Eat Drink Buenos Aires: Top 10 for Steak, Sushi & Sours

Ever since I left Buenos Aires a little over a year ago, I’ve been promising to write a list of my top restaurants to share with the growing army of friends visiting Argentina for the first time.

It was a tough task, since I truly believe Buenos Aires offers some of the best restaurant choices in the world, but I’ve finally put together a list of my favourites. Click here to see the list.

Rain, Roulette and Raving in Punta del Este

The day after I arrive home from the Brazilian surf trip, my friend B arrives from England for her two-week stay, in which we will attempt to see as much of South America as humanly possible whilst still working Monday to Friday.

After a week of work, we're going to Punta del Este in Uruguay for a long bank-holiday weekend of beach-life. We have a flight booked for 22:20 on Friday night to Punta, with Buquebus Lineas Aereas. Big mistake. Do not ever fly BQB Lineas Aereas. They are basically the tiny airline arm of Buquebus, the brilliant company that runs ferries and buses between Argentina and Uruguay. 

The problem is no one has ever heard of the airline, and consequently their planes are so tiny they cannot set off in a storm. And there is a storm. So we wait for, ummm, almost three hours in the tiniest, dingiest underground room of the airport, 15 minutes walk away from any shops or even toilets and not to mention freezing cold, with only the most minimal updates from the airline about what's happening with our plane. We can't go in search of food or warmth because they keep telling us we're expecting to fly "any time now". "Any time now," in BQB Lineas Aereas terms, means anything from minutes to hours to days.

Rodrigo, the owner of the hostel we've booked in Punta, has invited us to a party when we arrive just after midnight, but at this rate we'll be lucky if we arrive before Sunday, so we tell him it's unlikely. Eventually, we're shuffled onto a tiny propeller plane and we arrive in Punta some time around 3am.  

La Lomita del Chingolo is a small guest-house/hostel about 15 minutes' walk from the beach. It's set back from the main streets and beaches and is out on its own behind a bit of bush - not ideal for walking back late at night. (Get a taxi). The hostel is friendly and popular with international travellers, though, and quite frankly it's one of the cheapest places we could find through Hostelworld.com 

Punta del Este is known as one of the most expensive places in the whole of South America and, as such, you don't get a lot of value for your money. Our twin room out the back of the guesthouse is a little like a prison cell, with no natural light and only the tiniest of windows. There's no air conditioning, so it's a good job we don't need it - it's pouring with rain outside for most of our stay. The breakfast is half-decent but nothing to write home about: cheese and ham toasties, some cereal, coffee. Outside the hostel there's a pretty cool chill-out area, which would be ideal in good weather but the rain puts a bit of a dampener on things:

The chill-out area at La Lomita del Chingolo

I find Punta del Este to be a bit of a culture shock after Brazil and Argentina. It's a bit like going back in time, and the buildings are a total mishmash of modern stone artiness, old British brickwork and wooden shacks. We're just out of high season (January) when all the celebrities flock to Punta for their holidays, but the place seems a little deserted at times. I expected it to be totally glamorous and brimming with South American beauties and models wearing shades and heels, but it's not. It's just a little, well, curious. The beach is pretty average and it costs a fortune to hire a sunbed. 

On Saturday night, we head to the huge Casino at the Conrad Hotel, which seems to be one of the main things to do of a night in Punta. There's a fairly fun vibe, with some dancing and music, but unless you're a hardcore gambler, you'll get bored after a while. Neither of us know the first thing about gambling but we somehow manage to walk away with US$80 of winnings each on the roulette, so we cut our losses and leave!

Winnings at the casino

On Sunday, we take a bus out to a place up the coast from Punta called José Ignacio. It's more beautiful than Punta itself and has a much more exclusive feel. We go for Sunday brunch at a very famous restaurant right on the beach, La Huella. 

La Huella is a fairly exclusive, extended-wooden-shack type restaurant full of beautiful, rich people (just like I imagined Punta to be). It serves fresh sushi and seafood as well as enormous grilled fish and grilled vegetables. We've been told it's customary to spend all day chilling at La Huella, but there's an hour and a half wait for a table so we accept a bar seat while we wait, and order cocktails and sushi as we watch the chefs at work. 

Sushi and cocktails at La Huella

Accepting a bar seat seems to be a bit of a loophole to the massive waiting list as we don't have to wait long at all for the table at the bar and we're soon scoffing down delicious sushi that's prepared right in front of us. After about an hour and a half, we get an actual table outside with a beach view, and order fish and vegetables. The meal is superb and we while away the rest of the afternoon eating, drinking and people-watching in this very bustling restaurant.

Phallic veg at La Huella

For the rest of our stay in Punta, we enjoy the beach and local restaurants, some shopping in the town, plus a big home-cooked barbecue at La Lomita, courtesy of the owner, Rodrigo, and his wife. One of the nights, we head out to sample some of the cheesy nightlife at beachside bar Moby Dick. It's a British-style pub on a little strip of bars and nightclubs and is packed with young revellers. The music is very cheesy and the crowd in their early 20s. It would have been fun if we'd been a decade younger, but nevertheless we still have a good time and enjoy being amusingly chatted up by some way-too-young Argentines. 

After a long weekend in Punta, I've had a great time but the weather has definitely put a dampener on our enjoyment. The place is known as the San Tropez of South America, but it definitely ain't. There are plenty of nicer places in the South of Brazil - Florianópolis and Búzios, to name but two. Nevertheless, I'm glad I've been, and the great food we've had makes it more than worthwhile. That said, if your budget is low, don't even think about going to Punta.

Buenos Aires Sushi: Dashi & Ceviche

Despite the fact that Buenos Aires is dead in January, I manage to find a few food highlights to keep me going for the month:

Ceviche (Costa Rica, 5644, Palermo)

This Peruvian ceviche restaurant in Palermo Hollywood, right behind my flat, offers 25% discount on food and drink for chicas every Wednesday evening, so I book a table and head there with a group of gal-pals and a lucky token male. We are shown through the chic main restaurant, decorated with paintings, before being seated out the back in a leafy, decked patio area on a big, comfy, oval table.

Firstly, the menu is vast. Obviously, ceviche and sushi are offered in abundance, but there are also plenty of hot dishes, such as lomo salteado, and too many types of sushi rolls to even contemplate choosing from. We order a big selection of some very original creations, including:

Strawberry Roll: Philadelphia cheese, strawberry pieces, smoked salmon and teriyaki sauce

Honey Mustard Roll: Tempura chicken, lettuce and avocado with honey and mustard sauce 

Golden Roll: Philadelphia cheese, langoustine, mango and passionfruit sauce

Photo from Ceviche website

Ceviche certainly isn't cheap, but the 25% ladies' night discount makes it worthwhile and I'm well-impressed with the selection on offer and the quality of the food. I'll definitely go back!

Dashi Sushi (Fitz Roy, 1613, Palermo Hollywood)

A couple of days after my Ceviche experience, a friend gets in touch to say that a young couple he knows are visiting Buenos Aires and they want to meet up with ex-pats, so I agree to meet them for dinner at Dashi Sushi. It's a curious arrangement, as I don't know the couple in question, I'll probably never see them again, and they arrive 20 minutes late, but they turn out to be brilliant fun and it's great to have English-speaking company over good food.

Dashi Sushi has a tricky job, being located just a few minutes' walk from both Osaka and Ceviche, two of the best Peruvian restaurants in the area, and it doesn't help itself much by maintaining prices just as high as its rivals. As a consequence, the dim-lit restaurant is pretty empty, and lacks the atmosphere and ambience of Osaka and Ceviche.

Photo from Dashi's website

The food and cocktails are great at Dashi but the service just isn't as friendly, nor the atmosphere as good, as that of Osaka, and it's just too pricey to justify choosing it again over one of its superior rivals. Would I go back? Yes, I would, but it definitely wouldn't be my first choice.

The upside, of course, is that I don't get murdered by the two random strangers I meet there for dinner. Happy days.

A Long Weekend of Buenos Aires Dining

No sooner have I got settled again in Buenos Aires than my newly-wed couple friends arrive for a 10-day late honeymoon. They are staying with me in Buenos Aires for a few days either side of a trip to Mendoza and a bit of gaucho ranch life, so I set out to show them my favourite dining spots in the capital, plus a few new ones we'll discover together...

Thursday 24 November - Bardot and Soberbia 22 

We kick off at Bardot on Honduras for a pre-dinner cocktail. I've walked past this place many a time with its purple and pink interior and thought it looked like a trendy brothel, but apparently it's a Peruvian-Japanese sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant tends to look empty whenever I walk past, so we just sit outside for a cocktail on the street. The Pisco Sour - a cocktail made of pisco liqueur, lemon, angostura and egg white - is simply perfect and refreshing.

Bardot, Honduras - image from http://www.restobardot.com/es/index.html

After the cocktails, we end up at Soberbia 22 because we leave it a bit too late to book and everywhere else is so busy. I really fancy going to Las Cabras on the corner of Fitz Roy and El Salvador, but unfortunately the place is heaving and they can't sit us down until 11pm and my friends - newly arrived from London - are a little too tired for an Argie-late mealtime. So we head to 22, a pretty empty-looking parrilla on Fitz Roy with Guatemala - the only place we can find that's not completely heaving. 

We sit outside on the street and, unfortunately, see a lone cockroach scuttle up the wall right next to our table, but we're not too perturbed since it's not inside the restaurant and it's a hot, hot night - I guess we can't take it out too much on Soberbia 22. The steak is pretty good and my newly arrived travel friends are perfectly happy, so we all go to bed well-fed and well-rested.

Friday 25 November - Cabaña Las Lilas

Friday evening, we head to Cabaña Las Lilas, a famous, touristy steak joint in the popular Puerto Madero port area. I have been here twice before, in 2007 and 2008 - the first time brilliant, the second time disappointing - so am not sure what to expect of it in 2011. One thing's for sure though, the place couldn't fail to disappoint any newcomer to Buenos Aires in terms of its decor and atmosphere - as you walk through from the front entrance of the restaurant on Alicia Moreau de Justo, you can't fail to notice the enormous raw steaks on show in the kitchen, where you can also watch the chefs at work.

A chef at work at Cabana Las Lilas

We barely know where to start with this huge array of steak on offer... Ojo de Bife, Bife de Chorizo, Asado de Tira, or the enormous Bife de Costilla... 

We kick off with the Cabaña Las Lilas house cocktail, consisting of gin, peach pulp and champagne. Then, because we are mad, sun-obsessed English folk, we decide to sit outside on the terrace in the baking evening heat - a decision we later regret.

I've somehow managed to wangle myself a free steak and wine lunch at an Argentine mining company's end-of-year press do, so I can't quite manage another steak and I order the pollo de campo - an absolutely exquisitely grilled free-range chicken, which I cannot fault. The others order steak and are not disappointed in the slightest. The accompaniments are enormous and we're so full we can't quite manage the limoncello and sweet treats that come with our coffees... 

Limoncello at Cabana Las Lilas

I can safely say Cabaña Las Lilas is happily back in my good books. Yes, it is certainly one of the most expensive places to eat in Buenos Aires - as you might expect in one of the most touristy areas - but the food is abundant and can't be faulted, and my guests are well-nourished and delighted.

Saturday 26 November - Osaka Part II

After an afternoon in La Boca, in which we get scammed by a cafe bar that gives us a 50-peso note as change that we only realise is fake when a taxi driver refuses to accept it, the three of us are happy to be back in the comfort and safety of relatively scam-free Palermo Hollywood in time for dinner. I am proud to take my guests to Osaka, and I dare even say the sushi restaurant is even better second time round. We order the usual mix of salmon sashimi, mouth-watering ceviche and a few hot dishes and, of course, the essential Saturday-night pisco sour for good measure.

Sunday 27 November - Olsen and San Telmo Sunday

Lazy Olsen Sunday brunch

We arrive early for brunch at the well-known Scandinavian vodka-bar-come-brunch-spot Olsen (on Gorriti 5870) as I know it's hard to get a table here on Sundays - the place is full by 12:30. The menu is super-simple but it works: think coffee, orange juice and scrambled egg or omelette. We while away a couple of hours in this hip, open-air eatery (though it's a little too early for vodka).

After brunch, we jump in a taxi to San Telmo, the neighbourhood known for its Sunday antique markets, funky gift shops and restaurants. We wind up in an old deli place with a cool interior and ask if we can just order some cheese and bits of ham and salami. The old man on the deli counter looks at us as if we're complete nutters for ordering off-menu, but eventually turns up with an enormous plate of cheese, olives and assorted ham. Seeing our order, a couple at a nearby table asks for the same and, soon enough, we've started a trend and the entire restaurant is chomping away on huge plates of delicatessen items. 

Deli food in San Telmo

Unfortunately, I fail to note the name of the restaurant, so it will just have to be known as the unnamed San Telmo deli...

The unnamed restaurant in San Telmo

Lunching Like a Brit in Buenos Aires

With the Irishman gone, it's back to my solo Buenos Aires life and I'm back at work on Monday, going for sushi lunch at my favourite little café, Green Eat on Reconquista and Uruguay in the Microcentro.

As a Brit in Buenos Aires, I can't tell you how nice it is to have found a normal little café-type place where I can just lunch-and-go, as it were. The custom here is really to sit down over your lunch and have a larger meal, but I can't shake the lifetime habit of popping in for a sandwich or soup and taking it back to my desk. Or, even better in this sunshine city, sitting outside the café to watch the world go by as I eat.

And Green Eat is just perfect for this. The food is healthy and so delicious. Most days I go for the Sushi con Ensaladita - a few bits of fresh salmon nigiri with four sushi rolls and a delicious side salad. Or, if I'm feeling a bit hungrier, I'll go for one of the woks, such as the Soy de Pollo dish with rice and portobello mushrooms, that comes in a cardboard Chinese takeaway noodle box. Delish, especially for a colder day! The salads are also fantastic here. 

Here's a picture of my favourite sushi box from Green Eat's website:

Sushi con Ensaladita - my fave

My only complaint is that, for someone who starts work early and often wants lunch at 12:00, I find the sushi and salads aren't always ready until 12:30 or so. I guess the locals eat later than me, and a few times I've been turned away disappointed. Nevertheless, this place is always chock-full of ex-pats and tourists speaking English and other languages.

And finally... the coffees are pretty damn good too!

Know your coffee at Green Eat!

 

Teatro Colón and Tô-Sushi

On Saturday night we get dressed up and go to the ballet at the famous and newly refurbished Teatro Colón. At the ripe old age of 29, I have never been to the ballet, and I love it. We are seated way up high up in the theatre and it's a grand experience I'd recommend to anyone. We thoroughly enjoy the ballet and have a glass of champagne at the bar during the interval.

The view from our seats in Teatro Colon

After the ballet, we head to Tô, another sushi restaurant on Costa Rica with Arévalo. Despite having an 11:30pm booking, we are told to wait for a table - it seems they've given ours away - but we get a cocktail while we wait. The place is ultra-trendy with an open bar full of beautiful liquor bottles, behind which the sushi chefs are hard at work. 

The concept of the restaurant is 'Frapanese' - that's French-Japanese, to me and you. There is a young French guy wandering about, but it turns out he is not the owner. 

There are some pretty fancy French-Japanese creations on the menu and we order a big selection. Chef Toufic Reda, from whence the name Tô derives, likes his trio dishes: The Tô Kobe Beef, which includes Kobe beef tartare, Kobe beef 'tataki' and Kobe beef burger, and the Tô tuna, which includes tuna tartare, tuna 'tataki' and seared tuna.

Le Kobe To - Kobe beef tartare, Kobe beef tataki and Kobe beef burger

Le Thon To - red tuna tartare, seared tuna and tuna tataki

I have had Kobe beef in Japan and am expecting it to be absolutely spectacular but I can't say it meets my expectations. It is delicious, but the tartare isn't actually tartare because the melted cheese on top has cooked it, so that is a little disappointing, and the burger is a bit dry. 
 

Langoustine and avocado salad

We also do ourselves over by ordering too-similar dishes, i.e. the tuna tartare with quail's egg, followed by the tuna trio and the steak trio. It is all good, but perhaps a little too much tartare for my liking. (You live and learn...)

Tartare de atun como lo hace Toufic - red tuna tartare with wasabi, 'fake caviar' and the quail's egg yolk

Had I not been to Osaka and Isabel in recent days and had exceedingly high expectations of Argentine sushi, I think I'd have been more impressed with Tô, but the quality of the food just isn't quite as good. That said, the food is more original and creative and the decor is fun - I'd definitely go again. Unfortunately though, after our late seating, we are the only ones still standing at 2am and felt as if we need to leave. On a Saturday night in Buenos Aires, where people often dine at 11pm and beyond, I would have expected the place to be fuller until later.

Buenos Aires Dining: Osaka

On Friday night, after the football debacle, we decide to treat ourselves to some luxury sushi. I've heard Osaka restaurant come highly recommended and we've booked in advance, which is essential. It's a Peruvian-Japanese sushi and ceviche bar and restaurant located on Soler with Fitz Roy, a few blocks from my place. I've walked past it a ton of times but never been in.

We are greeted at the door by the hostess, who immediately compliments me on my dress, thank you very much (brownie points). She notifies us of the restaurant's policy of only accepting cash, Argentine credit cards or Amex, which is good to know because I'm sure most tourists would be carrying none of the above.

Inside the restaurant, it's dark and moody and very trendy. We order a delicious pisco sour at the cocktail bar and ask to be seated upstairs on the terrace. We get a great seat outside in the small private varanda but before long we realise this is also the smoking area and are joined by several smokers around our table. This calms down after an hour or so though and we're left alone.

I didn't take photos, so this one is from Osaka's website. This is the interior deco of the Puerto Madero branch but the Palermo one is very similar

Osaka has an extensive sushi and ceviche menu with hot dishes and salads to boot. We order a big selection of dishes, including salmon sashimi, 'Carpassion tiraditos' - strips of raw fish with passionfruit and honey and lemon marinade, teriyaki balsamic butter-seared beef fillet, and one of the house ceviches. The food is served beautifully on little white pottery spoons and beautiful plates and it's cooked perfectly. The tastes are mouthwateringly divine and the salmon in particular is some of the best I've ever tasted.

The service lets the place down a little bit as our waiter seems to be new and messes up our order a couple of times, but we have a brilliant night drinking cocktails and gorging ourselves on sushi and hot dishes until our hearts are content. It's so wonderful to be able to sit outside on a warm night and enjoy a stunningly good meal. Osaka is definitely my new favourite.