Monday lunch in May at Don Julio's in Buenos Aires. We arrived early hoping to snag a table but…read morethey told us there were none and to return in the afternoon to be placed on the walk-in waiting list. So we came back at 3. While we waited outside with the rest of the crowd they gave us champagne and mini empanadas. So good. At 3:30 we were sat at a nice table in a small room with a few others. The ambience was quiet luxury in a rustic setting. No loud music (or any I think), just soft murmurs of conversation and the tinkling of cutlery kissing dishes. I felt like royalty. Before ordering they brought us endive with a delicious arugula pesto (sauce was amazing!!), yummy bread rolls and butter. For starters we ordered provoleta (grilled provolone) and for the entree ribeye and porterhouse with sides of salad greens and baby Brussel Sprouts. And a glass of house wine. My steak was the best porterhouse I've ever had. Period. It was huge, so tender, so delicious. Perfectly seasoned and cooked. My mouth is watering as I write this. The ribeye was perfection! No wonder people come from all over the world to drop tons of money on a meal here. It is sooo worth it. The server kindly cut the bone off my steak and set it off to the side which made for an uncrowded eating experience. The simple salad was delicious as were the perfectly grilled baby Brussels sprouts. Even the house wine was good. We were too full for dessert but they brought us complimentary alfajoritos to end our meal. I highly recommend making reservations when you visit. Which is a must!!

One of the most well known parrillas in all of Argentina and currently maintains one Michelin star…read more It's quite busy and very hard to get a reservation. I check a couple weeks out for any night of the week and only was able to find outside tables online. I came here on a Wednesday night around 10:30 in hopes of getting it less busy than a weekend night. I only had to wait about 15 minutes and also got a free glass of champagne and a mini empanda. As I came in they offered me a tour of the wine cellar which was full of unique and old wines. They have a massive wine offering which I think is one of the things that helps them out on the Michelin guide. It's a classic steakhouse offering, probably best approached by sharing a few cuts with a table. But as I was here by myself I went for the tasting menu so I could try more things. They brought over some bread to start with chimichurri, as well as an odd amuse bouche of a single endive leaf with a pretty bland green sauce. The first course started off with a thinly slice of beef kinda like jerky meets prosciutto. Very flavorful and tender, loved it. Second course was a sausage that was incredibly juicy and exploding with flavor, one of the best sausages I've ever had. Then came a sweetbread course which I've never had before. It was very unctuous and rich, bit too heavy for my taste and sort of made me want to stop eating at this point. It came with a very basic salad with simple vinaigrette. The next two courses were a ribeye broken into two components, the eye and the rib cap. The eye came with another equally bland salad. The cap came with a table side preparation of a sweet potato which was honestly quite comical. Fine dining is known for beautiful table side prep, but scooping out the inside of a sweet potato and spooning over melted butter is amusingly basic. With no other seasoning here but salt it was again, very bland. Steak was fantastic and juicy, a bit on the rarer side than I would normally go for but I think this is never given the unique leaner quality of Argentine beef. Chimichurri was classic, oddly I was offered a spicy chimichurri half way through my meal which I preferred, unsure why it wasn't brought sooner. Bread courses were very standard, again nothing spectacular here. The sommelier helped me pick out a couple glasses of wine and was generally very helpful and attentive. The wine I had was solid but nothing crazy, elected for some of the cheaper choices since this was the most expensive meal I had in all of Argentina. Pumpkin ice cream was nice though oddly lacking in sweetness for a country that seems to take many things very sweet. Overall, this is such a classic and well known place that I felt it would be wrong not to check it out, yet I had heard there are better places at cheaper price points and I would now say that is very true. The beef quality here is fantastic and prepared well. Staff is attentive and helpful. But this really just doesn't present a fine dining experience as you might expect for a Michelin star. It feels like it fits more into the bib gourmand category. And at this price point it's really hard to feel like the price is justified. I dined at other places for way less including another Michelin star that was a true fine dining experience for a little over half the price. Much more courses with each element thoroughly thought out. The bland salads and side elements here don't detract away from the meat but they don't bring anything else to the table either. They feel like they exist to be a line item on a menu and nothing more. While I'm glad I got to try this place out, I likely wouldn't come back. There are less busy places with just as good of steaks for much lower the cost.

There are proably hundreds if not thousands of Parrillas here in Buenos Aires, and while many are…read morevery good, this is one of the better ones. The best part is that this is a locals restaurant, and it has such a great feel. The minute you walk inm you are welcomed by a friendly staff and led to a table, we chose upstairs and were quickly seated. Our waiter was friendly and jovial, and spoke great english. He recommended a Malbec, and then we ordered a bunch of food, which came quickly. As we dined, the placed filled up quickly, and looking around, there was not an empty table in the place- upstairs or down. The restaurnat has an Italian family feel, white table cloths and worn, but classy china. Plus the grill is amazing. Overall, this place is excellent, and a local friend who I dined with said he will be making this place one of his regular stops!

This was my first lunch in Buenos Aires so how crazy am I to have booked dinner the very same day…read moreLet me tell you, when they say the plates are meant to be shared, they are not kidding. The portions here are massive. And that's coming from someone who can usually put away a pretty serious steak. Here, though It's a lot even for me. Was it good Absolutely. But a little heads-up if you're visiting: learn how Argentinians order their meat. If you ask for jugoso, it'll land somewhere between rare and medium rare. Al punto is closer to medium, sometimes even leaning toward medium well depending on the kitchen. And well done. Honestly... don't even think about it. Another tip: don't rush to order sides. Unless you're just getting a salad or you're sharing with more than two people, one plate is usually more than enough. Around here, they believe in feeding you properly and they definitely deliver.

Fire. Smoke. Steel…read more No gimmicks. No unnecessary theatrics. Just cooks standing over open flame, moving with quiet confidence while the room watches the ritual unfold. Every plate carried the flavor of fire and patience. The steak was perfect. The vegetables weren't treated like an afterthought. Even the simplest bites had depth, texture, and soul. The kind of place where you lose track of time because you're too busy watching the kitchen work. Buenos Aires knows meat. FOGÓN reminds you it also understands restraint, hospitality, and craft. One of the best meals of our trip. Easy 5 stars.

We went with a group of 6 for the 11 course tasting menu, as recommended by our local travel…read moreagency. They open at 7:30p and have only one dinner seating, we arrived a few minutes beforehand and waited out front for the doors to open. Once inside, we were all seated at a bar style table, where you could watch the food being prepared. Each course had a wine pairing, and if you wanted more wine you simply set your glass on the higher edge and it was refilled. The 11 courses included a nice selection of started, several asada dishes and dessert. It was an experience and a show, while being delicious!

One of the best meals during our trip: - fair, considerate…read moreand professional service - high quality well executed food - prices reasonable for the value There's a reason why this spot is jam packed all day. Highly recommend if you are a meat lover and even the veggies were magnificent.

One of the Not-To-Miss spots in Buenos Aires! Great food made to perfection with an great wine…read moreselection. Great service that made good recommendations based on how/what ur looking for. The place is pretty small and reservations are highly recommended. Highly recommended!

This is our absolute favorite restaurant in BA! It has a wonderful sampling of Argentine…read morespecialties-incredible breads, the most awesome selections of cheeses,and literally hundreds of salads, side dishes(deli meats like you've never had),quiches(tortes) -all fabulous gourmet from scratch. Then as far as entrees , there is a large area w/ chefs who'll give you your favorite cut if meat(asado) fresh pizza and pasta of your desire( the Gorgonzola nochis are to die for)! There is a chocolate fountain w/ fruits and cake pieces to dip but I always order one of the incredible desserts off the menu. The ambiance is fine dining beautiful tables and the waiters are quick to clear the tables and bring you great wines or drinks of your choice. Go hungry! It's somewhat pricey but not in comparison to something comparable in the USA!

Awesome spot. Great steaks, excellent wine cellar. Make the reservation! The complimentary vino…read morewhile you're in line was a nice treat too!

On his last visit to Buenos Aires Anthony Bourdain came to eat at Don Carlos with francis mallmann…read moreThe setup is unique, you show up, tell Don Carlos how hungry you are and then he feeds you whatever he thinks will be good for you (we were hungry). There is a menu but why order from the menu when you can have Don Carlos feed you whatever he feels you might like? This is the best part of this place, let Don Carlos feed you. I couldn't capture all of the dishes as they kept coming one after another, the meat was grilled to perfection, the baker took her time with every item that came from the oven and the charismatic Don Carlos kept us entertained the entire meal. Also our meal was only $38 (included a 2014 bottle of Malbec, approximately 10 dishes plus 3 desserts)

This small local restaurant provides a wonderful dining experience. The appetizers are delicious…read moreand unique! The bread is out of this world! The entree of beef was a bit fatty but had a delicious flavor and was cooked perfectly. The tortellini is exceptional! The deserts were great and the wine list is extensive and good. Service was excellent!

This place has been luring diners up to the north suburbs for, I think, going on two years now,…read moremaybe more. It's promise, basically... meat, meat, and more meat. It was one of the first places around to start offering dry aged steaks...and "perusing" their meat locker, because, well, you can, is a study in little gasps of surprise... a rack of two-year aged rib-eyes hauntingly beckons from one shelf, as do nearly as aged t-bones and sirloins. One has to be wiling to crack open the wallet, with prices that range from 1150 to 1250 pesos per matured steak ($27-29 - which internationally isn't all that much, but still pretty damned high for BA). The menu, thankfully, offers plenty of other meat options, including other steaks, with prices at least gentler than those - main courses run from 520 pesos ($12) for beef cheeks to 820 ($19) for suckling pig. The room is warm and cozy, there's wood of various varieties stacked on various shelves, along with fermenting and pickled vegetables and condiments. There's an air of what some designer would probably call elegant rusticity to the whole thing. We settled in to peruse...over a couple of cocktails, one a gin and tonic with a splash of mezcal and smoky bitters, the other a sort of mezcal based sour - both excellent, and conducive to considering whether my dinner companion and I were going to plunk down the 1800 pesos ($42) for the seven course tasting menu (plus beverages), or go a la carte. After getting the low down on what was on the menu that evening (it changes every night), we decided to go the latter route, as three of the seven courses were sort of our last choices from the menu listings. We created our own. Sharing everything, we basically put together a five course tasting - with three appetizers and two main courses. Neither of us go in much for dessert, so the extra app replaced that. Here, roasted oyster mushrooms, duck ham, and cubes of smoked and cured egg yolk are clustered over a mushroom puree, and accompanied by a "potato chip". A great start, and all delicious, albeit I felt the mushroom puree could have used a bit more seasoning and brightening - a pinch more salt, a few drops of lemon or vinegar. Appetizers, by the way, run from 210-410 pesos ($5-10). A beautifully smoky butifarra sausage with marinara sauce, fried dumplings, and a parmesan tuile. More please! Perfectly smoked, yes, smoked, sweetbreads. I don't think I've ever had sweetbreads... or for that matter, any organ meat, that was smoked to cook it. Amazing. And accompanied by sundry bits and purees of orange, morcilla sausage, apple, and "sanfaina" (garlic, onion, tomato). This one ranks up there among the best sweetbread dishes I've had, anywhere. The whopping suckling pig, cochinillo, comes as an entire shoulder, lightly smoked and then roasted to crackling perfection, and a rolled loin stuffed with, I think, peppers and herbs. It's all artfully arranged over a medley of romesco sauce, butter beans, black olives, and dollops of roasted apple sauce. Yum. And, a far more austere presentation, but no less delicious, a Flintstonian beef rib, smoked, and delightfully tender, with an accompanying mound of chewy, dark, roasted to caramelized perfection vegetables, and, out of the picture, an array of vegetable pickles - sweet and spicy chilies, and green onions. Who pickles green onions? That works. It all works, in fact. And despite the price tag, which is high, but not outrageously so (there are plenty of more expensive places to eat in and out of town, including my own) - all of the above plus a bottle of decent wine, and tip, ran to 4200 pesos ($99) for two - it's worth every centavo. It's also worth the effort to get there - if you don't have a car (or willingness to shell out about 400-500 pesos for Uber, Cabify, or taxi each way), it will likely involve a couple of bus lines, or train and bus... (my own route going was the 101 bus to Retiro station, then the Tigre train to San Isidro, and then a 20-25 minute walk, though coming back we'd determined that the 168 bus stops right at the corner by the restaurant, taking us back to Corrientes and Pueyrredon, where we transferred to our respective buses home). Figure a solid hour and a half each way by public transit. Would I go back. Oh yes. We were already discussing how many more trips it would take us to sample the rest of the menu. And, the menu changes seasonally, so plenty of meat in the offing! And, anyone visiting who cares to take me out for a dry-aged rib-eye is, of course, welcomed with open arms...!