The Hotel Presidente is conveniently located in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires on Av. 9 de Julio within several blocks of the Obelisco. Under normal circumstance I won’t stay at a hotel in Buenos Aires because renting an apartment is such a big market that only the untrained tourist would pay for a hotel. In this case, I had an extra night in Buenos Aires and needed to find lodging. After walking up and down Av. 9 de Julio this was the only place that had a room; and just conviently it was their version of a suite; $180 USD per night. Now it was only for one night and I had no other options so sometimes you just gotta do it.
Paladar is a upscale market in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires specializing in meats and antipasto. Antipasto is your cured meats and cheeses that go well as a starter for a meal to wet your appetite. I make specific note of Paladar because I consider this place as the Lexus of meat markets because the place is not cheap by normal market standards but the quality is unmatched.
Katmandu is an Indian restaurant located in the Palermo Viejo area of Buenos Aires. You’d be surprised but Katmandu serves up some pretty tasty authentic Indian dishes. The restaurant is not cheap by Argentinian standards but worth trying as an alternative to the parrillas and fancy fusion type restaurants. From the tandoori to the curries, the biryani and samosas; Katmandu has many choices that’ll satisfy anyone or just completely stuff a person beyond sufficiency.
Los Porteños is a restaurant/bar located in the Recoleta neighborhood. I met up with a couple of friends to have pizza and beer after they’d gone to a concert over at the Buenos Aires Design. This was simple place that kept the beer flowing and didn’t mind our loud banter as we ended up staying there for hours without ever getting the notion from the restaurant employees that it’d be best that we leave.
Parrilla Pollos Minutas is a small local neighborhood restaurant that was located very close to my apartment and so therefore the convenience had me try it out a couple of times since I’d walk by it everyday. The man who runs this place was always out early in the morning setting up, getting the grill going, working the counter during the lunch hours, cleaning-up afterwards, and back at it again for the dinner hours. The one thing that I can say about this place is that it is cheap. Cheap but not terrible. By no means is this a 5 star dining experience but it’s a simple operation with good food and prices that locals can truly appreciate.
La Gran Hollywood is a parrilla located in the Palmero Hollywood neighborhood. This parrilla is really crowded at night and very reasonably priced. However, with the crowd comes slow and unattentive service. But one plus was that the clientele was predomiately locals so that was a nice indication on my part. This place was so popular that there’s another parrilla next door and while people were waiting to be seated at La Gran Hollywood, the place next dorr was damn near empty.
El Trapiche is a parrilla located in the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood. We went here for lunch and I’ll have to say this place falls under the Rio Alba status. The place is pretty good but I didn’t find anything exceptional about it to make it necessary for me to go back again when there are many other restaurant choices within the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood.
El Fogón is a small parrilla located near Rio Alba in Palermo near the botánico area. I found this place while walking around on a Sunday afternoon and decided to grab a quick lunch. I really liked this place because it was mostly local people and I’ll admit I was given a quick stare by the old couple on the next table because I guess they don’t get many tourist looking guys around here.
Don Ernesto is another of the San Telmo parrillas I’ve eaten at. Immediately when entering you’ll notice the writing on the wall by many patrons throughout the years. I thought that was pretty cool and saw this as an opportunity to leave a bastardly mark somewhere in the restaurant. However, when asking if I could sign the wall, they told me no because there was no more room; that disappointed me because surely I could’ve found a spot.
La Brigada is another parrilla located in San Telmo. When first arriving to this restaurant I swear, I recall them telling me that they didn’t have any tables available or maybe it was my lack of understanding of Spanish but that initially gave me a bad impression of this place. However, things got better as the service was outstanding and this place probably had one of the largest menu selections out of all the parrillas we’ve eaten at.
