Is it better to order an executive lunch or a la carte in Buenos Aires?
 

I visit often Buenos Aires for personal reasons , for this reason I feel things are changing lately.
First of all everything is getting more expensive in Buenos Aires, including of course eating out.
I feel that to-day it is better in many cases to order at la carte instead of falling for those executive or set menus for a fix price.
Now the price for this set menu lunches in most places is around $45 +pesos per person, for this money they give you a main dish no choice here , nothing exciting most of the time, and they add a soda, and sometimes a coffee, or a dessert and if you are lucky both. But not any dessert there is a simple choice between two simple deserts.
Yesterday we were in Barrio Norte , we bumped into a nicely decorate place, and people obviously were having lunch, so we sat down. The lunch choice was a
vegetable tarta, that is a vegetable quiche, with a salad, a soda, coffee and some dessert
this was $50. Several tourist were having lunch.
WE walked a few meters and chose a formal restaurant called Melo at Pacheco de Melo 1833, at the end of the day we spent a bit more,$139 pesos for both to be exact that is less than $ 4 us more per person.
But this is what we had, and it was very well done,
- a half bottle of Norton wine excellent from Mendoza 50 ml
-a half bottle of Mineral Water Villavicencio 50 ml
-one abadejo, excellent fish, grilled with boiled vegetables, including asparagus
-a >Suprema Maryland, which in case you have not tried it Buenos Aires, consist of a huge breast of chicken a la milanesa, grilled bacon, a fried banana a la Cuban, fried
potatoes and cream corn, this is a Buenos Aires classic. Huge and good.
one coffee, cortadito. That is it.

Again and again we had lately disappointing experiences whenever we asked for the set price menu, so I recommend to eat what you really like and at the end of the day
you will be happier spending only a few more bucks.

Things have changed In Buenos Aires in only a few years.

Graziella, I agree that restaurant prices have gone up, and I definitely agree that Melo is a good restaurant.

However, we had several executive lunches that were fullsome (even more food than we could eat) reasonable and with a few good choices on each course.

So, I think it is a matter of checking the menu. Sometimes, especially if this is not one's main meal of the day, it is more lucrative and sensible to order à la carte. Otherwise, an Executive Menu at lunch could be both a bargain and a way to try a more expensive restaurant.

Chao,
~MarnieWDC

Melo is one of our favorite restaurants.
We never ever order executive/set lunches or meals anywhere.
First of all, we are not big eaters and there is no way I would sit down to a few course meal in the middle of the day. There are so many good places to eat that are not expensive here.
I often eat salads or just appetizers, you don't have to spend a lot of money on eating out here. Thank goodness :- )

HI Scarlet, I am glad you agree with me. I understand what MArnie , my advice to tourists is
do not think that always the executive menu is going to be a better deal than a la carte.
Speaking of great place money wise, in San Isidro there is a classic place called La Legua,
this place is packed at lunch and very pleasant. They have an exceptional salad buffer, really
excellent quality and variety, they offer parrila, excellent , grilled fish, and pasta too.
For instance the half fillet mignon which is huge, and delicious , plus the salad bar is only
43 pesos, idem for the trucha patagonica very good too. Bon appetit.

Correction, I made a mistake, the name of the restaurant in San Isidro is La Portena, located
in Fondo de la Legua 290, this place is not far from the Hipodromo de San Isidro.

It is highly unlikely that a tourist would visit La Porteña, as it is located about 20 miles out of town, near the Pan American highway, but it is a reasonably good choice.

http://www.restaurantlaporteña.com.ar/

They are getting so-so reviews lately: http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/La-Portenia-528

When I did my "The REAL Buenos Aires" tour, which involved riding the train to San Isidro, we went there for dinner. http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...enos-aires.cfm

I agree with avrooster it is unlikely that tourists would visit La Portena because it is located in San Isidro, (Lomas de San Isidro, I believe) ,..... if avorooster took his guests to have dinner there it speaks well of this place.
I believe it is an excellent place money wise. I lunched twice lately and was always pleased.
In comparison I paid 43 pesos for a very nice sandwich at lunch at Syrop Follie in Barrio Norte
( salmon and brie) and 43 pesos +8 of cubierto at La Portena for a filet mignon and unlimited
fresh and delicious salad bar,...no comparison to me and shows the difference between downtown and the real buenos aires like avrooster calls the shots.
Of course this should not surprise us it is the same all over the world.

I decided to try Melo yesterday, with DW and DD, in spite of the fact that its latest reviews on Guía Oleo are only so-so.

http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Melo-2135

I was extremely disappointed and DW and DD agreed, so it wasn´t just me. In fact, DD left most of her "milanesa", indicating it seemed to have been fried in oil which had seen better days. Complaining to the waiter got no reaction.

However, the owner's father welcomed us very nicely and was helpful in general, but didn´t help with the food.

I would give the place 2 stars out of 5 and most certainly will not return. Rodi Bar is much better, except for the ambiance.

Avrooster, hola,

I am disappointed to hear about Melo, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants when we stay in Recoleta. We did not get there this year, and this suggests that we will not bother next year.

Rodi bar has an interesting atmosphere for those of us used to more conventional restaurants - and the service is sometimes comical in its style. Not like home cooking, but really good !

~Marnie

Hi, Marnie!

Every once in a while, we go into town to have dinner with DD.

She said last night she would prefer the Rodi Bar for our next dinner with her.

Okay, we have eaten at Rodi Bar in past trips and loved it. This trip, not so much. 3 of the 4 of us did not like our food. Only the milanesa pleased. We did all love the waiter -- he was very entertaining. My feeling is that most restaurants can only do so many dishes really well, Rodi Bar has a huge menu, so I think it can be hit or miss. Just the opinion of one visitor

"most restaurants can only do so many dishes really well".

I most certainly agree.

I agree, you cannot expect every dish to be super, but Rodi Bar's steaks and Maryland chicken have been consistently good, in my and DH's meals. And their calabasa is quite good too - that and a bottle of Malbec and.......

But I know my friends have been disappointed in their meals there, so I think it must depend on the choices or the 'hit or miss' of the beef given the trend toward more feedlots.

Oh well,what I wouldn't give to be able to join those roosters there for dinner.
~Marnie

Well, Marnie, you could leave DH in "rainy, dreary and cold" DC and join us here!

It won't last forever, but the weather has been absolutely wonderful in BA during these last few days!

They make two dishes at the Rodi Bar that are just great .. one is fish stuffed with leaks and some kind of cheese.. delicious every time and the other is their Fusilli Putanesca .. nice bite to it with the tang of anchovies..
I am taking a break from eating out .. we had dinner out almost every day and most lunches for the past 2 weeks and I was actually looking forward to salads and sandwiches and plain food again.
It won't last long though :)
Marnie, we had dinner at Hermanns the other night. When the waiter took the dishes away, I said something you taught me .. it worked ..:D

Oh, Scarlett, I am such a Castillano maven. You taught me one of my favorite expressions: I speak menu ! So we are even.

Youall are thinking gloves and boots these days as we are thinking sandles and suntan cream --- and still wearing gloves and boots ! Drat ! The best antidote to this lingering winter...is apartment hunting for BsAs in the austral winter of 2012 :-)

Best,
~Marnie

Sure wish we had your recs when we were there. As a matter of fact, one person actually said, "What does Scarlett eat here?!?"

For those of you knowing Spanish, I believe it goes, " cada baile como bailado"
, we had a good lunch at Melo the other day and talking about Rudi a place I have known
for some 40 years or so, our last meal was totally horrible. As MARNIE rightly
points out it depends a lot of what you order and who is cooking that day.
If you wish to know what was horrible and why I can tell you because although
a couple of months have elapsed I remember, actually they were two main courses you problably do not care much about, but my husband and I wrongly believed at the time that they shoud be good in a place like Rodi, the matter in fact I had tried them before and they were fine.
The were" sesos a la milanesa" and" polenta con carne a la cacerola", both were
really unacceptable, we had to turned them back.
I also like the ambiance of places like RODI and others that have disapeared
as time goes by.
One of them , may be Avroosters knows about it was located in Callao or EntreRios and
was favored by actors and professional singers," puchero" was great and much more.
Restorants like those had a lot of history, same for marvelous cafes like one at the corner of Callao and Santa Fe,I forgot the name and many more.
Long gone as many more....good or bad they have been replaced by the new places in the re invented Palermos......and Puerto Madero.
Have fun and bon appetit.
palermos

I wish to clarify that long ago some cafes in Buenos Aires used to be upgraded to Confiterias,
women generally did not go to Cafes but they did go to Confiterias. The one in Callao and
Santa Fe which was magnificent was called Confiteria Aguila.
To give you and idea how conservative the Buenos Aires society was as early as the nineteen thirties I recall reading an essay of Victorio Ocampo , stating that in the 30-40 or may be later
women alone in a confiteria were not allowed to smoke....!!!
Another thing which been Uruguayan and a tennis player always shocked me: up to very recently
( and it might very well been in effect today) in the Jockey Club if women were playing tennis,
and men wished to play women had to leave the court upon their demand.
Historically Uruguay was more ready and able to advance regarding women rights, like the right to divorce. For decades
Argentine crossed the River Plate to obtain divorces.

A factor you don´t mention, Graziella5b:

The Jockey Club has only male members.

Some names, Graziella:

El Tropezón and El Petit Café.

Are those the ones you are talking about?

Regarding the Jockey Club I do not know if it is that wives are allowed to play with limitations or exactly how is the membership arrangements but for sure I know that when women are playing tennis they
are supposed to leave the court if the court is requested by men . I was a member for years at the Buenos Aires
Lawn Tennis and fellow women members told me that it had happened to them.

I was checking and The Tropezon restaurant located in Callao and welknown for its puchero was closed in 1963, so it cannot be the one
I was talking qbout because we had dinner there around 1975+.......t
I found a little sad that some famous Confiterias of Buenos AIres are gone, instead one goes to Paris or Rome or Madrid and it is marvelous to find for instance Les Deux Magot at the same
corner were I understand Hemmingway, Sartre, Picasso or heavens knows who sat there.
Well I do not wish to sound as if I know Buenos Aires , but it is true that for me being born in Montevideo, going to Buenos Aires in my youth it was always an exciting trip, to the
Paris of Latin America asi it was called.

Greetings....I have not posted here in a while but this is a topic that interests me. Unless we are meeting others for dinner, my wife and I usually eat a late lunch and have a very light dinner. We almost always eat Executive Lunches....Many restaurants offer as many 4 or 5 options for each course....and the option of having three courses with an appetizer, main, course and dessert or simply two courses of your choice. Many include a drink with your meal (soft drink, tea, bottled water or a glass of house wine) and coffee after dessert....Some restaurants, such as La Parolaccia, usually includes both a pre dinner drink and limocello to finish the meal...

The variety and quality varies by restaurant but if you check the menus and choose wisely, Executive Lunches offer a great option....We especially liked Bella Italia's 60 peso Executive Lunch on our recent trip.

I'm happy drdawggy (the greatest ever Internet expert on Argentina) finally found here "a topic that interests" him.

Perhaps all of us should try to keep him interested, so we can benefit from his incomparable input!

In case anyone wonders, I'm just kidding. LOL!

Marni, I don't think anyone has to worry about Melo not being as delicious as always.
We had dinner there a couple of nights ago, one of the dishes was a pasta with calamari and shrimp .. this rich delicious seafood pasta. We were with 4 other people and everyone was quite happy ..
We also had a lunch at Cafe Biela and noticed that the people at the table next to us were Ozzie Osbourne and some band members ... what a sight .. the tourists, the locals and Ozzie :- )

Marnie (with an "e" at the end): I obviously stand by my negative opinion on Melo.

On Guía Oleo http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Melo-2135 it´s food gets a rating of only 13 points out of maximum of 30, whereas other restaurants get up to 27, which says it all.

So many restaurant reports seem to indicate a 'good days-bad days' assessment. It makes one wonder...perhaps there are 'substitute chef' days; we seem to have hit that at La Payuca on Santa Fe near Equador, unless that was another example of 'feedlot' bife moving in on the del campo bife ?

And again, differences in taste. Happily, there is room for lots of restaurants - and lots of opinions.

~Marnie

You are right , Marnie. It is all a matter of Taste.
Happily, there are so many restaurants in this city, we can constantly be discovering new places.
I know we are lucky to live in the city and be able to just pop into any place that we wish, easily.
And I much prefer "rating" restaurants personally rather than depending on guides.

We can agree on that, Marnie, as it IS, quite obviously, a matter of taste.

But I think it is better to form one's opinion AND also listen to what other people say, for example on Guía Oleo: http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Melo-2135 where many other diners seem to agree with me, as I said before on this thread.

After all, Melo could just be having a bad day or using a "substitute chef", as you suggest.

However, if the place´s food barely gets a "Fair" rating (13 out of 30 points) over a long period of time, the "just a bad day" theory loses weight.

Have a great time in our town.

Since Melo is crowded most nights, I am guessing that it might be more of a "locals" place than a guide book tourist place ?
Whatever the reason, I might try not to post my favorites on Travel forums since there is a possibility ones favorite ends up being too crowded lol.
I am having a great time in "your" town .. we are coming up to the 4th anniversary of our arrival in Buenos Aires.. and we love our new hometown even more as the years go by :D

I clearly (?) said "our" town, not "my" town.

BTW, http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/ is written by locals.

I'm a little hurt AV. If I had made such a glaring error I feel certain you would have provided me with a lesson in English grammar regarding the the difference between possessive plural (our) and singular pronouns (my). You must assume Scarlett is more knowledgeable than me ( or is it I? or myself, maybe?)...

Well, Doc, as long as that makes you post here, delighting us with your immense wisdom, I don't mind if you are "a little hurt".

As usual, I hasten to explain that I'm just kidding, so the good doctor has fun and posts here more often.

BTW, Doc: "regarding the the difference"?

With reference to your question, I don´t have an answer, as I must admit I have no clue about whether one TA DE is "more knowledgeable" than the other.

I meant knowledgeable about English grammar not knowledge of BA....so you merely noted Scarlett's error without providing supplemental information about the meaning of "our" vs "my"

I have never been to Melo so I will make no comment sbout the quality of food, except to say that Guia Oleo is a good source for the opinions of locals about the quality of food around town. Very few tourists post there.

I know perfectly well what you meant, Doc. How long have you known me? LOL!!!!

Doc, you know how much everyone loves you here, but I have seen there are FOUR unanswered questions just on the first page of the Argentina TA forum.

Shouldn´t you be doing your job as DE out there, instead of having fun here?

:)
On the topic of who is most knowledgeable re Argentina.

Scarlett must know more than twice as much as me. She has over 13,000 posts on TA while I am struggling to make it to 6,000.

on a serious note:

Too bad you were black listed on TA, done in by unscrupulous scallywags telling lies about you. Your 70 or so years of experience are sorely missed.

OMG, Doc!

"scallywags" sounds awful, but I'll have to ask Google exactly what it means.

LOL!!!!

I know less than both of you but I just talk more, obviously.
And "my" vs "our" - In my mind, I see Argentina as most of all , "belonging " to the people who are born here, whose families are born here... It is mine as of now, since I have chosen to live here but when someone says, enjoy our town, my response being to one of them, would be that I do enjoy your town.
Perhaps a bit of English/Spanish confusion or whatever.
Certainly never meant in any way but courteous.

Most certainly not.

Dear readers: do not despair! Sooner or later, most likely later rather than sooner, we'll get back to the subject matter of executive versus a la carte lunches. LOL!!!

Or is this more fun and we should keep going?