Don Julio takes the No.1 Spot As Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2020

MilHojas

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Perhaps no a parrilla to visit soon. Bus loads of tourists will crowd the place, stick to some old hidden parrillas
 
Glad I went last month! You can order their meat from their butchers and have almost the same experience if you’ve got half an idea how to make a fire.
 
We no longer dine out as we can eat just as good or in most cases even better food at home for a fraction of the price......saves me from having to get changed as well. :)


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There must be some politics involved in these lists. I've been to Don Julio many times over the years and have never been blown away. Most of the time it's very good, but best restaurant in Latin America??? I wouldn't even consider it the best restaurant in Buenos Aires.

Totally agree with UK Man, if you find a good butcher and know how to cook on coals you can have just as good or better meal than "the best restaurant in Latin America." It takes a little bit of practice, but I think the learning curve is less than other types of cuisine or cooking techniques.
 
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There must be some politics involved in these lists. I've been to Don Julio many times over the years and have never been blown away. Most of the time it's very good, but best restaurant in Latin America??? I wouldn't even consider it the best restaurant in Buenos Aires.

Totally agree with UK Man, if you find a good butcher and know how to cook on coals you can have just as good or better meal than "the best restaurant in Latin America." It takes a little bit of practice, but I think the learning curve is less than other types of cuisine or cooking techniques.

website features, selling magazines, it's a business.....
 
Every year people rightly criticize the 50 best lists, because defining "best" is subjective and there is a massive amount of politics and who knows who to get on the list. While this may be true I must say that I have been so impressed with Don Julio's owner Pablo over the past 5-6 years really upping the parrilla game and becoming obsessive with quality of the food and overall experience. The service is hands down the best in the city in my opinion as it is extremely consistent and they treat you great and welcome you warmly if you are a regular or a tourist, the quality of the food is really impressive, they have found small producers of every ingredient they use across the country and as of a year ago grow most of their own produce on their own organic farm. I guess I like that it was named #1 because it honors a traditional Argentine restaurant and cuisine that has evolved to be forward looking and focused on quality and not naming some trendy molecular cuisine restaurant #1.
 
Don Julio is a great restaurant. It hadn’t won before, so it won this year. That’s how this works. Better a CABA restaurant that one in Lima. It looks like there are 40 50Best voters in our region, so it‘s not exactly a democracy, is it? https://www.theworlds50best.com/voting/the-voting-system

I worked for many years at a very large USA newspaper, and subsequently in the food/restaurant magazine biz. Both the newspaper and the food mags gave out annual awards. So I can tell you that these “Best of” and “50 Best” awards are anything but objective. There may be some silly “voting process” or advisory board or, in the case of the 50 Best, “The Academy,” but basically this is a PR/marketing stunt. In fact, the whole shebang is owned by William Reed, which is a UK-based trade publisher/events manager. https://www.william-reed.com/Who-we-are

In the meantime, put your fears aside and get out and support a local, cafe, bar or restaurant. Before they’re all a memory.
 
Yes, I agree it ends up being more of PR/Marketing stunt. I know a couple of the voters here in Argentina and know they are quite close with the owners or chefs of the selected restaurants and it might influence their choices but that being said I guess it's kinda how the business world works, no? I owned a tourism industry company in Argentina until last year when I sold it and had gotten press in the BBC, Forbes, Bloomberg, Conde Nast etc and got to see firsthand that receiving media coverage was more about building relationships and being proactive to get their attention than necessarily the best. Personally I always just thought it was part of the game and if you were able to come to terms with the reality you could reap a lot of benefit.
 
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