If you’re looking for Spanish food in a unpretentious bodegón de barrio try Gijón in the oft overlooked the Monserrat neighborhood, right next door to San Telmo.

With brash lighting, a boisterous family atmosphere and borderline rude but efficient Galician waiters (including the owner, José), Gijón delivers good food, cheap house wine and abundant portions.

There’s a parrilla for the meat lovers, most popular for the bife de chorizo, and a range of homemade pastas on the menu, but this is the place to go when you’re craving seafood — normally elusive on Buenos Aires’ menus.

The rabas (deep fried squid) are a great appetizer to share as is the provoleta a la parrilla (grilled provolone).

For a main course you can’t go wrong with the house favorite, cazuela de calamares (calamari casserole) or go for the excellent seafood paella, which can be shared between three or four.

Save room for the cavity-inducing flan covered in dulce de leche and whipped cream.

Make like a gringo and go early – there tends to be a considerable wait time for a table later in the evening.

Gijón-$$
Chile 1402
Monserrat
Tel: 4383-2634

• Hours: Mon-Sat 12:00 p.m.-12:00. a.m.
• Visa accepted

For straight-up Argentine beef and pasta dishes in La Boca, El Obrero (‘the working man’) is a classic cantina with a grimy charm. This place hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1954, aside from photos of the numerous celebrities who have dined here through the years, including Susan Sarandon, Francis Ford Coppola, Manu Chau, Bono and El Obrero regular, Diego Maradona.

Wine comes in traditional Argentine penguin pitchers. Although the two brothers that run the place hail from Spain, typical Argentine food is served up in generous portions. The provoleta, fried calamari, puchero (a vegetable and meat stew, normally served in winter) and pastas with four cheese sauce are all recommended. The menu at this parilla is varied but most come here for the beef, which is top quality and half the price of fancier steak destinations such as La Cabrera.

Look for the daily menu options written on the chalkboard. This is a place to go with a group of friends, especially since the cantina can get lively and La Boca isn’t one of Buenos Aires safest neighborhoods.

Bogodón El Obrero—$$
Agustín Caffarena 64
La Boca
Tel: 4362-9912

• Hours: Mon-Sat, 12pm-4pm and 8 pm-1 am
• Closed Sundays and holidays
• Cash only
• Reservations recommended after 9:30 p.m.

• Extra Tip: Don’t wear a ‘River’ tee-shirt

The Andean fare served here originates from Argentina’s northern Jujuy province. Featured are corn-based dishes including humitas and tamales, sweet corn paste filled with meat or cheese and wrapped up in cornhusks like little presents.

La Carreteria’s also cooks up some of Buenos Aires’ best locro, a hearty corn-based stew with chucks of meat served in clay bowls.

‘The restaurant in the little blue house’ used to be nothing more than a tiny tamale hut. It had five tables and Creole guitar players that would stroll through to give impromptu concerts. La Carretería expanded to twice its size a few years ago and is a bit more upscale then it used to be, but it retains its original charm.

There are rotating art installations, professional live music, and the tiny declarations, poems, and wishes of customers scrawled on pieces of paper and left under the glass countertops of the tables.

Live Folk Music

Owner, Silvia Moguillansky is a musician who played for 17 years with the Argentine folk band, Ollantay. The group cut five recordings, was featured at the grand re-opening of the San Martín Theater and toured all over South America and even Israel.

She met her ex-husband, a native of Jujuy, while on tour. The couple settled in Buenos Aires, started a family and in 1994 La Carretería was born. “At some point I figured I should try to make a bit of money,” quips the folk musician. Today Moguillansky, who lives next door to the restaurant with her kids, is the sole owner.

The original idea was to have a neighborhood restaurant where dinners could enjoy northern cuisine and listen to live music while dining. A current crackdown enforcing city coding laws for live music has a two-fold effect on La Carretería: the music has to be kept very low-key, and due to the limited number of small music venues in the city, Moguillansky has a constant stream of professional musicians practically begging to play in the restaurant for only the tips they receive passing the hat.

Moguillansky and her trio, ‘Las Carreteras,’ featuring the restaurant owner on flute and two tango guitarists, sometimes play in the restaurant as well.

Popular Dishes

Jujuy-style humitas

Due to Argentina’s high inflation, La Carretaría’s famous tamales, frozen and shipped from Jujuy province are a bit pricey at AR$11 each. A better bet for an appetizer are the much larger and flavorful humitas, at AR$15 and the tasty country-style empanadas.

While the restaurant’s dining area expanded, the kitchen is just a tad larger than before so the menu is usually limited to four dishes daily. Aside from the locro, popular are the guiso de lentejas, a lentil stew, stuffed peppers and dishes made with quinoa, a nutritious nutty grain that is a staple in Jujuy. Those looking to try a new dessert shouldn’t pass up the dulce de cayote (chayote, a type of prickly pear served in syrup).

Moguillansky has faced more than her fair share of the problems that many family-run restaurants come up against in Buenos Aires – neoteric taxing schemes, shake-downs with every new city government, difficulty retaining wait staff and fussy neighbors. In spite of its popularity, it’s only through sheer force of will that Moguillansky has kept La Carretería open.

“This place is Argentine,” says Moguillansky. “We’re fighting so that this continues, sometimes it’s difficult since we’re a small business but we feel it’s valuable to highlight the cuisine and culture of the north.”

La Carretería owner, Silvia Moguillansky

Ironically, Moguillansky doesn’t consider herself much of a foodie —a slender, venturesome type she became a vegetarian a year ago and now can’t eat most of the food served in her restaurant. “There are a lot of people becoming vegetarian in Buenos Aires now.” she says, ”So I try to have at least one vegetarian option everyday.”

This is a great place to come for a quick reasonably priced AR$23 lunch, but after the sun goes down and the house vino tinto (red wine) is flowing from the penguin pitchers, La Carretería becomes very lively.

Arrive early on weekend nights— the little blue house can fill up quickly, especially if word gets out that there will be live music.

La Carretería-$$
Brasil 656
San Telmo
4300-5564

Hours: Tue —Fri: 12:30-3:30pm, 8:00pm—12:00
Sat 12:30-3:30pm, 8:00pm—1 am
Closed Sundays

•Live music, when you’re lucky —generally on weekend nights
• Cash only

Argentina’s dining culture admirably leans towards slow eating, rather than the fast food overtaking the planet – but it doesn’t favor the typical hectic lifestyle predominate today.

Enter La Cantina Francesa, which proves to be a great alternative to empanada takeout joints and fast food options downtown. It’s something akin to a high school lunch canteen, only with gourmet French and Italian themed food.

After picking up a plastic tray and moving through the line you are presented with a fragrant, steaming array of pastas, risottos, stir fries, meat and fish dishes. Instead of hamburger patties and macaroni and cheese, there’s boeuf bourguignon and spinach gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and a creamy sauce. Plates vary from day to day, but there is always a selection of pastas and salads as well as meat, chicken and fish options.

Owner Phillipe Partouche, who looks so typically French that he would just have to slap on a beret and carry around a baguette to complete the effect, says, “The main difference between us and typical Argentine restaurants is that here you can be in and out in 15 minutes.

“We’re a bit like one of those all-you-can eat places with the buffet, only you pay separately for each dish. I also think the food is of a high standard.”

He’s right, the food is very good, and servings are abundant. It may not be all-you-can-eat, but it is still economical. Dishes are around the AR$15-$20 mark, and with dessert and a drink you will still get change from AR$30. Some plates, like the lasagna, require heating up in the microwave, which means it’s up to the customer to make sure it’s properly warmed, which may prove problematic for some. As it’s a buffet, your best bet is to arrive early, beat the crowd and get first pickings of the food. Like most places downtown, La Cantina Francesa is pretty deserted at 12pm, but packed by 1:30.

They also offer delivery, with sandwiches, pastas, salads and vegetarian meals on the menu.

–by Dan Colasimone

La Cantina Francesa —$
Tucuman 831 (three blocks from Florida)
Microcentro
Tel: 4393 3790

• Hours: Monday to Friday 11:30am-4pm
• cash only

Chifa Man-San, a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant is an enduring budget favorite, serendipitously located on Perú Street in San Telmo. Here you’ll dine among Peruvian families, foreigners on a shoestring and artisans from the San Telmo Street Fair having a bite to eat after a day selling their wares.

The word ‘Chifa’ comes from the Mandarin ‘chi1 fan4,’ meaning ‘to eat food,’ but it specifically refers to the Peruvian version of Chinese food that puts a distinctly South American spin on the original.

Owner and chef, Fabio Alberco started his career in the Chinese kitchens of Lima as a teenager, later working as a cook at the Peruvian embassy in Buenos Aires. He opened Chifa Man-San seven years ago, enabling him to employ his brothers, sons and friends of the family.

In a recent upgrade Chifa Man-San has replaced the awful florescent tube lighting with red paper lamps, given the place a new paint job and starting paying attention to previously overlooked details such as supplying the bathrooms with soap. The creaky slate floors remain but the makeover improves the previously harsh ambiance, brightly incorporating communist red with golden yellow and walls adorned with Incan-style motifs and peaceful pictures of Machu Pichu.

The prices, especially for seafood dishes, have sailed upwards over the years, but Man-San is still a dependable place to find generously portioned plates starting at the 22-peso mark.

On a winter days the soups, including the sopa de wantan especial (special wantan soup) and the sweet and sour, sopa de ocho sabores (eight flavor soup) along with a fresh shrimp or chicken salad are a good value for a light lunch or dinner.

When it comes to the regular menu you have to choose carefully at Man-San because the dishes range from lamentable to spectacular. Skip the unnecessarily greasy chop suey and chau mien. The best dishes are the abundant seafood and ‘special menu’ plates featuring Chifa specials such as spicy ceviche, pato asado con ajo – (barbequed duck with garlic), chancho con tamarind (pork with tamarind sauce) and chifa–style lomo saltado (strips of tenderloin steak sauteed with onions, hot peppers and tomatoes and served over rice with fries).

Those looking for some spice should be sure to request some salsa verde, the addictive cilantro-based green stuff found on dinner tables across Peru.

Depending on the how busy Man-San is and how many people are working the floor, the service here can range from super slow to fast and efficient, but it is always friendly —after a couple of visits you’re sure to be recognized.

For groups of three or more it’s worth splurging on the flavorful seafood extravaganza, felicidad para todos (happiness for everyone), a heaping seafood orgy that delivers on its name.

There’s no great wine list at this hole in the wall, but they usually have pisco sours, a frothy cocktail made with the Peruvian brandy, pisco, lime juice, egg whites and sugar. There are only a couple of varieties of beer in stock, including the brown Quilmes Bock and sweeter Quilmes Stout. Kids will go crazy for the cavity-inducing bright yellow Inca Kola, of a South American version of Mountain Dew made from the lemon verbena shrub.

Chifa Man-San
Perú 832
San Telmo
Tel: 4307-0638

• Hours: Mon-Fri: 12pm-4:30; 7:00-11:30pm
Sat: 12pm-5pm, 7pm—12am

• cash only

This health food restaurant and bakery has managed to draw in a steady crowd of hungry Argentines for the last twelve years, despite being in the world’s carnivore capital and, until recently in a discreet locale tucked away in the middle of a narrow San Telmo block.

In a city where menu variety is often hard to come by, this daytime restaurant serves up innovative vegetarian food in a handsome little space with dark wood floors and exposed brick walls. Constructed in 1895, the building was once home to a central figure in the Naturalism literary movement in Argentina, writer, Fray Mocho. Mocho founded the seminal magazine Caras y Caretas (Faces and Masks) and carved out a literary niche by embracing the use of Buenos Aires slang, lunfardo in contemporary writing.

The typical turn-of-the-19th century home was restored and converted into a restaurant by former owner, Daniel Suárez, who dedicated the space to his grandmother, María Rosa Pan (abuela means ‘grandmother’ and pan conveniently means ‘bread’, in addition to being her surname). Later, associate, Osvaldo Barros took over the restaurant.

“Our whole idea is to prepare healthy food with lots of flavor,” he says. “They say that vegetarian food doesn’t taste good but that’s an outdated concept, and we set out to prove it.”

Barros, who is not a vegetarian himself but affirms that he tries to eat healthy, says that although they do receive some foreign visitors in search of veggies after overdosing on meat, most of their customers are local office workers.

In addition to a permanent menu that includes Argentine favorites such as vegetarian milanesa (breaded soy patties) there are three new entrée options available each day of the week. Every 15 days a new menu is created, offering customers a constant variety of dishes such as vegetarian lasagna, ricotta and chard crepes and Thai-style risotto.

In rotation are over one hundred healthy recipes from around the world, all of which exclude artificial coloring, additives, canned products or preservatives. Many of the recipes use organic whole-wheat flour, and all food is prepared daily. Abuela Pan bakes 25 kilos of whole wheat bread per day, as patrons will note by the homey smell permeating the dining area. In the restaurant’s idealistic beginning all bread was baked in a homemade wood-burning mud oven but, in the end, it wasn’t practical for business.

Menu items are reasonable in price, ranging from pastries at five pesos to a heaping plate of food for 23 pesos. Visitors certainly won’t walk away hungry; included with each meal is a basket full of fresh-baked whole-wheat bread accompanied by some tasty puré de calabaza (pureed pumpkin). Bargain desserts include apple pie, carrot pudding and the classic rice pudding.

With only a few small tables for dining, it’s likely that you will have to wait to eat at peak hours, but the service is fast and weekday turnover is rapid, so the delay is usually brief.

In addition to their fabulous breads and sweets, you can pick up some frozen soy milanesas to cook at home or order delivery. For menu updates and prices, check out their website which also has some great vegetarian recipes.

—by Avery White with Ande Wanderer

Abuela Pan—$$
Chile 518
San Telmo
Tel: 4361-4936 or 4300-1519

• Hours: Monday-Friday: 8am-7pm
Sundays: 9am-4pm

•Delivery hours: noon-3:30pm

Just because you are downtown doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot of money on lunch. Verde Verde is a vegetarian takeaway joint just half a block from Florida Street that serves up dishes that are both healthy and cheap. It’s also convenient if you’re on the run; you can be in an out in a flash. Verde Verde offers about 8-10 different vegetarian dishes per day, with a few variations to the menu during the week.

Plastic takeaway containers line the display shelves, and customers just have to choose what they want, heat it up in one of the microwaves provided, pay up, and skedaddle. There is also a small bar to eat at for those who want to dine in. If it sounds no frills, that’s because it is, and it’s also the reason that the food is so cheap. Meals range from AR$7-10 and if you are a little person, one will probably fill you up. For bigger people, two dishes is more than enough, and will give you the chance to try different flavors (and you’re still spending less than AR$20).

It’s worth noting that this is not light and fluffy rabbit food that leaves you feeling hungry again an hour later, but genuinely filling meals that will easily satisfy even non-vegetarians. Some favorites include the supremas de pollo falso (fake chicken schnitzels made with soy), buñuelos (fried patties of assorted flavors such as pumpkin and broccoli) and pastas with diced vegetables and meat-like chunks of tofu. There are also a few other organic products on sale such as savory and sweet biscuits, honey and alcohol-free wine. So, if you find yourself around Florida Street at lunchtime, don’t get sucked into the expensive tourist traps. Take a little detour past Verde Verde; you’ll save yourself a few bucks, and probably a few pounds around the waistline as well.

Verde Verde – $
Viamonte 669
Microcentro
• Hours: 11am-6pm Weekdays
• No Credit Cards

A short walk west you will find Celetto, a charming and understated Argentine ristorantino with more charm in their coffee biscuits than the tourist traps can manage in a meal. In addition to this four-year-old branch, there are a further three locations dotted throughout the state and two parillas that focus mainly on food from the grill.

Instead of the standard stale bread roll hand grenades offered in other restaurants, each diner here is greeted with a mango bellini and some dainty canapés to kick things off. The mood here is reassuringly intimate with rustic ‘Italian villa’ décor. The burgundy walls are lined with wine bottles, mirrors and understated pieces of art and the ambiance of the candle-lit tables combines with the soft background music ensuring a romantic atmosphere cloaks the dining room.

Whispering silver haired couples make up the majority of the clientele, although the hush will occasionally be broken by the cackling laughter of ladies swapping stories over dessert and a drawn out round of espressos. On Saturday evenings it’s advisable to book ahead as diners will be treated to a crooning by the Frank Sinatra impersonator, as velvet smooth as the house Malbec. The service at Celetto tends to be attentive – the waiters here give the impression that they have been recommending wine since the beginning of time.

The menu offers much appreciated diversity and a Tuscan twist on the regular staples of Argentinean cuisine. Starters include breaded prawns, smoked salmon, papas bravas and bruschetta, which range from $16 to around $40 pesos. Half a dozen different salads, including the recommended honey and Dijon mustard chicken, are on offer between $31 and $47 pesos. A refreshing change are the ingredients— Brie, smoked salmon, prawns and walnuts, instead of the instead of the typically plain tomatoes, cucumber and onions.

Main course options include pink salmon with Caesar salad and potatoes (AR$50), chicken salad with white wine and garlic oil dressing ($40), and pumpkin pudding with steamed vegetables, mushrooms and soy sauce dressing ($33). There is a good selection of nine different pasta dishes for around $40 pesos including ravioli with ricotta and mushrooms and gnocchi with lamb sauce. A memorable seafood dish can be hard to come by in this Buenos Aires, but the tagliatelle mar e monti, prawn and mushroom tagliatelle is an outstanding highlight.

Meat eaters are well-catered for too with rib eye, tenderloin, skirt steak, chuck and pork medallions with barbecue sauce available between AR$38-$49 and all served with side salad and chunky french fries.

Among the dessert choices are sweet crepes, meringue, mousse, elaborate ice cream sundaes and alfajors, sweet Argentine biscuits welded together with jam or caramel. A popular option is the AR$35 four-piece taster: berry crumble and raspberry ice cream, panna cotta, double chocolate mouse and ‘sweet caramel delight,’ beautifully presented and offering enough flavors to last a week. The good news is that the portions are large enough to be comfortably shared, albeit through gritted teeth.

—by George Warren

Celetto's popular outdoor dining area in Tigre

Celetto—$$$
Pte. Uriburu 1274
Barrio Norte/Recoleta
Tel: 4822-4606

• Hours: 8am—1 am
• All major credit cards accepted
• Women 50% off Sun, Mon & Tue from 8 pm (the Palermo and Recoleta/Barrio Norte locations)

Other locations

Lafinur 3275
Palermo:
Tel: 4806-0452

Unicenter Mall
Tel: 4836-2944

Eduardo Costa 2028
Martínez
Tel:4798-4352

Fondo de la Legua 340
San Isidro:
Tel:4700-0410

“First and foremost, we will always be about tacos,” says owner, Federico Lobeira, who aims to recreate the feel of the Taquerías in his hometown of Monterey, Mexico. In addition to authentic Mexican street food and delicious margaritas, the restaurant serves up a lively sensory experience with the sites, sounds and smells of Mexico, vivid colors and kitschy art.

Brightly colored lucha libre wrestling masks stare down at diners in one part of the restaurant, a collage of old boxing photographs in another. Dolls and wrestling figurines are found guarding the till or dangling from the ceiling. Multi-colored bunting and fairy lights are strung throughout the dining area with red and green plastic clothespins to create ambient lighting in the colors of Mexico. In the men’s room, old posters beckon readers to come and take up arms in Pancho Villa’s revolution.

The atmosphere is delightfully tacky and the festivity is aided by the drink specials, AR$55 buckets of five Corona, served with lime like they should be and two-for one cocktails, including the delicious AR$20 margaritas. For teetotalers and kids there are homemade juices such as tamarind, lemonade, Jamaica flower and horchata, sweet rice milk with cinnamon.

Marinated or barbequed beef, chicken, pork or vegetable tacos and quesadillas come with a choice of flour or corn tortillas and range from AR$7-14. The portions are modest in size as well as price— supplement the tacos with the onion and coriander salsa or a plate of homemade guacamole and nachos (AR$20).

Recent months have seen a slight expansion of the menu to accommodate those with heartier appetites. The new offers include beef, chicken, pork or vegetarian burgers, baked potatoes with a range of fillings and drunk or refried beans all for between AR$20-30. A selection of flautas, ‘flutes,’ or miniature tacos are a nice way for diners to try all the different flavors. Each table is graced with three bottles of homemade hot sauce, manna for spice-deprived foreigners in this city. Each sauce, served in old Coca-Cola bottles, varies in spice content ranging from ‘For Argentines’ (known to shun spices) to ‘For Mexicans’ to one labeled ‘For Those Who Dare’, which packs a welcome punch.

The street-side kitchen lures passers by, who can saddle up to the sidewalk seating in nice weather or make an order to go.  Inside are two principal dining areas with smiling wait staff bringing a never-ending supply of bottled beers and tacos to hungry punters seated in red, yellow and green plastic chairs around reflective metallic tables.

The best seating is the outdoor Mexican-tiki style lounge out back with ambient lighting hung from trees, foliage creeping amongst hammocks and the Virgin of Guadalupe gracing the bar. Although the menu is strictly Mexican, the clientele is varied. Recent price hikes may have put off a few regulars, but the prices still remain reasonable enough to attract a cross-section of locals as well as tourists. So broad is the appeal of La Fábrica that it is not uncommon to be seated between an Argentine family with kids munching sloppily on a hamburgers and a group of twenty-something gringos exchanging tales of legendary nights out over margaritas and nachos. You might even spot a celebrity — despite its lo-fi vibe, La Fábrica del Tacos has fed stars such as Charly Garcia (Argentina’s most eccentric rock star) and Francis Ford Coppola, who owns a home nearby.

Busier nights, especially at weekends, will see diners spilling out front—be prepared to stand in line, especially if seeking a spot in the garden bar.

The only complaint with La Fábrica del Taco is that many dishes are served on plastic plates but the Taco Factory delivers on their motto’s promise to send home diners with their ‘bellies full and hearts content.’

—by George Warren

La Fábrica del Taco —$$
Gorriti 5062 (between Thames and Serrano)
Palermo Soho
Tel:4833 3534

• Hours: Tue-Sun; 8 pm-1 am, closed Mon
• Happy hour until midnight on Wed & 11pm on Fri
• Credit cards; Amex, MC and Visa accepted
• Discounts for any embassy or Mexican airline employee

Tucked away a couple of blocks behind Congress this buzzing cantina has proved a well-kept secret, serving up perfectly cooked, flavor-filled meat and all the fixings at a quarter of the price of some of the tourist hotspots for over twelve years.

Such is its popularity with in-the-know locals that one can arrive any evening of the week to find Cervantes not only open, but packed with porteños. Although it opens around 8pm, things really get going here closer to 10pm and even though the dining area takes up two spacious rooms, the sight of a snaking line of hungry patrons through the restaurant is not uncommon on weekends. The decor is basic; tourist posters of Patagonia are the only decoration and the tangerine/custard paint-job on the walls might soon be celebrating its own bicentenary, but no one comes here for the interior design.

There is a kitsch fountain in the area separating the two dining rooms, but any calming effect of the soft sound of trickling water is drowned out by the buzz of controlled chaos as pouting waiters dance hurriedly through the tables, limboing out of the way of swilling wine glasses and balancing impossible towers of steaks, sides and salads. Service can be sloppy; appetizers might arrive with the check, but this is forgivable when you witness the no-nonsense gentlemen waiters, in crisp white shirts with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, waistcoats and bow ties casually managing dizzying orders from dozens of tables without the aid of pencil and paper.

Nowadays in Buenos Aires the only Argentinean accent you will hear in some restaurants is that of the waiter. Cervantes is the antithesis. Attractive twenty-somethings play the dating game alongside mothers who didn’t fancy cooking as chuckling grandfathers give troublesome toddlers the taste of their first drop of wine. Families and friends come and go, dignified and dapper old gentlemen set the world to rights over a bottle of red whilst the melancholy lonely diner engulfs himself in his reading between mouthfuls of steak and wine.

The food is typical, reliable Argentinean fare done simply and extremely well and there is a broad selection of dishes on the menu, besides what’s on the grill. Basic starter options include grilled provolone and a selection of different cold cuts of meat with sauces.

Half a dozen salads are offered including beetroot, radish, egg, carrot, pickle, apple and, oddly enough, golf sauce —a dubious Argentine invention that is a mix of tomato sauce and mayonnaise. The pasta portions are hearty and come with the diner’s choice among a selection of 14 sauces, most notably, pesto, prawns and Parisienne.

The delicious omelets are the size of a birthday-cake; often they are sliced up and devoured between a whole family. A few rice dishes, meatballs, supremas (chicken escalopes) and milanesas (breaded steaks) are also available around the $20 peso mark. Should there be room for dessert the flan, a local delicacy, is highly recommended – light and creamy and hard to refuse at only AR$5.50. Grilled apples, fruit salad, ice cream and a good selection of Argentine cheeses are also on offer between $5 and $10 pesos.

The specialty of this restaurant and what keeps the crowds coming back is what’s on the grill. Juicy chorizo sausages bursting with flavor, succulent AR$22 rump steaks still sizzling in their juices before you on the metal serving plate accompanied with a AR$12 liter of sweet house wine (there’s no wine list here) will allow even the most indulgent gluttons plenty of change from $50 pesos. Pork cutlets, chuck ribs, rump roast, skirt streak and others are available from the grill as well as grilled hake, salmon and brótola (forkbeard). If with a large group, why not make like the locals and order a few dishes to share, trying bits and pieces of each until you can manage no more. Most main courses will cost $18-$27 pesos. An exception are the AR$35 eye-catching ‘Cervantes Specials,’ which are essentially a pile of vegetables, beetroot, Spanish potatoes, coleslaw and eggs on top of grilled beef, chicken or pork.

Don’t forget to ask the waiter for a jar of blood-red chimichurri, a vital meat-eaters condiment comprising garlic, herbs, spices and oil that is often overlooked by the tourists – but you won’t find any of those here.

—by George Warren

Cervantes II $-$$
Perón 1883 (corner of Riobamba)
Congreso
Tel: 4372 5227/ 1060

•Hours 12-4pm; 8pm-12pm (daily)
•Take-away available
•Cash only