2003 Restaurant Reports

[DownBA]

Andres,

Thanks for the great restaurant reviews. I want to add two great restaurants to the list with your help since I can't remember the name of one of them. At the old Hipodromo, Andres, I ate at a restaurant that once was literally one of the stables and inside they still had the stall doors and there were tables separated by the old stall doors. This was a parillada restuarant with the regular Italian pastas and Pollos al verdeos, etc., that you so commonly see around Buenos Aires, but this one was really unusual since it was formerly a stable. Do you remember the name of this one? The food was excellent here, the ambience great with flowers all over the place and they had a tremendous wine list as well.

The second one is Rio Alba in Palermo, just down the street from Hotel Cristoforo Colombo. When I first ate there lots of the hotel workers recommended this place as one of the best parilla restaurants in Buenos Aires and I recommend it highly too. It's a few blocks away from a Jumbo store which is another French owned Walmart type store where they easily have 60 cashiers, all cuties wearing nylons and short skirts while they check your merchandise out. DownBA

[MeGustaBoliches]

Andres,

Isn't "Globo" slang in Argentina for a condom? I gotta go to this condom restaurant...and try "puchero".....hehehe

[Andres]

I second the recommendation of Ferolga: Tomo 1 is the best Argentine traditional restaurant in Buenos Aires.

For French food, I heard that La Bourgogne in Alvear Hotel ranks among the best in BA. It is, perhaps, the most expensive restaurant in BA, though.

As I mentioned in ohter posts, some neighborhoods of the city host different styles:

- The "Las Cañitas" zone near the polo field in palermo hosts many parrillas and pasta houses (and a couple of good German restaurantas as one called "Bodensee"). I remember a very good Thai restaurant called Lotus Neo Thai, at 1800 J Newbury St.

- The San Cristobal restaurant zone (Venezuela St and San Jose St area) host some good Italian and Spaniard restaurants: Prosciutto, Plaza Mayor, Campo dei Fiori. I really recommend Prosciutto.

- Don't miss the Rodizio at the Costanera or the one at Callao Av and Juncal St. Don't expect to "hobby" after such "meat feast" :-)

- The Old Palermo area near "La Placita" (Cortazar Square in Serrano St and Honduras St) has many "new wave", trendy restaurants and bars of Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, add-your-own-country food.

- A VERY good mexican restaurant is (or was) Frida Kahlo, located in Ciudad de la Paz 3100-3200. It used to be expensive but really superb. Nice Margaritas and Cuban Mojitos, also.

- The area aroound Avenida de Mayo host several Spaniard restaurants, among them La Casa del Jamón, El Globo and El Imperial. I recommend El Globo for a good "puchero" (a dish made of boned-beef and vegetables that became a classic in the Argentine homes, specially for winter).

There are many, many more to recommend. I suggest to buy a "Guia de los Restaurantes", as the one by Fernando Vidal Buzzi, in any bookstore of Florida St.

Hope this helps,

Andres

[Ferolga777]

Thanks to Otto and, of course, Jackson for this category.
This is my short list of restaurants in BsAs that I find worthy of recommendation.

1. Tomo 1
I found it mentioned at www.economist.com. It's an expensive place, but, it's a first class establishment. The manager speaks English.

http://www.tomo1.com.ar/

Hotel Crowne Plaza Panamericano
Carlos Pellegrini 525 - EP
(1009) Buenos Aires
Argentina Tel: (54-11) 4326-6698
TelFax: (54-11) 4326-6695
info-tomo1@tomo1.com.ar

2. Restaurante Errazuriz


This cozy restaurant is located on the grounds of the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. Their steak in wine sauce is superb. Cash only.
Its hours are from 12.00 a 19.00. [12 pm to 7 pm]
phone 4806-8639.

http://www.mnad.org/

Address: Avenida Del Libertador 1902
[corner of Pereyra Lucena]
(Palermo Chico)
Capital Federal, Buenos Aires 1425

3. Chiquilín

Excellently prepared traditional Argentine food. You can have a beef dish, or, you can have a pasta dish. In Argentina the tomatoes are superb, so, you can have that too.

Sarmiento 1599 (Centro) At Corner of Montevideo.
Telephone 4373-5163

[As far as other places to go, The Time Out Guide: Buenos Aires is an excellent guide.]

[JackDaniels]

I am just copying over my post from the BsAs board.....

On the subject of food and drink - there is a really smart bar called Gran Bar Danzon on Libertad just moments off Santa Fe. It is not on street level but on the first floor (American second floor) up a staircase. It is not easy to see the entrance from the street.


This is a really smart bar full of beautiful people (no providers here). Excellent wine, great sushi and the best spring rolls I have had anywhere.

A couple of glasses of wine, sushi and spring rolls should not be more than about 60 pesos.

Anyone else been there ?

Cheers.

[OttoGraham]

Welcome to Uncle Otto's Chez Argentina!

Foodie that I am, and knowing many of you are looking for good places to eat while in Buenos Aires, I asked our man Jackson to open up a separate section for Buenos Aires Restaurants and Bars. It's my hope that visitors to our fair city can break free from the "Recoleta Restaurant Row" habit and sample many of the great restaurants and bars that make BsAs such a great place to visit.

Below I've cut and pasted some personal recommendations from one of my former posts. Feel free to share!

Dining

Your Uncle Otto fancies himself an epicurean. Thus, the highlights of his trips to any destination are finding terrific restaurants for a nice dinner with a lovely companion. Simply stated, Buenos Aires is a meat-eaters paradise. But there are other options to be had, too! Some suggestions:

1800, 1665 Defensa, San Telmo, tel. 4307-2746. A terrific, old-fashioned BsAs parrilla, a meal with wine and several courses of half-orders of dishes came to a grand total of 28 pesos. I was astonished at how inexpensive it was for a restaurant where almost everything is home made, including the pasta and the limoncello.

Dashi, Fitz Roy 1613, Palermo Hollywood, tel. 4776-3500. An excellent Japanese restaurant with excellent sushi and other dishes. I've eaten here on each of my most recent trips and found it outstanding. Per person with wine ~ 60 pesos.

El Mirasol (3 locations, including Puerto Madero). I usually dine at the branch found at 1032 Posadas (intersection with 9th of July Avenue), Recova, 4326-7322. Modern parrilla, to be contrasted in decor and style with 1800, although excellent in its own right. Per person with wine ~ 60 pesos.

Next to El Mirasol on Posadas are two excellent restaurants called Piegari, (both under the same management) one of them is also a parrilla, the other an excellent Italian restaurant. I've eaten at both and also highly recommend them.

For a "splurge," try the Sofitel Hotel's new restaurant, called Le Sud. Arroyo 841, Retiro, tel. 4909-1454. Elegant and more expensive than the other restaurants listed here ~ 85-100 pesos a person for terrific French-inspired food in an elegant surrounding. Dress neatly please - no t-shirts or blue jeans. I really liked this place, and on a price versus quality measure, it's a bargain! A place like this in New York would run you US$200+ a person for dinner. They occasionally have "theme" nights, this such as a recent chamber-music concert accompanied with a prix fixe five-course dinner for about 160 pesos if memory serves correctly.

A lunch recommendation: Patagonia, in the food court of the Galeria Pacifico mall, on Florida Street in downtown. It has excellent luncheon plates, quiches, and local micro-brewed beers, in a decor reminiscent of southern Argentina.

Bon Appetit!

-Uncle Otto

[Jackson]

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