There are a few givens for visitors to Buenos Aires. You will hear music. You will see tango. You will see historical sights. And you will eat ridiculously well.
On September 26th, 2016, The World’s 50 Best awarded 8 of Buenos Aires’ restaurants places in Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America. Coming for a visit? Here’s a bit about each restaurant and where to find it.
1. Tegui (#9 in the top 50), also named number 68 in the top 100 restaurants in the world
Address: Costa Rica 5852, Palermo, Buenos Aires
This stylish restaurant’s chef, Germán Martitegui has worked in France, the US and Argentina and makes mostly Argentine food, with international touches. The tasting menu is one of the top choices here.
2. El Baqueano (#13 in the top 50)
Address: Chile 495, San Telmo, Buenos Aires
This restaurant is known for Fernando Riviola’s use of unusual, locally-sourced meats, such as llama and alligator, but he is known for his creative preparations, such as using the river fish pacu to make a dish similar to one of Argentina’s signature meat dishes, bife de chorizo.
3. Don Julio (#21 in the top 50)
Address: Guatemala 4691, Palermo Viejo, Buenos Aires
Chef Gastón Casorla does what most other Argentine steak houses wish they could. He uses only grass-fed, aged Aberdeen Angus and Hereford beef, and is able to entice guests go to beyond the bife de chorizo chosen by many diners, including skirt steak and his sweetbread appetizer.
4.Aramburu (#26 in the top 50)
Address: Salta 1050, Microcentro (or Monserrat?), Buenos Aires
This diminutive, 16-seat restaurant, run by Gonzalo Aramburu and Juan Pedro Piergentili offers modern cuisine made with traditional and foraged ingredients such as wakame seaweed and sea asparagus.
5. Elena (#31 in the top 50)
Address: Restaurant of the Four Seasons Hotel, Posadas 1086/88 Retiro, Buenos Aires
Chefs Juan Gaffuri and Nicolás Díaz Rosaenz prepare elegant porteño food here, and have a much loved, 45-day dry aged T-bone steak on the menu. They also serve one of Buenos Aires’ favorite brunches every Sunday.
6. La Cabrera (#33 in the top 50)
Address: José Antonio Cabrera 5127, Palermo, Buenos Aires
This restaurant—the brainchild of Gastón Riveira—is pure porteño high-end steak house, rounding out the menu with some of Argentina’s best wines.
7. Chila (#35 in the top 50)
Address: Alicia Moreau de Justo 1160, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires
Soledad Nardelli’s Puerto Madero restaurant reinterprets Argentine classics with de- and re-constructed preparations, and sources her ingredients from small producers.
8.Puratierra (#50 in the top 50)
Address: 3 de Febrero 1167, Belgrano, Buenos Aires
Chef Martín Molteni is at the helm here, and in 2016 he has collaborated with some of Argentina’s best chefs to create the restaurant’s elegant menu. Look for cutting-edge meals, on artistically composed plates featuring meat and fish with herbs, flowers, sprouts and grains.
Wherever you choose, be sure to plan ahead, and note whether they’re open the day of the week you’re interested in (some are closed on Mondays) or serve lunch on the day of your choice. Most importantly, remember that dinner in Argentina starts late. No one will judge you for having a late lunch and a quick nap between wandering the streets of BA, taking in art, antiques and maybe even El Ateneo, considered the world’s second most beautiful bookstore by the Guardian, and your late night Argentine dinner.
