Before Dylan and I arrived to Buenos Aires, our friends in Brazil warned us about Argentine beef. "If you like steak in Brazil, wait 'til you get to Argentina. You will eat A LOT of beef."
In our week in Buenos Aires, Dylan and I ate at a parrilla at least once a day. Sickening, I know. We didn't anticipate eating so much beef, but once we had our first bite of an Argentine grass-fed cow, it was over...we were addicted.
During our intense study of grass-fed beef, I present our Parrilla Report.
Order - Ojo de Bife (rib eye) and Bife de Chorizo (sirloin strip steak) are the parrillas most popular cuts. Ojo de bife seemed to be the choice among travelers while the bife de chorizo seemed to be a local preference. Both are great cuts. We also recommend ordering chorizo (meat sausage) and making your own choripan (chorizo sandwiches) tableside. Dylan and I also fell in love with morcilla (blood sausages), pig's blood, ground up pork, and offals. Yes, yes and YES!
Doneness - Medium-rare is what we usually request here in the States. Medium-rare is what we requested in Argentina. This is not what we got. Argentine's love their meats a punto (medium) to bien cocida (medium well). So when we asked for medio hecho or medio jugoso (medium-rare) our steaks would arrive RARE...like bloody dripping rare while other times our steaks were medium-well to umm...GREY. Dylan and I got used to sending our steaks back. Do not hesitate sending your steak back, especially at a nice parrilla. I actually think printing out a picture of a steak with your preferred doneness will do the trick. Someone design a Steak Doneness Pocket Guide!
Share - Steaks in Argentina are huge in portion. Share. Save the rest of your stomach space for dulce de leche gelato and empanadas when you walk around afterwards.
Salt - We noticed that Argentine's like their steaks lightly salted. We suggest enjoying your first few bites of grassy beef without adding extra salt or dunking it into your chimichurri. Savor the grass the cows were able to enjoy.
Cost - A grass-fed steak at a parrilla in Buenos Aires will range from $5 - $20 USD, depending on whether you're dining at a local neighborhood parrilla or at one of the high-end parrillas. You can literally afford to eat steak at least once a day. Just make sure you walk it off or make out in the park like the Porteños (people hailing from Buenos Aires) do.
Best Parrilla - Don't ask. Each parrilla offers really different experiences. We found our favorite parrilla at the end of our trip when we finally received a perfect medium-rare steak...without us sending the steak back. To us, that was a miracle. Our advice in finding your favorite parrilla, enjoy each steak along the way.
Just blocks away from our hostel, it was inevitable that we'd stumble upon Buenos Aires' most talked about parrilla, La Cabrera.
La Cabrera is known as a great parrilla but is also known for their amazing spread, because it is HUGE. Like Koreatown panchan (side dishes) HUGE. From clockwise: whipped sweet potatoes, eggplant caponata, zucchini, pickled onions in tomato sauce, potato purée, sweet pickled garlic cloves.
PAPAS CRIOLLAS con huevos revueltos Spanish cut fries with scrambled eggs
And here is our ONE order of Ojo de Bife (rib-eye) along with white beans two ways, creamy endives and baby potatoes. Yes, that's one order.
After sending our steak back two times to get our desired doneness, we were really happy with our grilled steak. I love the scent of grass in this Argentine steak and the marbled fat interspersed with the meat.
When our good friend Anne from TunaToast heard we were heading to Buenos Aires for our honeymoon, she quickly recommended that we head over to Club Eros for what seemed to be her favorite parrilla in the city.
When Dylan and I walked into Club Eros, we immediately fell in love with the place. Club Eros is an old fashioned neighborhood joint with fluorescent lighting, aging locals, rickety tables and an indoor futbol field. Just our style.
Dylan used to play soccer. He likes to mention that he was really good. So that's what he tells me. When I dared him to go and play with some pre-teens and they pretty much kicked his ass. My husband is adorable.
The quality of the bife de chorizo at Club Eros wasn't as great as the fancier steakhouses, but for $4.50 USD, we weren't complaining. It still was grass-fed beef which was a lot tastier than steaks we have in the US, especially for $4.50. I can taste the happiness in these cows. I can taste that they lived a good life.
Pork doesn't get a lot of love in Argentina. It's really a shame because these pork chops were fantastic. Not sure if these chops were brined or if the flavor and tenderness comes from a free-range pig. Doesn't matter, chops were only $4.50 USD.
I'm not sure how many times we ate at Club Eros while we were in Buenos Aires, but we seem to make more friends as we went.
Dinner. Bife de chorizo steak, pork chops, fried eggs, fries and a bottle of Malbec wine for $14.85 USD. Hell to the yes.
A couple of locals suggested we head out to Puerto Madero for a nice stroll along the water. Little did we know that we were being sent to Buenos Aires' equivalent to the 3rd Street Promenade. Yikes.
Anyways, we ended up enjoying sitting out on the deck at Cabaña Las Lilas and staring at all the good looking Porteños wine and dine.
Huge wine list.
We decided to load up on Sangria instead.
Like La Cabrera, Las Lilas provides a nice spread of smoked salmon, roasted red peppers, olive caponata, roasted tomatoes, and provencal button mushrooms.
Here's my half of our ojo de bife. We had to send this baby back several times before our desired doneness was just right. They've got great quality grass fed beef at Cabaña Las Lilas. It helps that they have their own free-range ranch.
La Brigada is an old-fashioned parrilla with an insane amount of Boca Juniors and Argentine futbol memorabilia located in San Telmo.
When you look at a menu like this it's hard not to want to try everything. I wish they had small bites, especially with the steaks.
Criadilla. Look it up on the menu. Dylan wanted to order these. I'm not a big fan.
We ordered the Bife de Chorizo (sirloin steak), which ended up being Dylan's favorite cut. Unfortunately like the other parrillas, we had to send our steak back several times before it was just right. Steaks at La Brigada are standard, nothing stellar.
Amazed that we were actually losing weight in Argentina. We call it the Parrilla Diet. It works.
After several days at our hostel, Dylan made friends with the owner and talked him into using their outdoor parrilla for a parrilla party.
Going to local markets while traveling is what we call sight seeing. Markets in Buenos Aires are so much fun. The meat section alone is drool worthy. Tons of grass-fed beef for a fraction of what we have to pay for in the states. You'll even find Cabaña Las Lilas steaks.
I loooooove morcilla (blood sausages).
Don't forget the Serrano Jamon Lay's!
Dylan loved looking at all the offals.
Beef kidneys.
Argentine's likes their steaks simple. Sal grueso (course salt) is all you really need.
I want a parrilla in our backyard. This makes so much sense.
Dylan and I had an amazing time sitting under the stars and chowing down with the other travelers. We are always so thankful for meeting some of the coolest people from all around. Grilling steaks and sausages at the hostel was probably one of our favorite experiences in Buenos Aires. Sometimes a backyard bbq is the best way to bbq.
After a week of searching little did we know that our favorite parrilla was just around the corner from our hostel. Don Julio is a classic parrilla set in and old building on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga in Palermo Soho.
Don Julio had great chorizo and morcilla with a nice crisp casing.
Dylan and I shared a bife de chorizo. Here's his.
Here's mine. Dylan and I were really shocked that we didn't have to send our steak back to readjust our desired doneness. Serious miracle! Our steak at Don Julio was so juicy and flavorful and had a nice amount of grassiness in each bite.
Don Julio also has a extensive wine list with wines ranging from $10-$300+. Dylan and I closed down the place drinking tons of wine while we enjoyed our last parrilla in Buenos Aires.
Book your ticket to Buenos Aires now and get yourself some Argentine beef.
La Cabrera Cabrera 5099 Palermo Soho
Club Eros Uriarte 1609 Palermo Soho
Cabaña Las Lilas Alicia Moreau de Justo 516 Puerto Madero
La Brigada Estados Unidos 465 San Telmo
Borges Design Hostel Paraguay 4539 Palermo Soho
Don Julio Guatemala 4691 Palermo Soho
*The exchange rate at the time we went was about 3.5 Argentine Peso = $1 USD. It's gone up to 3.87 Argentine Peso = $1 USD. GO!
Thanks for reading.
