at Plaza Dorrego. Great people watching from a cafe seat, we were royally entertained by this wizened busker with a squeezebox, age 5 going on 50. He was like some old Vegas comedian who'd been doing the same schtick for the jamokes from Iowa for years:


Lunch was at a parilla, the nearby La Brigada. Food was good and the atmosphere is lively. You'll find provoletta on every parilla menu. This is an Argentine saganaki made from provolone, except no flames or opahs. Delicious, scarfed most of this down before I got the camera out. I had the waiters choose the wine everywhere we went. A little Spanish helps a lot here, the wait staff's English isn't nearly as good in BA as it is in Europe. I just asked them to recommend a good vino tinto at mas y menos cinquenta or sesenta pesos, they'd usually come out with some nice reserva malbec or a blend that was ready to drink:


La Brigada makes a big show of splitting their bife de ojo (ribeye) with a spoon tableside to show how tender the meat is. Our poor waiter was sawing away like the devil with a big soup spoon, but he eventually got it done. We also split the entraña (skirt steak). Both were wonderfully beefy, but definitely chewy despite the demonstration with the spoonsaw:


Really nice meal and the bill came to 300 pesos (~$75) total with wine and tip. That seemed to be the going rate at just about every restaurant we ate at, the food was a real bargain given the quality.

We stayed at the Park Tower Hotel on the Plaza San Martin. This is a Starwood property, connected to the Sheraton Convention Center. Really liked this hotel, great staff and one of the nicest Starwoods we've stayed at. After many long days marching around sightseeing, on most nights we wanted to eat somewhere walking distance from the hotel. A combination of the Timeout Buenos Aires, the Guia Oleo (the BA version of Zagats, http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/), and our concierge Gustavo kept us well fed. A real winner was Tancat, a tapas bar nearby. Cool room, decked out in brothel red. All the basic tapas on the menu, I particularly enjoyed the papas bravas and gambas al ajillo


Another favorite near the hotel was El Establo, a classic old parilla. Multiple rooms, very brightly lit and tiled in hospital white. Very lively, mostly regulars who seemed to be workers getting off their shift. I had the mollejas (sweetbreads, pounded thin and grilled) which were delicious. I'm not a huge fan of organ meats, but hey - when in Rome, but these were wow good. My wife had the bife de chorizo (sirloin), which was also great, and even she liked the mollejas. I liked this place better than La Brigada:


Another day was spent in La Boca, a rather run down part of town which is also home to the picturesque tourist attraction El Caminito, a stretch of primary-colored zinc shacks. Women here are of low morals, you can just sweep them off their feet and break into an impromptu tango


La Boca is also the locale of La Bombonera, the Yankee Stadium of BA and home pitch of the Boca Juniors. Adolf Eichmann scratched out a living raising rabbits in a shed in his back yard in a house next to the street car tracks here on nearby Garibaldi Street before the Mossad interrupted his humble existence


A good Italian restaurant is also in the neighborhood, Il Materrello. Local hangout, very busy and a quite prosperous crowd hung out there, considering the environs. Kind of like going to Heart of Italy on South Oakley. Nice Italian food, every table seemed to be ordering the antipasto plate and pasta carbonara - hey, why not? I had both and it was the right call, carbonara was very eggy. My wife had the funghi risotto, which was even better than my pasta.


Cuisine in BA is very cosmopolitan, you don't have to limit yourself to parilla and empanadas. We also had a decent pizza at El Guerrin by the Plaza del Republica. A Peruvian dinner at guia oleo's highly rated Sipan was disappointing, they were going for a Peruvian/Japanese fusion thing but didn't pull it off. Their signature tacu tacu main (hard to describe, like an omelet with an oily rice/bean envelope instead of eggs folded around a tasteless blob of shellfish) was an inedible mess and the ceviche was way too tart. I should have listened to Gustavo, he gave me a pretty indifferent meh when I suggested it. We had a decent lunch at Cluny, a chi-chi modern cuisine place in Palermo Viejo with a menu you could've found in any hip place in Chicago, NY or SF. One of our favorite dinners was at Brasserie Petanque in San Telmo. Classic bistro/brasserie menu served up in a room that could've been dropped in from the Left Bank


Some very cool bars also. Dada Bistro was near our hotel, small cozy bar where a hipper-than-thou inked to the max bartender can shake you up an excellent martini. The food is also supposed to be very good there but we didn't get to try it


Some of the old hotel bars are very cool also. The Marriott on the Plaza San Martin is a classic, very reminiscent of the Redwood Bar in the Clift Hotel in SF. Very woody and clubby, no windows, had an interesting talk there with an IMF banker who was in town putting the screws to the Argentine government


One of my favorite pastimes when traveling is trying to find the most expensive Bloody Mary in town. The bar at the Alvear Palace Hotel fit the ticket, my wife's Grey Goose bloody tipped the scales at 110 pesos (~$30). But the winner and still champion is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Bar in Knightsbridge in London a few years ago - that one was 30 bloody British Pounds. Here's a close up of this beauty, and a surreptitious photo of someone who I suspect is a deposed strongman from Paraguay.


What else? Oh yes, the Cafe Tortoni is the most renowned coffee house in town. We got there at 4pm and there were 15 people ahead of us, took us 20 minutes to get in - I don't like waiting in line for anything, but whatever. Then we get in and it's not even 3/4 full. Couldn't believe they're pulling that Manhattan velvet rope BS game at a coffee house of all places. Then once inside all seats are occupied by tourists taking pictures and running around the place taking more pictures. So you can come in and take a picture of a tourist taking a picture, very meta. But I must admit that despite the tourist trap nature of the place I had a piece of torta (like a Schwarzwelder Kirsch Torte) that was magnificent.


Another tourist trap was Cabaña Las Lilas on the glitzy Puerto Madero, BA's answer to Navy Pier. We were flying out that night so we had a late lunch/early dinner at 4pm, hoping to beat the crowds because they don't accept reservations. Even at that off hour they made us wait in the anteroom 20 minutes before seating us in the half empty dining room. To be fair they did give us a complimentary glass of sparkling wine, but still c'mon. The sommelier suggested a wine that was magnificent, - a 2006 Fabre Montmayou Grand Vin, Lujande Cuvo (Mendoza), a Bordeaux blend. Steaks were great, but they cost triple what I spent at other not-cheap parillas in town. But, as I said to my wife, the famous places might be touristy but years later you might be sitting at home watching some travel show and they're in BA and they have the obligatory shot of Cafe Tortoni or Cabaña Las Lilas and you can go, "Hey look, we ate there!" Just like Hot Doug's.

I'd highly recommend this city, very interesting place great friendly people and fun eating. Can't beat the prices and there's no time zone jet lag, pop an Ambien and boom you're there.

Awesome pics and writeup, thanks for sharing!

Fast Eddie wrote:I'd highly recommend this city, very interesting place great friendly people and fun eating.

Really nice post, love the dancing pic, quite evocative.

I was only in BA for a little more than a day, but I had a great meal at La Brigada.

http://www.labrigada.com/ingles/bienvenida.htm

Would love to go to BA for tango, culture and food. I heard they have very good ice cream there.

I'm surprised there aren't more recent reports on Buenos Aires. It's a good food town with lots of culture and interesting places to walk around. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip there a couple months ago and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who travels to eat as I do. Also, before visiting, definitely check out Allie Lazar's BA food blog called Pick up the Fork. The recommendations from there were spot on and definitely enhanced my dining experiences.

Unfortunately I didn't capture many pictures of the countless pastry shops that are all over the city. I felt like every block had 2 or 3 pastry shops and we did our best to visit each and every one of them . Many of the shops didn't open until 10AM and by noon the streets were full of Portenos grabbing boxes of cookies and loaves of bread to take home for lunch. BA is definitely a town that stays out late and wakes up late. There doesn't seem to be much of a breakfast culture, just people grabbing a small croissant (medialuna) and a cup of coffee on their way to work.

There were plenty of lunch options though. There isn't much fast food or street food, rather Portenos opt for leisurely lunches at chic cafes.

Pizzeria Guerrin



I read a lot of disparaging opinions of Argentine pizza in preparation for the trip, but I couldn't leave BA without at least giving it a try. Pizzeria Guerrin is frequently cited as the most famous and the long line of people around lunch time supported this claim.



Call me crazy, but I actually kind of liked it. The pizza has a cornmeal crust that's charred and crispy and a thick layer of mozzarella on top that's super stretchy. It's certainly junk food, but reminded me of deep dish in that it's a rich and distinctive rendition of a common food. There were lots of more traditional Italian-style pizzerias around town that I'm sure made some very good pizza, but I enjoyed trying the local version. I forgot to grab a slice of faina to eat with my pizza. Faina is a thin, crispy bread made from chickpea flour that is cut into wedges and eaten along with pizza in classic Argentine pizza joints. I'm not sure I understand idea behind the combination (bread on bread), but I would've liked to try it.

Cumana



Traditional Argentine food (not the steak house variety) is remarkably hard to come by in BA. The city is full of French and Italian influenced cafes and a good amount of modern Asian fare, but for Argentine classics the options are limited. Cumana offers a handful of Argentine stews (called cazuelas) and even a classic mate service.



It's located in the ritzy Recoleta neighborhood, but the vibe it quite local and traditional. They have an oven in the back pumping out empanadas and serve their stews in clay bowls. The empanadas are quite popular and feature a thin crust that is really a vehicle to hold the hearty beef stew stuffed inside. For an entree I ordered the locro which is a traditional stew made with large corn, sausages, and tripe. Fortunately the serving size wasn't too big because this is an incredibly rich and filling soup.



I read a lot about mate before visiting BA and I was surprised to learn that this tradition is not very common in restaurants. I guess people mostly drink it at home. I looked around during my entire trip and the only place I found that does a traditional mate service is Cumana (from 2-6 pm I think). It's served in a ceramic mug (traditionally a dried gourd) that's filled with powdered tea. It's supposed to be shared with each person filling the mug and drinking it up before passing it to the next person. The tea tastes faintly of mint but more bitter. They served it with tea biscuits and rolls with butter. It's a nice way to pass the time.

Na Serapia



Na Serapia is a total hole-in-the wall that's easy to miss as you're walking down the bustling Avenida La Heras in Palermo. It's situated amongst many glitzier cafes and store fronts (not far from the Evita Museum), which made for a great respite in the middle of a day of sight seeing.



Their rendition of locro is thinner, cornier, and funkier than the one I had at Cumana. Once again it was quite filling and really warmed me up on a brisk day (by BA standards).



Admittedly the milanesa was kind of dry, but with plenty of lemon and a side of salad, I actually quite enjoyed it. This is working class food (with the prices to match) and provided a wonderful window into a side of BA that can be hard to find if you're not looking.

Caseros



San Telmo is a fun and charming neighborhood which is great to walk around. I was looking for a bodegon for lunch and Caseros fit the bill perfectly. It's just far enough away from the main street so that the vibe and clientele is totally local. They offer modern Argentine fare which is heavily influenced by Italian cooking, but still exhibited some of the more rustic sensibilities that makes BA such a cool place to visit.



We particularly enjoyed this meal because all the plates were filled with vegetables. The classic Argentine cuisine I was seeking during my trip simply doesn't feature much in the way of veggies, so it was nice to get a break. My favorite dish of the meal was the mollejas (sweet breads) which were juicy and rich.



Another highlight were the orrecchiette that were topped with bitter greens and earthy mushrooms that were sauteed in butter. The dish really came together beautifully and made for a satisfying yet light lunch.

I'll cover dinner spots in a separate post.

Buenos Aires is best known for its steak. There are signs and posters all over town describing the different breeds of cow and cuts of meat. I loved how seriously they take their beef. Be sure to bone up on your Argentine cuts of beef before sitting down at a parrilla, because the English descriptions aren't much help. Lomo (tenderloin) is generally considered the best cut and I enjoyed the lomos best of the steaks I got to try. I had read that Argentinians prefer their steak well done, but as far as I could tell, nearly everyone was ordering their steaks jugoso (medium rare).

La Brigada



We were in San Telmo for a tango show so we decided to visit one of BA's most famous parrillas. Reservations were definitely necessary and though we sat down right when they opened, 8PM which is quite early by BA standards, the restaurant was totally packed by the time we put our orders in.



We started with an order of criadillas (sheep's testicles) and they were cooked perfectly. They were soft yet springy with great grilled aroma to augment the mild offal flavor. They had a full array of offal on offer including chinchulines (intestines), but I couldn't fill up on offal when the steak was the star attraction.



We ordered a couple cuts, but the lomo definitely stole the show. They make a real production out of serving the lomo by carving it with a spoon at the table. The meat really was quite tender yet it packed plenty of beefy flavor. Steaks were quite affordable when compared to what you'd pay at an American steak house. It's no wonder they're so popular in BA.

Parrilla Pena



Whereas La Brigada is the epitome of what tourists expect from a steak house in BA, Parrilla Pena is the epitome of what locals expect. We went there for dinner on our first night in town, and it really set the table for a great week of eating. It's located on a quiet street a couple blocks off the main drag in Recoleta and the restaurant was completely empty until 9:30PM (on a Monday night). We couldn't believe how many parties showed up around 10PM, just as we were finishing up.



They start you off with some serious beef empanadas. They brought one for each of us which is a formidable appetizer. The crust is flaky and buttery such that it actually stands up to the intensely beefy filling. Most empanadas I've seen have been meant as a quick bite or snack, these were a meal in themselves.



Provoleta is a classic appetizer at an Argentine parrilla. It's a disc of provolone cheese that's grilled then topped with olive oil and oregano. It's quite delicious and goes quite well with dry malbec.



Once again we ordered a couple different cuts of beef based on the waiter's recommendation, and once again the lomo was the best. It's remarkable how much flavor the incredibly tender cut can have. They serve it with a garlicky and bright chimichurri sauce. They have a shelf full of malbecs which they retrieve with an arm extending contraption. The entire experience is charming in its simplicity and singular focus on hearty food. Looking around, it was obvious many of the clientele had been visiting this spot for years.

Casa Coupage



Casa Coupage started off as an underground restaurant. There are a number of so-called underground restaurants around town that have few seats, no signage, and require reservations. Casa Coupage was so successful that they moved to a larger space and started taking reservations over the internet. They may not be as underground as they used to be, but the experience was still quite intimate.

They have multiple dining rooms that each seat 2-3 parties. There's one waiter who is both co-owner and the sommelier. Casa Coupage is, first and foremost, a wine-focused restaurant. The menu features several different tiers of wine pairing, and you order your wine tier before you order food. I don't know much about wine and the pours were quite generous that night, so unfortunately I can't provide much detail on the wine side of things. I will say though that if you're looking to geek out about Argentine wine, Casa Coupage is a great spot.



The food was mostly elevated takes on classic Argentine dishes. The aesthetic was fine dining, but the food was more substantial and down to earth than at most fine dining restaurants. Easily my favorite dish of the night was the chinchulines (pig intestines). Offal featured prominently on menus across BA and it was very cool to see intestines on the menu at an upscale restaurant. The exterior was quite crispy while the inside was chewy. There was just enough funk to remind you of what you're eating, but none of the flavors on the plate were overwhelming.



Another hit (no surprise) was the seared steak served with polenta and big kernel corn. The waiter made a point of serving us a non-Malbec wine from Mendoza followed by a late harvest Malbec to go with the cheese course. I wish I understood wine better because they had a really extensive selection of Argentine wines and served us some very interesting glasses.

BA is definitely a meat and red wine kind of town and they really embrace that image. We did end up eating steak for dinner all three nights we were in town, and I can't say I regret that at all.