The 12 best restaurants in Buenos Aires
Bars and restaurants go together in Buenos Aires. Post-pandemic, many bars have taken to serving full menus to survive, though there are still plenty of corner café-bars where you can while away a few hours over a cortado or a beer. Standard café and bar fare includes medialunas (sweet croissants) and other local pastries and toasted sandwiches.
When it comes to restaurants, the whole gamut is on offer. Pizzerias are ubiquitous though good pasta restaurants are harder to find. Bodegones are homely, traditional neighbourhood restaurants that serve meat and fish dishes, a few pastas, empanadas and cheap or half-decent plonk. Parrillas are specialist steakhouses, which are great for trying offal, black pudding and sausages as well as cuts of prime beef.
Palermo Viejo, southeast of Avenida Santa Fe, is home to many contemporary kitchens doing vegetarian, Mediterranean, sushi, fine dining, Modern Argentine and Asian-Latin fusions. Lunch is typically 12pm to 2 or 3pm and go for dinner after 9:30pm if you want an atmosphere.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best things to do in Buenos Aires. Find out more below or for more inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, restaurants, bars and attractions.
Centre
Bar Británico
Bar Británico opened in 1928 on the site of an old pulpería – a general store associated with the gaucho era. This classic corner café has chequered tiling on the floors, small wooden tables designed for intimacy and the many solo clients, typically Argentine fileteado ornamental signage, and large windows overlooking two old streets in San Telmo. A drinking den for British railway workers, the mad generals of the last dictatorship (1976-83) insisted it should be renamed El Tánico. In 2006 it was threatened with closure, but local celebrities and regulars campaigned successfully to save it. The city was founded in the park opposite the south-facing windows. Britanico also featured in our guide to the 50 greatest cafés in the world, making it a must-visit in BA.
El Federal
Dating from 1864, this grand old San Telmo bar oozes atmosphere. From the beautiful stained-glass arch over the main counter to the ancient adverts and plaques, it evokes old-time Buenos Aires. Tourists gather alongside locals for the picadas (wooden platters of cheese, olives and meats), helped down with vermouths, beers or clericó (Argentine punch). The venue has served as a brothel, a dive bar for uprooted gauchos and a general store.
Güerrín
Opened in 1932, this Avenida Corrientes classic serves deep-pan Argentine-style pizzas, with lashings of mozzarella. Dozens of toppings are available, from basic anchovies and tomato slices to octopus with sweet peppers in provençale sauce. Two local specialities worth trying are Napolitana – with slices of beef tomato and garlic – and Fugazetta – a cheese-less onion pizza. Add chickpea fainá slices to fill up. You can stand at the front with workers or grab a table at the rear.
Rotisería Miramar
Formerly a bar-cum-grocers, this grand old bodegón in the San Cristobal neighbourhood has been tastefully and tactfully refurbished. Wood panelling, an ancient tin bar and portraits of tango singers on the walls are a perfect setting for frogs' legs, Galician-style octopus and chorizo-laced Spanish tortillas. A good selection of wines, including budget bottles and new varieties from La Pampa, is offered, as well as vermouths and liqueurs.
El Obrero
La Boca, the old port district, is colourful and historically important, but something of a tourist trap. Once you've completed the brisk walk past the multi-hued shacks along Caminito, head for lunch at El Obrero. Its high walls are plastered with football memorabilia, photos of Argentine film and music legends, shelves of wine bottles and wildly scrawled blackboards. The menu is Argentine comfort food featuring grilled meats and offal, fish dishes and mashed potatoes with milanesas (schnitzels).
Café Tortoni
The Café Tortoni opened in 1880 – an earlier Tortoni had occupied a different site since 1858; either way it's the city's oldest coffee shop. With its gracious entrance on Avenida de Mayo and stunning fin de siècle interior, it's also one of the world's most gorgeous cafés. Even if you want – in your heart – to avoid a place that has, inevitably, become a tourist honeypot, you'll struggle. But in the evening, the coach tours go away and you'll be left to enjoy a local brandy at your marble-topped table. Out of season – in winter, for instance – it's less rammed. On May 25, Independence Day, everyone drops in for churros. Tango shows are hosted every night of the week.
Los 36 Billares
Los 36 Billares, which opened in 1894, is one of the city's bares notables. It's staunchly traditional and still has billiard tables beneath original Tiffany lamps. Old-school waiters waft away any attempts at gentrification. For food, go for a portion of fugazzeta (onion-topped pizza) or a meat empanada. Try a Cynar digestif, followed by a carajillo – espresso with rough local brandy.
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North
Parrilla Peña
With its white-table cloths, cosy tables, efficient but friendly waiters and shelves heaving with bottles of Mendozan malbec this is a classic neighbourhood steakhouse. The also menu features signature side dishes and achuras or offal, including mollejas (sweetbreads), riñones (kidneys), chorizos (spicy, pork sausages), morcillas (black puddings), empanadas and – for veggies – provoleta al orégano, a slab of grilled Provolone cheese. The main event is the steaks: bife de chorizo (rump steak), entraña (skirt steak) and ojo de bife (ribeye) are tasty but a tira de asado or short ribs is also recommended. Chimmichurri comes as standard. Get chips and a salad and Bob's your tio!
La Biela
Though a busy café by day, La Biela (one of the bares notables) is one of the few places to sit outside on a sultry night and enjoy a carajillo, a late-night espresso with local brandy – stick to the local grog if you want to avoid a surprising bill. It's very much a place for the locals to meet, on the corner of Junín and Quintana. Not five minutes' walk from Recoleta's cultural centre, grand cemetery and lots of lawned plazas, it was always a hangout for the smart set. In the Fifties, racing drivers caroused here ('biela' means 'connecting rod'), and Jackie Stewart is among many past VIP visitors. Sit inside under ceiling fans and old photographs or on the al fresco terrace, under the giant limbs of a rubber tree.
Contact: la-biela.shop
Subte: Las Heras/Facultad de Derecho
Prices: ££
Reservations: Not required.
Best table: Outside on the terrace or, in winter, a window seat
UCO
The house restaurant of the smart Fierro hotel, UCO – named after a renowned wine valley – does what is widely understood as Modern Argentine cuisine. Its menu offers pastas and empanadas and steaks and all the classics, but with twists in taste and presentation, plus ideas from other countries' cuisines. Tapas include lamb empanadas, rabbit paté, pork flank and Peruvian causa croquettes. For mains, go for the UCO curried fish or shoulder of lamb.
Don Julio
When it comes to the ideal BA parrilla (grill) it's about mood as much as menu. Don Julio sources its prime beef, offal, chorizos, cheeses and veggies from the best pampas suppliers, grills the meats and cheeses to perfection, and boasts an impressive wine list. But you only generate this kind of buzzy, welcoming vibe by focusing on superb service, to locals as well as foreign visitors. Try the on-the-bone cuts for maximum flavour.
El Sanjuanino
This is one of the city's smarter empanada outlets, ideal for a tasty lunch. The semi-circular pies come oven-baked or fried, and are filled with cumin-scented meat and olives, juicy chicken or ham and cheese. Among the vegetarian options is one with molten roquefort. Regional fishes such as locro bean stew and maize wraps from the Andean north-west also feature on the menu. Enjoy with a glass of malbec reserva.
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How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
About our expert
Chris Moss lived in Buenos Aires for a decade and visits every year to write and guide tours in Argentina.
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