Buenos Aires Travel Guide
Eating in Buenos Aires
How to eat like a porteño — ordering at a parrilla and choosing your cuts, the rhythm of the day from medialunas to midnight dinner, empanadas, the city's Italian-style pizza and ice cream, Malbec and vermouth, and where food lovers should base themselves.
Buenos Aires is one of the great eating cities of the world, and it is not only about steak, though the steak is extraordinary. The city's food is the product of its history: the beef and open-fire cooking of the pampas, the Italian and Spanish heritage of the immigrants who arrived by the million, and a social culture in which a meal is something to be lingered over for hours. This guide explains how it works.
The daily rhythm. Mornings start with coffee and medialunas, small, glazed croissants, either buttery or made with lard, eaten standing at a bar or at a café table. Lunch is the main meal for many, from about one to three, and on weekdays many restaurants offer an inexpensive set menu. Late afternoon brings the merienda, coffee or mate with pastries, often facturas filled with dulce de leche or quince. Dinner begins at nine at the earliest and more often at ten, and on weekends a table at eleven is perfectly normal. If you want a choice of tables at popular places without a reservation, go at eight and accept that you will be eating with other visitors.
The parrilla: how to order. The parrilla, the grill restaurant, is the essential Argentine meal. Beef is cooked slowly over wood or charcoal embers, not flames, by a parrillero who tends the coals for hours, and the cooking is simple: salt, fire and time. A classic meal begins with provoleta, a disc of provolone grilled until crisp and molten and sprinkled with oregano, and achuras, the offal and sausages: chorizo, morcilla blood sausage, chinchulines (crispy grilled intestines) and mollejas, sweetbreads, which are the treat that converts sceptics. Then come the cuts. Bife de chorizo is the thick sirloin strip, the classic order. Ojo de bife is the ribeye, richer and more marbled. Entraña, skirt steak, is thin, intensely flavoured and much loved by locals. Vacío, flank, is juicy and fatty; tira de asado, short ribs cut across the bone, is the backyard asado favourite; and lomo, tenderloin, is the most tender and least flavourful. Ask for jugoso for rare, a punto for medium and cocido for well done; Argentine medium is often closer to medium-well, so err on the rare side. The only sauces are chimichurri, the parsley, garlic, oregano and vinegar dressing, and salsa criolla, a chopped tomato, onion and pepper relish. Sides are simple: chips, a mixed salad, grilled vegetables. Portions are huge, so share a few cuts between two or three people.
Choosing a parrilla. Buenos Aires has every kind, from bustling neighbourhood grills with paper tablecloths and waiters in white jackets to celebrated steakhouses in Palermo where tables are booked weeks ahead and the beef is dry-aged. The best advice is to try both: one famous place for the occasion and one local spot recommended by your hotel or a neighbour, where you will eat almost as well for far less. At weekends, families gather at home for the asado, a long afternoon of grilling, so if you are invited to one, accept.
Empanadas and more. Empanadas are everywhere, baked or fried, with fillings of beef, chicken, ham and cheese, onion and cheese or humita, a creamy sweetcorn mix; porteños order them by the dozen for delivery, and each filling is identified by its pleated seal. A hands-on empanadas class is a fun way to learn, and the city's northern regional restaurants serve the spicy beef versions of Salta and Tucumán alongside locro, a hearty corn and meat stew traditionally eaten on national holidays. Choripán, a grilled chorizo in crusty bread with chimichurri, is the classic street food at markets, football matches and along the Costanera.
The Italian city. More than half of porteños have Italian ancestry, and it shows. Buenos Aires pizza is a style of its own: thick, with a deep layer of cheese, eaten standing at the counter of the old pizzerias on Avenida Corrientes, often with a slice of fainá, a chickpea flatbread, on top. Fresh pasta, gnocchi on the twenty-ninth of each month (a tradition said to bring luck), and milanesas, breaded cutlets, often topped with ham, cheese and tomato a la napolitana, fill the menus of the neighbourhood bodegones, the old-fashioned, generous and inexpensive restaurants beloved by locals. And the helado, Argentine ice cream of Italian heritage, is among the best in the world; try dulce de leche in all its variations, served in generous cones in heladerías open late into the night.
What to drink. Argentina is one of the world's great wine countries, and Malbec from Mendoza is the natural partner for a steak. Look beyond it too: Cabernet Franc, Bonarda, and the fresh white Torrontés from Salta. Vermouth has had a revival, served on ice with soda in old-style bars. Fernet with cola, the bittersweet national drink, is an acquired taste worth acquiring. Coffee culture is strong, and the city's historic cafés are institutions. Mate, the shared herbal infusion, is drunk everywhere but rarely sold in cafés; if someone offers you one, accept.
Where to eat by neighbourhood. Palermo Soho and Hollywood have the most famous parrillas, the newest restaurants and the best cocktail and wine bars. San Telmo mixes traditional bodegones and parrillas with the stalls of the Mercado de San Telmo. Recoleta has classic cafés and refined dining. Puerto Madero has smart steakhouses on the docks, pleasant but pricey. Avenida Corrientes is the place for pizza and late-night cafés after a show.
Practical notes. Tip around ten percent in cash. Bread may come with a small cover charge. Vegetarians eat well at pizzerias, Italian restaurants, empanada shops and the growing number of modern restaurants, and even at parrillas, provoleta, grilled vegetables and salads are standard. Book the most famous parrillas well ahead, and if you cannot get a table, go at opening time and queue: it is part of the experience.