AnuvaBlog

In the interest of keeping the restaurant review theme going, I have a triplet of restaurants, all with the same theme and owners that I would like to recommend.These restaurants are NOT fine dining establishments. You will not find extensive wine lists, or cloth napkins, or waiters with bow ties.

What you will find is plentiful, delicious food for very little money.

Lourdes and I always get the “parrillada completa” when we go to one of these three restaurants. This is the traditional Argentine fair for meat: organ meats and many different kinds of steak and chicken in a quantity for 4 people for only 55 pesos! It also comes with fries! Now if you’re not into morcilla (blood sausage), or rinon (kidney), or molleja (sweet breads), then maybe the parrillada completa is not for you. But it’s an incredible value and I recommend trying it even if it does give you a little “asco” (grosses you out).

This is actually one of the only meat places in Argentina that has good vegetarian options that are not pasta. They have tamales (corn husks with meat or cheese inside), humitas (corn paste/polenta with cheese and corn inside), locro (traditional argentine stew), empanadas from Salta (with all sorts of different options for fillings), all cooked in a ceramic oven.

For wine here I recommend getting the house wine (vino de la casa) which is only about 15 pesos a bottle at the restaurant. They  do have some better bottles but they do not have wine glasses so in my opinion it’s better to enjoy vino on the cheap.

I recommend this for value as even with beer or wine you can get out of there for well under 50 pesos per person.

www.anuvawines.com

Thus begins a new series here on the Anuva Blog and that is reviews of the top restaurants (according to certain publications) in Buenos Aires. This came about from me noticing that nearly all of the visitors to Buenos Aires ended up going to the same restaurants: the one’s who spend a lot of money getting reviews in U.S. publications.

So Lourdes and I went to Cabana Las Lilas, an extremely well known steak house last night for dinner. It’s on the dikes in Puerto Madero, which is prestigious real estate, but the prices were extremely overboard. I am thinking about the fact that they have their own ranch where they breed their own cattle…

Now, we knew what we were getting into, but paying about 4 times (yes 4x) what we normally pay for the same meal of the same quality was breathtaking. And the place is packed!! I really don’t understand why.

We narrowed down the difference between our meal at Cabana Las Lila and what the exact same meal at our other favorite steak houses would have cost/consisted of. Here are the similarities and differences:

1. Similarity: the quality of the meat. Exactly the same. The meat you get at Cabana Las Lilas is no better than any other good steak house in Buenos Aires.

2. Similarity: the overall menu. Nearly the same. Save a few fish dishes, Cabana Las Lilas has nothing different on the menu.

3. Difference: the service. This was a notable quality. The service was impeccable. This cannot be denied. But does it justify paying 4x as much?

4. Difference: the breads/bread selection. Fantastic bread and bread selection. Bread costs about 1 peso per table. Again, a notable difference but one that does not justify the cost.

5. Difference: the wine menu. Extremely extensive. For a wine guy I found their wine menu to be one of the most impressive in the city comparable to any other restaurant. There are so many choices I doubt even the sommelier get’s tired of making suggestions.I want you all to know that this is just our personal opinion of this restaurant after having lived in Buenos Aires for over 5 years. See my other blog on where I recommend you eat steak in Buenos Aires.

www.anuvawines.com