Mexican Food in Buenos Aires

If you have spent any amount of time in Buenos Airs you will have realised that almost every menu is the same. The parilla restaurant is King. If you really like steak and chips then this shouldn't be a problem but if your used to a restaurant culture where you can have Mexican one night, Creole the next you might get bored very quickly.

You don’t have a hope of finding Creole but there are a few Mexican restaurants that will satisfy your craving for something different. It is no surprise that the greatest concentration of these restaurants are in Palermo where you will find the most expats looking for a spice fix. The Argentines aren’t big fans of spice so in almost all the restaurants the food is toned down or you will get a stern warning about how spicy (picante) the mild salsa is.

Here are four of the best in Palermo Viejo:

La Flor Azteca (Thames 1472): This place has atmosphere, good food, spice, and extremely friendly staff. The food is as spicy as you would expect from a Mexican meal. I particularly recommend the Tabla Mexicana to share between two as it comes with a side of refried beans and Mexican rice that are to die for. Depending on how busy it is the service can be slow but they are never rude. The décor is nice,the tables are well spaced and the music can range from Mariachi to Radiohead.

Averge Main Course: ARG$28-32 Drink: ARG$18-20

La Fabrica del Taco (Gorriti 5062): If you are looking for cheap and cheerful then La Fabrica del Taco is the place for you. Some of their menu is very expensive but if you stick with the basic tacos then you should be fine. They offer different combinations of beef, chicken, cheese, lettuce etc. served in a soft taco. They then provide you with bottled sauces of varying degrees of picante. Unlike some places the muy picante is indeed very spicy. Depending on your appetite two or three of these will fill you up.
The décor is great with a wall full of Mexican wrestling masks. You get plastic plates and cutlery but this fits in with the fast, young atmosphere.

Average Main Course: ARG$ 14-20 Drink: ARG$ 12

Cielito Lindo (El Salvador 4999): The staff are very friendly and will do their best to help you through your bad Spanish. It is quite expensive but they don’t hold back on the spice. If you have an Argentine friend they also do more traditional parilla style offerings. The tables are close together and it can be hard to get in without a reservation-literally as you are not allowed to go inside until they find you a seat/your reservation is ready.

Average Main Course: ARG$ 30-35 Drink: ARG$ 15-20


Xalapa (El Salvador 4800): If you want to eat here at the weekend you have to have a reservation. The line can be half a block long. It is extremely popular with the Argentines. One reason for this might be because they take the spice out of everything, not to mention serve everything quite dry. The only thing to fire up your taste buds is a small bit of sauce that is served with the nachos when you sit down. The qality of the food is excellent, however, so if you really need that spice fix I recommend holding on to the nacho sauce and using it as a sauce for your main dish. The staff can be very hit and miss but the décor is nice and the tables are well spaced.

Average Main Course: ARG$ 28-35 Drink: ARG$20

Going out in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is famous for it’s nightlife; clubbing all night in chic clubs or illegal underground dens.

But what if you just want to go out for a drink with friends?

Here are the best traveller/expat friendly bars in Buenos Aires and in particular the Palermo/Recoleta areas- haven of us foreigners.

Best for drinks with friends:

Bar El Taller: This place is a gem on Plaza Serrano. It is very laid back; the staff have no problem with you sitting with your laptop for an hour or three with the same coffee. The beer is the cheapest you'll find on the plaza.

Da Da Bar: Another bar on Plaza Serrano. It is a bit more hip than El Taller but it’s rooftop terrace can’t be beaten. You can sit there of a weekend night and watch Beunos Aires' nightlife going by- taxi men drinking mate together, party boats and trains and buses and even impromptu dancing in the Plaza.

Cronico: This is a solid favourite (once again on Plaza Serrano) at any time of the day or night. Although the later in the night the less quiet your drink will be. They have a great Happy Hour on certain cocktails until 11pm.

Janio: Moving down to Plaza Palermo/Plaza Armenia there is Janio on the corner of Malabia and Costa Rica. This is more of a restaurant but great for drinks too. It’s very upmarket but their cocktails are amazing and there is plenty of space.

Bar 6(Armenia 1676): This has been featured in many a guidebook so it attracts every kind of person you can imagine. The waiter/esses are friendly and all speak English. The décor is great but it is a little pricy outside the Happy Hour time.



Best for food:

Casa Bar (Rodriguez Pena 1150): This is definitely an expat haunt. If you are craving a bit of flavour in your food then you have to stop in here. The prices went up in recent months so it’s not as great as it used to be but definitely worth a try. The music is also a treat here with everything from the Doors to Hanson.

The Bangalore(Palermo Hollywood Humboldt 1416): This is the sister pub of one of the only British pubs in Buenos Aires, The Gibralter in San Telmo. The food is very expensive and the portions are small but the flavour isn’t seconded anywhere else in Buenos Aires. Make sure to tell them you would like it spicy as they seem to cater to local tastes (the tika masela is spicier than the vindaloo)


Best for football:

Sugar (Costa Rica 4619): Sugar deserves a special mention as the only place in Buenos Aires that you can watch European football with the sound on without fear of them playing some awful music over the top. It is very cave like but it is worth it for the football.


Best avoided:

The Alamo (Uruguay 1175): Avoid this place at all costs. This can be difficult if you are a fan of American sports but see CasaBar above as an alternative. The music is obnoxious and the beer disgusting.

Sullivans: This is in tourist trap heaven on Borges right beside Plaza Serrano. It is overpriced and they will try their best to gouge an unsuspecting tourist at every opportunity. It is one of the many fake Irish bars in Buenos Aires. If pubs in Ireland were like this then I would never go out. (For a half decent Irish place see The Shamrock Rodriguez Pena, Recoleta.)

Top Ten Things to do in Buenos Aires for Free:

1.The walking tour: There is a free organised walking tour available from Monday to Saturday that covers the main sights in the centre of the city leaving from Rivadavia and Rodriguez Peña at 11am. It’s a great way to see the centre while also learning about some of the history of the city and of Argentina.
However you can make your own walking tour by exploring the places mentioned below and their surrounding areas.






2. Recoleta Cemetery: Truly a gem in Buenos Aires. If you have ever visited Pére Lachaise graveyard in Paris the best way to describe it is like a miniature model of it that contains only the most beautiful monuments. Recoleta cemetery’s most famous current resident is Eva Peron. Its comparison to Pére Lachaise is especially apt because of its location in the most ‘French’ part of the city. On your way to the cemetery you will see the grand French style buildings and the chic cafes.




3. Cultural Centre Recoleta: The CCR is right next door to the cemetery. It is an events centre and art gallery. There are usually collections that vary from photography to sculpture. If you walk downhill from the CCR you will see the large Law faculty building. To the left of this is the giant metal flower that opens and closes with the daylight. This is a great walk but be careful of the mosquitoes.



4.The Botanical Gardens, Palermo: If you spend any time in Argentina the name Charles Thays (or Carlos as he is most commonly known) will become familiar. He has left his mark in nearly every city of Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires. The Botanical Gardens are one of his triumphs. When you enter from the hustle and bustle of Plaza Italia it seems like you’ve stepped into a dream. It is decaying and overgrown but has a charm that shows the decadence and greatness of a long lost Buenos Aires. I would advise you to sit awhile or read an classic novel but the mosquitoes in the gardens are particularly vicious and huge. There are also lots of cats that the locals feed-it acts as a make shift sanctuary of sorts. It adds to the surreal elegance of the gardens.



5. Window shopping in Palermo Viejo: Palermo Viejo was renamed Palermo Soho because of its resemble to the Soho neighbourhood in New York. Argentina’s favourite poet and writer Jorge Luis Borges was born in this area and it is said to have inspired many of his works. However, I would guess that it has changed quite a bit since his day. In fact Palermo Soho changes week from week. Shops open and close in a blink of an eye but that is half the fun. There are shops of every kind. Designer clothes are everywhere especially on the chic shoppers posing outside the cafes. There are no real bargains but window shopping is particularly fun as so many of the shops are so innovative and interesting. It’s not odd to have a coffee shop, bar, clothes shop, book shop and CD shop all in the same little space. If you go there on Saturday and Sunday there are outdoor markets on Plaza Serrano and Plaza Palermo(also known as Plaza Armenia).



6. Bosque Palermo: This is another of Charles Thays creations. Depending on the day you choose to go it can be so crowded you can barely sit down or so quiet you feel like your in your own private garden. There is a boating lake and a rose garden. If you venture on down towards the back of the park you will find the space ship shaped planetarium. Try some of the cheap roadside parillas. They are great value and safe.



7. The Hippodromo, Las Cañitas: A very upmarket horse racing track. It is in a grand old fashioned style setting and you can place bets if you so wish but you will have to figure out the process first. The waiting time between the races can be long and the races themselves short. One way to pass the time is to watch the horses being shown. You can also simply watch the people who are equally as interesting as the horses.





8. The MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) on a Wednesday: This is only free if you are a student but if you don’t have a student card then Wednesday is also much cheaper than the other days. It is 6 pesos. If you are not a fan of modern art the MALBA may surprise you. The permanent collections take the term ‘modern’ to mean painted in the last 100 years rather than the strange conceptual dot on a canvas type stuff found in many other modern art museums. There is also a great gift shop with interesting locally made products from notebooks to toasters.


9. San Telmo Market on a Sunday: Probaly one of the most famous tourist attractions in Buenos Aires. Plaza Dorrego is normally listed as the main attraction but unless you’re an antiques expert most of the interesting stuff is in the streets off the plaza. There are artists, dancers and con artists and every kind of person you can imagine at the San Telmo market. It can be so crowded you can barely move but the earlier you go in the day the better.

10. Spend the day browsing book shops: Buenos Aires is full of the written word. In every magazine stand you can find at least 30 different publications about anything. There are book shops everywhere. In particular if you walk up Avenida Corrientes you will meet lots of different kinds of book shops from boring to bizarre. Browsing is a delight as you can come upon the oddest things and sometimes the rare second hand English treasure. Also don’t forget the famous El Ateneo on Avenida Santa Fe.

Pepsi Music Festival -A Sobering Experience

I’d been looking forward to the Pepsi Music festival since deciding to come to Buenos Aires. The prodigy on Friday night followed by Faith No More on Sunday night. When they played in Dublin the ticket prices were unreal and would have been over a hundred Euro for both and I was going to see them for about fifty. But as with so many things in Argentina things were not as they seemed.

On the Friday morning I had discovered that somehow we purchased four tickets instead of two. Yet again my lack of Spanish has cost me, and this time it was actual pesos. I decided to forget about it as seeing the Prodigy was going to be great. We decided to leave early and soak up the sunshine and listen to some of the local bands. As still relatively rich people here we decided that paying for overpriced beer would be a pleasure in this sunshine.

We arrived in the area around five o clock. The music had started at three. It was eerily quiet. Too quiet in fact. We approached the security gate and all was fine. A small search of body and bags- the norm for any event you can’t bring your own drink into. It was very exciting walking through a Pepsi decorated tunnel with metallica blaring. First thing on the agenda was to get a drink. We approached the usual looking stands to be told no. We eventually found out that there was no alcohol inside the venue at all. Okay no reason to panic. We have the other two tickets. We decided to leave and get a little bit drunk and come back in to enjoy The Prodigy.

Out on the street again, we searched and searched. We finally found one place with Heineken but the man behind the bar would not serve us. At this stage I’ve given up trying to figure out the whims of the Argentineans. We kept searching. We walked for over 45 minutes and finally came to a nice restaurant. We sat down and the waitress came over. 'Comida o Tragos?' She asked. Tragos please. This was met by an apologetic face that I quickly recognised from my own experience behind the counter selling wine after the licensing laws changed. She couldn’t sell us alcohol.

There was a massive supermarket across the street. At least we should be able to buy a bottle or carton of table wine and drink it on the side of the street. That’s what we had been reduced to. However, they couldn’t. An order from the council of BA had decided that no alcohol could be sold in the area.

No else seemed to find this odd or perplexing; the people in the venue or the people in the areas who were losing sales. It goes without saying that there was plenty of pepsi on offer though. No matter how much caffeine we consumed I don’t think it would make us feel in the right kind of mood for The Prodigy.
We resigned ourselves to our fate and trudged our way back the venue. We were about to see The Prodigy. Stone cold sober. The Argentineans seemed to have fun but that was more than likely because of the drug taking that we witnessed. Maybe that was what the city council was trying to encourage. Somehow I don’t know if I’ll ever find out why they kept them sober…

Spanglish Language Exchange

If you’re a foreigner in Buenos Aires you’ve heard of Spanglish. It is an English-Spanish exchange/intercambio. It works like kind of like speed dating. Well I’ve never been to speed dating but that’s what the flyer says. There are about ten or twelve tables and you switch around every ten minutes. For the first five minutes you speak in Spanish and the second you speak in English. It’s not as simple as the flashy website and flyer make out, but there is a free drink.

My Spanish was terrible so as you can imagine I was dreading my first encounter. It was a lovely man from Chile. He was very helpful and corrected me when necessary and really helped me along. That was for about three minutes. Then two other people sat down at the table. First was a guy from Montana - he didn’t know what language they spoke in Ireland (English). The second was a girl from Sweden who asked if I spoke any other languages- I said a little bit of German and some Irish. She informed me that she thought the Irish language was just English spoken with and accent. She was quite shocked to hear it has different words and everything. It truly turned out to be a cultural exchange.

Aside from being quite, shall me say, misinformed the two of them were excellent at Spanish. And of course they had only taken one week of lessons. I don’t believe that for a second, unless the ridiculous amount of money that language schools here charge goes towards some kind of newly discovered Spanish language implant chip.

The next few experiences were just as daunting and very exhausting. All in all I got mistaken for an English person, made a joke about cultural imperialism that fell flat and learned probably about two new Spanish words.

That is the problem with Spanglish. Unless you are an overconfident genius, if you are a beginner things just overwhelm you. Not to mention that it ends up being like an job interview or on some terrible occasions vigorous questioning by a local about why you are in Argentina. ‘I thought it seemed like a nice place’ is met with rolling eyes and an end to the conversation.

Spanglish summed up in one word-awkward.