BA Expensive??? - Help!!

[ssr]

If you pay 100-150 pesos you generally get a great meal with wine in a number of very good restaurants across BA.

You could spend 100 pesos on a starter in a similar restaurant in europe or the US.

Indian food sucks here though. Try peruvian food. Bardot do some amazing curry style dishes.

Similar restaurant? The absolute best restaurants here are equivalent to mediocre restaurants in New York (and much of the US). For 100-150 pesos (around $25-$40) per person, one can eat very well in New York. You mentioned Europe so maybe you're European and not accustomed to getting much value for your Euro back home, but there really is no place like New York for food and since this thread was started by a New Yorker heading down I gotta fill a brother in: keep those expectations low. They get a few things right down here but screw a whole lot of other things up and beyond beef and wine there really aren't too many great bargains to be found.

 

[jp]

What do you consider to be the "best buenos aires has to offer?"

Beef, wine and ice cream are definitely the strong points. But there's lots of good places about which offer good food, good design and atmosphere, good service and good value. You just need to know where to look.

You might be able to get a great meal in NY for $25, I've never managed it, but then I don't know the city all that well and wouldn't know where to look...

 

[Ries]

taste, especially in food, is totally subjective.
So no two people will have the same opinion.

Still, I personally think a very good argument can be made for "the absolute best restaurants" in Buenos Aires being quite respectable indeed, and able to hold their own against a lot of restaurants in NY.

Sucre, Standard, La Cabrera, Osaka, Olsen, Casa Felix, Bar Uriarte, and a couple dozen more, at least, are all competitors.

Baby pig at the Casal de Catalunya is something you cant find in NYC.

And I LIKE the pizza in Buenos Aires.
(I have eaten more than my share of cardboard "original Ray's" slices in New York, and I will take a piece of fuggazzeta from La Mezzetta any day)

There is plenty of good food in BsAs, if you just look for it.

 

[Ryoga]

And pizza...who cares...it's peasant food anyway!

to the uneducated, with proper ingredients and execution its one of lifes great pleasures

 

[Ryoga]

FYI if you know how to cook this place is uber cheap; just bring a spice rack with you from the states and any asian sauces that you prefer

my next visitor has to hook me up with jerk/fajita/italian/thai seasoning, fire-roasted salsa, teriyaki/peanut sauce and a small bottle of decent olive oil

 

[sergio]

If you are really talking about the VERY BEST restaurants here you are talking about the quality of food first, presentation, service and atmosphere.
Casa Felix is NOT going to be on the list, nor La Cabrera (no matter how many favorable foreign newspaper reviews this dreary place gets - why I don't know). I believe there is only one Relais & Chateau restaurant in Buenos Aires and that is in the Alvear Palace Hotel. This is considered the leading French restaurant in the city. DInner runs around $500 pesos per person. My experience has been that haute cuisine is disappointing here. If you are accustomed to New York standards, forget it. Attempts at French cooking are usually pathetic. Italian cooking fares better but is far below what you get in Italy, even in an average restaurant. It's best in Buenos Aires to stick to simple food: beef (try to get them not to overcook, the norm here), pasta. Vegetable selectiuon in Argentine restaurants is limited but there are salads. As for prices, it's still generally cheaper here in dollar terms....but....Yesterday I had a small sandwich and a bottle of water at WINERY. The bill with tip was close to 40 pesos for one. Is that a great deal?

 

[ssr]

FYI if you know how to cook this place is uber cheap; just bring a spice rack with you from the states...

Now this is excellent advice. Every time I go back to the US (or to just about any other country, really) I load up on stuff like spices, sauces, oils and coffee (just brought some great coffee back from Brazil). I could barely boil an egg before I came down here but now I'm a pretty decent cook. I wasn't really looking to learn how to cook at all but the bland, crap food here in Argentina got pretty tortuous after a while so I had to get to it. I'm sure I'll go right back to not cooking a damn thing when I get back to New York but it was nice to do some cooking for a while. So, I guess I do have Buenos Aires to thank for that.

 

[cbphoto]

The food for sure... has something to be desired, in BA.... Some have said on this site...that it is all "inferior" to fine/fusion dining in USA (NY, SF, LA..)That the cuisine, doesn't have the options, choices, flavors, SPICE, of European/Eastern cultures...
The service is...non attentive, disrespectful....
And they would be right....
To a degree!
With some research... U can find restaurants, that will give you the quality of service u desire, attention to the details, fresh,unique presentation, a menu with something "special"...
Really the difficulty/frustration lies in the #'s.
For a city..of so many, the options are there....but few
and unfortunately "SPICE".. is even more aloof.

 

[syngirl]

We went to Taj Mahal on the weekend -- the food was delicious, and the sauces actually spicy. We were pleasantly surprised and would go back. We got the appetizer mixed plate (the fish was excellent on it) and one of the lamb curries and a basmati with veg for a main. My one complaint, they had no idea what chai was and brought me some cardamom tea with no sugar in it, I've never had it served like that but hey, it's BA, there's probably less than 50 South Asians in the entire city so I guess I can't expect too much.

Definitely give it a try -- three people with the shared mixed appetizer, one main, one rice, 2 orders naan, 2 deserts, "chai", bottle of wine and bottle of water was $230 pesos. We were stuffed, some people on the list may not find it enough food and want to order at least one other dish, but for us for 2 men + 1 woman that was plenty of food.

 

[Napoleon]

Cheap vs. Expensive

I went to the Tango Show at the Faena on Sunday night (work related, I didn't pay). After the show, two lovely bleached blonde girls in their 30s were walking by me and I commented that their English was excellent. (They were both obviously Americans.)

So we got to talking and the one I was talking to is from St. Louis and her husband is an attorney, but he couldn't make the trip because his case didn't settle and it's now going to trial. (I gathered that he is quite financially secure.)

This girl was STAYING at the Faena and yet she couldn't get over how cheap everything was.

The Faena is the most overpriced joke in Buenos Aires and yet it was reasonable for this girl from St. Louis. I think that she was comparing it to Miami Beach prices, but I'm not positive.

So compared to NYC and the amount you're paying for rent, Buenos Aires will be a joke. Dinners that cost US$150 in NYC will cost about US$40-US$50 here and you will be laughing.

For the average porteño, Buenos Aires is way more expensive than NYC is for the average New Yorker. But for the person coming directly from NYC, living on US dollars, and is used to taking cabs everywhere, Buenos Aires will be like fantasy land.