Dinner in Buenos Aires
 

One week visit in Feb., what restaurants would you suggest? Is there a #1 restaurant that must be visited?

Number one is very subjective. Some of the best known restaurants fail to deliever the best value. There are certain zones to try with concentrations of excellent restaurants.....Palermo Soho/Hollywood, Recoleta, and Las Canitas....as well as the far more touristy Puerto Madero.

The one "must try" in Buenos Aires is steak.

Here are two guides to help get you started: Guia Oleo ranks restaurants based on customer reviews. Saltshaker is a blog by an American expat foodie.
http://guiaoleo.com.ar/index.php?lan...bab3c50ee9cb09

www.saltshaker.net

We thought saltshaker's (less expensive)recommendations quite helpful: loved Il Matterello in La Boca for comida, but I would not go at night.
El Porteno (with avr) and Juana M are very good parrillas.
Cabernet in Palermo Soho is more expensive, but excellent.
Ligure (classic French) was a nice change.
Buen provecho.
M

One place you will be tempted to visit because it is well known is Cabana las Lilas in Puerto Madero. Dont do it. The food is ok but very expensive. There are many, many better and far less expensive options. Hundreds if not thousands of places.....

I concur about Cabana Las Lilas. At the insistence of everyone else in my group (I knew better from the forums!), we ate there. Only one cut of meat was fantastic; the others were just good, and the place had an assembly line feel to me. The setting is nice, on the water. But, I just don't get why it's listed in both the book "1000 Places to See Before you Die," and in the article the late R.W. Apple wrote on "ten restaurants worth taking a plane for." Maybe these writeups were based on long-ago experiences.

The way I see it, Cabaña Las Lilas is simply a tourist trap and we have warned about this over and over both here and on tripadvisor.com

Claro que si!
Nada mas.
M

For a very unique (and somewhat erotic) dining experience, I recommend Te Metare Ramirez. Amazing food, and while not totally explicit, you should be comfortable with sexual artwork and innuendo to appreciate. It was one of our most memorable dining experiences on our visit. http://www.tematareramirez.com/back/...enes_somos.htm

Other favorites: Il Gran Caruso in Puerto Madero for some of the best Italian food we've ever had (even in Italy). We also loved La Casa Esteban de Luca in San Telmo (we liked it so much we at there twice).

It is virtually impossible to find bad food in Buenos Aires...my husband and I agreed that we had the best food of our lives in that city. Enjoy!

How about the London Grill on Reconquista or Cantina Norte (Borges favourite) in M.T. Alvear.

I thought the London Grill had closed many years ago. Has it reopened?

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Sweet polly. Is Te Metare Ramirez expensive? It looks very interesting.
I would like to surprise my husband.He will like it. We are planning to be in BA in May and planning to stay in Recoleta. Is Te Metare Ramirez far from it? Do I need a reservation?

kurochca...we enjoyed a multi-course dinner with two bottles of nice Argentinean wine there in September for around $100 U.S. (that was with an appetizer and main course each, and sharing the chocolate fondue for dessert). Starters ran from around $7-$12, salads for $7-$10, most main courses were around $15, and desserts were $4-$5 (this is all in US dollars). I thought it was a relative bargain...although I thought most of the restaurants in BA were astonishing inexpensive, especially considering how fantastic all the food is.

It's not too far from Recoleta...cabs are dirt cheap in BA, and you could really get there from almost any place in the city for less than $5. We did make a reservation...the place is not very large, and was filled up on the weeknight when we went. It was fun...interesting and one-of-a-kind, for sure.

I wish my wife would surpise me with a dinner at Te Metare Ramirez. It looks like lots of fun! Enjoy

Dear sweet polly. Thank you for your detailed description. I will definitely place a reservation. I also would like to arrange at least one lesson for my husband. He moves beautifully when he dances, but never had a chance to take lessons. Unfortunately I am not as good as he is and also would like him to experience tango with Argentinean dancer. Any suggestions?

As Av pointed out, London Grill has been closed for years. It still gets written up in guidebooks, amazingly.

Thanks dd for the routing to my site.

Concur on all the Cabaña Las Lilas warnings... for better steaks at half the price I'd head to El Trapiche, Don Julio, El Obrero, La Cabrera, or any of dozens of others. Going to La Boca at night for Il Materello is not a problem, just go and leave by cab - I wouldn't walk there at night - but the menu's the same at lunch, so if you're more comfie in a less spiffy neighborhood in the day, go then.

Hi Dan,
My comment re Il Matterello was based on the dozen or so taxi drivers who stopped to warn us (they relaxed when we responded in Spanish, but said "not at night").
El Trapiche was quite good, but be prepared to split orders (the interesting salad comes in a small bucket and would feed four or more).
Just around the corner is Gardelito which is good and very inexpensive: I think a bottle of Malbec was $12. AR pesos.
Buen provecho.
M

The owner of the Bistro Granda suggested that we go to Ill Materello at night, he just said to be sure to take the right taxi :)

We liked Cluny in Palermo.

We will be back in the spring so I am taking more names for more lists :)

S, et. al.
We walked all around Palermo Soho on our early AM arrival day and really liked the looks of Cluny and their staff were most gracious.
I really don't know why we didn't get there - Oh, yes, we wasted a day in Colonia, UR, but comida was wonderful at Meson de la Plaza (the UR '05 Castel Pujol trebbiano - a white wine from an IT grape - was world class).
M

Juana M near la Recova is an awesome parrilla - great value, amazing salad bar, cool atmosphere. I highly recommend the entrana. Also, Bar Uriarte in Palermo is a fantastic restaurant. Enjoy!