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?

bookmark

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!

Thanks for all the help,looks like I won't go hungry! Still confused about Cabaña Las Lilas. General feeling here is to skip it, guide books rave, and my friend just returned from BsAs and ate there and said not to miss it. Hmmmm...

I tend to shy away from places that appear in every guide book known to man. (and Cabana Las Lilas is in every guide book..) We have learned that lesson the hard way, restaurants in Paris and London as well as the US..they lose something once they get constant mention in tour guides.

I remembered another place that we just loved, Santé which is on Azcuenaga in Recoleta..a great small bistro with a wonderful menu and hardworking charming owner.

Scarlett can you suggest a place to view tango? Also, flying to Punta del Este for one night, any suggestions? Thanks!

I understand what you are feeling about Las Lilas. We were told by a friend in the States who returns every year to visit family in BsAs not to miss it, and we went with some Porteno friends who really wanted to go there, too.... It was fine, but not worthy of world class status by a long shot, which is what one is led to believe (if you don't read these forums!!)

I have never seen the restaurant at the Spanish club recommended in a guidebook. Perhaps writers presume the restaurant is only open to members. Not so, and the food is delicious and the dinningroom is magnificent. On Av 9 de Julio near to the junction with Av de Mayo. Best meal in my travels the length of Argentina. The winewaiter recomended a wine for me to take home. The wine was half the price of other recomendations and fabulous. I will be back in Argentina in March to ride north and will ship a few cases to the UK. (www.simongandolfi.blogspot.com)

rogfam, we did not even know that we would be able to see a Tango show when we went to the Four Seasons for dinner. While eating we heard the music and asked about it and from there, they booked us a table , we had coffee and dessert and sat in the best seats in the house and watched a very entertaining Tango show ( for free)..
I have heard the most about the Carlos Gardel Esquina? Tango show, (somehow I think I screwed up that name)...That one is huge and grand and you can eat dinner too.
We also want to go to a Milonga ( which is not really a show but where locals go to dance and you can watch)..We will be there in a few months, can't wait :)

rogfam...I hesitated to recommend Cabana Las Lilas in my earlier post because it always takes such a bashing in these threads, leading me to wonder if I was just wacky for liking it so much. lol We had dinner there on our trip and loved it. It was the most expensive meal of the trip, but still less than the same dinner in a similarly-rated restaurant in the U.S. would be. Yes...there were other tourists there; and, yes...I'm sure there are other cheaper and equally delicious parillas in BA. Even so, if I had it to do all over again, I would still have dinner there...I thought it was wonderful.

Thanks Polly for your comments.We are leaning to giving Cabana a try. Living in NY where a steak dinner in a top restaurant runs $150-$200 for a couple, what should I expect there.

I confess--I have eaten in Cabaña Las Lilas several times. . I would not classify it as the number one restaurant by any stretch of the imagination though. If you venture out in Buenos Aires, you will quickly discover more imaginative chefs and steaks that are the equal of or better than Las Lilas. But I won't think less of you if you simply must see for yourself. It is something one should do, I suppose

We paid around $175 US for two. We were really getting into trying Argentinean wines, and that price included three bottles (a sparkling, a red, and a white). We also ordered an appetizer each, three side dishes (which we shared), and two dinosaur-esque steaks. Everything was a la carte.

Has anyone eaten at a restaurant named Cluny? Also, is Cafe Tortoni a good bet?

I visited BA this past Thanksgiving. Couple favorite places were Casa Cruz, Gran Bar Danzon and Don Julio

Go to Cafe Tortoni for the atmosphere and the building itself. It is historic and elegant. Have coffee and desert or a snack. Its not noted as a great place for dinner - but worth a visit more as a part of your sightseeing and general Buenos Aires experience.
They do have reasonably priced "small stage" tango shows which some people say are worth going to.

raquel

Scarlett loved Cluny and we were impressed with the staff, but, unfortunately, never ate there.
At Cafe Tortoni, I arrived without reservations, but gave the honcho a $10.peso gratuity and got a front row table for the wonderful tango show. You'll miss a lot if you don't speak Spanish, but for $30 pesos pp(<$10.US), great fun.
M