My recommendations for (decent) restaurants in BA.

[kurtdillard]

I can't believe that people come here and think the food sucks. The ethnic food tends to be bad, and spicy food tends to not be very popular in Bs. As., but there are tons of outstanding restuarants. I don't know about you guys, but when I go to a new country I don't expect the food to be like what I ate at home, or what I ate on my trip to Hong Kong, or Paris, or whatever. I judge the food on its own. I agree that Argentina could use more variety, but nevertheless there are some wonderful places to be found, read on...

There are some great restaurants in Buenos Aires that have incredible atmosphere and food but they are all minimum 200 pesos a head now .
Sipan Centro

I second the Sipan recomendation, I ate at their Palermo location and was impressed. http://www.sipan.com.ar/

• Nectarine - Vicente López 1661, 4813-6993, French cuisine. Check with your concierge, the place is well known. The food is awesome, sort of classical French. The building is very cool, an old mansion with big beautiful furniture.
  [*]Puratierra, 3 de Febrero 1167, 4899 2007, www.puratierra.com outstanding food, expensive, they serve a fixed menu and offer other things ala carte. The cuisine is a sort of Argentinian-European fusion, the chef is creative and I've always been happy.
  [*]Ceviche, very good Peruvian food, Costa Rica 5644 cross streets are Fitz Roy and Bonpland in Palermo. 4776-7374.
  [*]Te Matare Ramirez Gorriti 5054, 4831.9156. tematareramirez.com/. Wonderful and adventurous menu with a very sexy theme. They have hysterically funny dinner shows a couple nights a week, call ahead to find out what their schedule is.
  [*]Puerto Cristal, Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo 1082, Puerto Madero, www.puerto-cristal.com.ar. Its a little pricey for BA, but the food is excellent, the view is pleasant, and the wine list is good. I love the seafood here, my wife likes everything!
  [*]Sucre Sucre 676, close to River Plate Stadium, 47829082 - very nice place with good Spanish cuisine. It had become one of those super cool places to go in the last couple of years, some might find the fashionista scene to be a bit much.

 

[chris]

Pieggari has very good pasta, very expensive, but the portions are huge and MEANT to be shared. Also don't fall for their "Would you like pan de pizza"? trick, You assume that this bread is free but it isn't They charge. The "free" bread is horrible though. I don't like the service at this place and a lot of the customers lack good table manners.

Sotto Voce is an elegant place that can attract a very well dressed crowd, generally middle aged or older Food is good but not exceptional. Paid around $400 pesos recently for two people and we didn't order that much. Gets very noisy and crowded (it's small) so better to reserve for around 8 PM.

 

[citygirl]

I can't believe that people come here and think the food sucks. The ethnic food tends to be bad, and spicy food tends to not be very popular in Bs. As., but there are tons of outstanding restuarants. I don't know about you guys, but when I go to a new country I don't expect the food to be like what I ate at home, or what I ate on my trip to Hong Kong, or Paris, or whatever. I judge the food on its own. I agree that Argentina could use more variety, but nevertheless there are some wonderful places to be found, read on...

There are a few very good restaurants (not sure I'm agreeing with some of the ones on your list (Te Mataré Ramirez?) but everyone's tastes are unique). However, you can only eat at those places so many times and as Percy mentioned, they are usually quite expensive.

I expect a major international city to have high quality food and lots of different styles of cuisine ranging across all price points. This is true of most int'l cities, including many in South America - looking at you Rio, Bogota, Lima, etc.. Not so when it comes to Buenos Aires. It's just not a good city for food.

I cook at home to get the variety that I like but 90% of the time when you go out here, you have the option of meat, meat, meat or pasta. It's getting better here in terms of more varied menu selection but there is a long way to go.

 

[Raymond]

www.casamun.com Authentic and yummy.

 

[marksoc]

Bolivian lunch in the Bolivian downtown (Liniers station surroundings) cost during the week the exorbitant amount of 16 PESOS. A big milkshake costs 8-12 PESOS, main meal in the weekends: 20-25 PESOS.

Agree that "exotic" food in BA is expensive and bad, BA is pretty provincial in this matter. But if you like the local food, then you are set (don´t go to touristic-expat-local rich people joints).

 

[AlfajorEfi]

We say that Argentines are afraid of flavor.
I make food with flavor and Argentine think it's "spicy". I use a lot of garlic and they find it strong/spicy.
The cuisine here is super simple! Everything has jamon y queso, all the deserts have TOO much DDL or too many sweet ingredients- DDL, Cream. Brownies, Jams, merangue, etc. Usually you find all of this together in one case. No one here knows how to make a decent cheesecake and the variety and quality of food here is sub par for a city of this size.
Pizzas here are TERRIBLE! Here they first bake the dough and then put the sauce cheese toppings and rebake it! EWWW!
Not to mention the sauce tastes like water, and they put whole olives as a topping (with the pits). Point made, they have no idea how to make pizza here! Oh how I miss Papa Johns...(*drool*)

In summery, food here is too bland, but when it comes to deserts they are way too sweet! What is wrong with their taste buds on this side of the globe?!

I do have to say that the helado here is amazing! Almost every choice of desert is helado and if it's a good restaurant I would choose Tiramisu.

For this reason I cook everything myself. I make bagles just like in Montreal (except they don't have a perfect shape...), I cook pizzas from scratch (make 17 individual pizzas and froze them last night). I make Mexican food (tortillas, fajitas and quesidillas) from scratch- but they don't have sour cream here
Every day after asado I use the leftovers to make fajitas. I am addicted to Montreal Streak spice and use it religiously. After buying "Rapiditas" for the last time, I saw the price going up and the size almost cut in half and making it impossible to fill any fajitas in it, I made some AWESOME tortillas from scratch. I made them very big and some medium and have them in my freezer now.
I also cook Thai/Chinese/Stir fry and indian foods. My husband makes kick ass asado, salads and hummus, and I do the rest.
My specialty though it Spicy chimmichuri.
I have also trained the girl who works at my house how to make milanesas with Montreal Steak and lots of fresh garlic and spices, and bolongese sauce.
Many times after visiting a restaurant the conclusion is that the best food is at home...

 

[marksoc]

Pizzas here are TERRIBLE! Here they first bake the dough and then put the sauce cheese toppings and rebake it! EWWW!

Don´t you dare to go into the Pizza thing, we love this way and we think that is the best in the world. For me, NYC Pizza is a sacrilege, real pizza cannot be combed into a sandwich, but of course, I am a local. If you search into the BA Expats Forum you will have a lot of fun reading the "Pizza Wars" in the site.

 

[AlfajorEfi]

Don´t you dare to go into the Pizza thing, we love this way and we think that is the best in the world. For me, NYC Pizza is a sacrilege, real pizza cannot be combed into a sandwich, but of course, I am a local. If you search into the BA Expats Forum you will have a lot of fun reading the "Pizza Wars" in the site.

Cool! I am going to look! Still do not understand how people can consider the pizza in Argentina edible.

 

[jb5]

Go to Morelia for a pizza a la parilla. It's excellent, and I'm from NY.

 

[AlfajorEfi]

There are a few very good restaurants (not sure I'm agreeing with some of the ones on your list (Te Mataré Ramirez?) but everyone's tastes are unique). However, you can only eat at those places so many times and as Percy mentioned, they are usually quite expensive.

I expect a major international city to have high quality food and lots of different styles of cuisine ranging across all price points. This is true of most int'l cities, including many in South America - looking at you Rio, Bogota, Lima, etc.. Not so when it comes to Buenos Aires. It's just not a good city for food.

I cook at home to get the variety that I like but 90% of the time when you go out here, you have the option of meat, meat, meat or pasta. It's getting better here in terms of more varied menu selection but there is a long way to go.

exactly! There are no options and it repeats itself.
I also do not live in Capital so it's very annoying to drive one hour into town (Palermo or Puerto Madero) and not find very good food. There are very very good restaurants here but just the Parilla type- Happening, El Mirasol, LA Cabrrera, etc. The rest are meium grade like Kansas and the best "chinese" food I found is Yokos but its not even close.
Where do they serve Won Ton soup in this town?

I have tried various Indian places but the problems are- not spicy enough, lack of variety, expensive and small portions/have to order each thing separately i/e meal, rice, nan...
Did not yet find a good Thai place.
I just spent a month in London and in walking distance I had SUPERB Indian food and Thai food. But world class, not just above average. Possibly the best I have had!

Here the exotic foods are not up to par. There are NO Greek restaurants, nothing Chinese (like in North America), no Middle Eastern food- tried Sarkis the other day and almost choked on their falafel. Some things were good taste wise (good spices, etc) but they use low grade meat that is hard to chew, not to mention too expensive for the quality.

I do not have a problem spending money on good food, but it has to be good! Why don't they have Mr. Chow here????