The 6 Best Meal Deals in Buenos Aires

Up a fairly innocuous flight of stairs you ascend into what looks like a Goth-inspired Victorian parlour. The walls and decor are painted black, only the table clothes remain neutral and pictures of ‘little roses’ reflect down on you while you eat. It’s dark but not foreboding and the lunch menu has the best sushi deal this side of the River Plate. For less the US $10 you get: water sin o con gas, the best miso soup I’ve ever had, five salmon nigiri, one piece mango-cream cheese (surprisingly tasty), one salmon-cream cheese, one salmon-avocado-cream cheese, one salmon roll, your choice of delicious ice cream, and espresso. For a city that doesn’t eat much else than beef, a good sushi place is a welcome reprieve from the endless tour of parrillas (Argentine steakhouses) one is usually subjected to. One that serves an amazing lunch menu to boot is even better!

Little Rose

Armenia 1672, Palermo Soho      Cuidad de Buenos Aires 1414,          Tel: 4833-9496

2. Siga La Vaca

As I alluded to above, Argentina is the land of beef and here the parrilla is king. The asado (or barbeque) is as much a part of the Argentine cultural identity as yerba mate and polo are. Parrillas are peppered throughout the city with a consistency that would put Starbucks to shame, and the choices are so many that most people in town for only a short amount of time fall victim to the over-hyped and over-priced asados of the big name restaurants from the tour books. If you prefer not to spend $100 US on a dinner for two then I highly recommend Siga La Vaca. But be warned, it’s not for the small-stomached.

For less than $20 US Siga La Vaca (Follow the Cow) offers an unlimited barbeque, All-You-Can-Eat style but with a little more class. For a set price each person at the table is encouraged to help themselves to however much salad they want from the salad bar and meat from the BBQ pit, including cuts from cows, chickens, pigs and other assorted animals. The price also includes beverages in the form of unlimited bottles of water with or without gas, a bottle of the house wine or a pitcher of soda per person. If by this point you somehow, by the grace of god, have room for dessert, don’t fret because that’s included too. This is a popular restaurant with locals and in-the-know tourists so get there early to avoid a wait, but by early in Argentina I mean 10:00 pm.

Siga La Vaca    http://www.sigalavaca.com/site/ingles/historia.html

Alicia Moreau de Justo 1714, Puerto Madero       Ciudad de Buenos Aires       Tel: 4315 6801 / 6802

3. The Bangalore

What’s good about eating dinner at a pub during happy hour is that happy hour is a very respectable 7:00 – 9:00 pm affair. For visitors and expats one of the hardest things to get used to in Argentina is the late dinner time (not until 10:00 pm) so the opportunity to eat a good meal at a decent hour is something fantastic. What’s even better is that happy hour means two for one deals and discounts, and at The Bangalore, an English style curry house and pub, those deals come in the form of two-for-one beers and discounted Indian curries as interpreted by the British.

There’s something almost comical about eating Indian food that’s been tweaked around by the British, in a Brit-pub that’s been tweaked around by the Argentines. Certainly there is a fair amount of gastronomic corruption going on here, but the results are nothing to shake a stick at. Most people agree, and The Bangalore has become synonymous with curry.

There’s a proper restaurant upstairs but the real deals are downstairs in the pub where the curries are 10 pesos cheaper than they are above and are on rotation every night of the week. Written on a chalkboard behind the bar you can count on there always being something for everyone; three different levels of spiciness and always at least one vegetarian option.

So the grand total for a dinner for two (with two curries and four drinks) brings us to 50 pesos ($13.15)! And if you have the choice, go early on in the week when the naan bread is freshest- it makes a huge difference.

The Bangalore Pub and Curry House

Humboldt 1416, Palermo Hollywood     Cuidad de Buenos Aires       Tel: 4779 2621

4. Choripan

Choripan

The reason why you always see the locals eating street food is because street food is cheap, and above all, it’s good. For a quick lunch or a between meals pick-me-up head over to the next barbeque grille you see and order a choripan- a combination of the words chorizo (sausage) and pan (bread). Don’t waste your time with the panchos (hotdogs) because even amongst the poorest of the poor panchos are considered the poor man’s choripan. For four pesos spring for the real deal and you won’t regret it.

Choripan

At the corner, all over the city      Buenos Aires

6. Olsen

Olsen

For something a little more highbrow everyone in the know in BsAs knows that the best Sunday brunch in town is at Olsen, a Scandinavian restaurant in the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood.

Portenos pride themselves on being European-facing cosmopolitans, so restaurants that offer foreign and exotic foods and a pleasant ambiance typically do quite well here. It doesn’t hurt that Olsen’s brunch offers 3 different menu combinations, the least expensive offering items such as toast and jam to the more substantial B and C categories that offer smoked salmon, caviar and poached eggs. You can stay with one category or you can pick a dish from each for a meal that will fill you up for the rest of the day and only costs 38 pesos ($10.00 US). Did I mention that bagels, Chandon champagne and coffee are included?

The restaurant is located in a converted warehouse behind a bamboo fence that sets it back from the road and leads into the patio garden where there is a metal water sculpture attached to the adjacent wall. Use the time while you wait to be seated as a good excuse to order a drink from the impressive vodka bar and go wait in the garden while you listen to the burbling for the water. Not only does Olsen offer good food at a good price, but also a great experience. Without a doubt, Olsen is home to one of the best meal deals in Buenos Aires.

Olsen

Gorriti 5870, Palermo Hollywood        Cuidad de Buenos Aires        Tel: 4776-7677

~Alexandra