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I'm a big fan of La Carniceria, enjoy the offerings at La Choza, and have a soft spot for the sandwiches at La Rambla. Parilla Pena is a reliable classic, while Doble AA, a budget-friendly neighborhood spot, is fantastic. I also frequent a dozen or so mid-range parrillas around town that consistently deliver great food. Despite their touristy and expensive reputation, I find Las Lilas and La Cabrera to be pretty good.

I strongly disagree with the notion that "the food in Argentina is horrible." Just this week, I had an outstanding all-vegetarian meal at Gran Dabang. Proper served up a killer bife, along with four gourmet tapas-style non-meat dishes that were excellent, including a standout broccoli and calamari dish. Syntesis offered an authentic Japanese meal last night, featuring tofu, karage chicken, miso soup, and gyoza – all reasonably priced and delicious. The bao at Xaio Long Bao rivals those in many European and US cities, though not quite on par with those in China or Taiwan.

The culinary scene in Buenos Aires has expanded, with numerous new fusion and gourmet restaurants serving top-notch non-meat dishes. I've been meaning to try Narda, for example.
 
While I have a fondness for Don Julio, in my opinion, the finest steak in the city can be savored at the exclusive Nuestro Secreto restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel. Their grass-fed lomo de bife is so tender that you can effortlessly cut it with a fork, and the flavor is reminiscent of Kobe beef but at a fraction of the cost.
 
While I have a fondness for Don Julio, in my opinion, the finest steak in the city can be savored at the exclusive Nuestro Secreto restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel. Their grass-fed lomo de bife is so tender that you can effortlessly cut it with a fork, and the flavor is reminiscent of Kobe beef but at a fraction of the cost.
Yes, I really love that place too but when going out with guests from out of town I alway hesitate to bring them to a hotel restaurant. Well very nice and GREAT food they always seem to have more of an authentic experience going to Don Julios. I stopped going to La Cabrera as I've been disappointed the past few times I went.
 
Upon my initial move here in 2004, steak in any restaurant was exceptionally good, largely due to 90 percent of the meat being grass-fed. However, the advent of feedlot practices took over, leading to a decline in quality. Nowadays, I make a point to ensure that the meat I consume is grass-fed. Only a handful of restaurants, including Don Julio, Duhua, and Nuestro Secreto, are known to source their meats from grass-fed cows.
 
Upon my initial move here in 2004, steak in any restaurant was exceptionally good, largely due to 90 percent of the meat being grass-fed. However, the advent of feedlot practices took over, leading to a decline in quality. Nowadays, I make a point to ensure that the meat I consume is grass-fed. Only a handful of restaurants, including Don Julio, Duhua, and Nuestro Secreto, are known to source their meats from grass-fed cows.
Duhau in Hyatt is my fav restaurant in BA.
 
Duhau in Hyatt is my fav restaurant in BA.
I agree this is a great restaurant. The hotel is spectacular as well. Although I have a beautiful apartment close to the Park Hyatt, every year my wife and I will spend a staycation weekend at the Park Hyatt in a big suite.

Upon my initial move here in 2004, steak in any restaurant was exceptionally good, largely due to 90 percent of the meat being grass-fed. However, the advent of feedlot practices took over, leading to a decline in quality. Nowadays, I make a point to ensure that the meat I consume is grass-fed. Only a handful of restaurants, including Don Julio, Duhua, and Nuestro Secreto, are known to source their meats from grass-fed cows.
I TOTALLY agree with you Perry! So true. Back in the late 90's /early 2000's virtually every place had amazing steak. Even hole in the wall restaurants the quality of steak would blow away the quality of most places in the USA except for the really expensive and high end steak houses in the USA. But then quality just kept deteriorating for the reasons that you mentioned. I used to get really great steak at La Cabrera as well but the past few times I went it was just a disgrace. They let the buzz go to their head but quality kept going down.

Now I can routinely get a much better steak in the USA at good steak places than most places in Buenos Aires steak houses. Still there are certain cuts that they just don't have perfected in the USA like Argentina. Love Tira de Asado in Argentina.

As far as quality of food. You know it really really used to suck. Way back when BA wasn't a big foodie city and there was virtually NO diversity of food. It was ALL pasta, pizza, empanadas, steak. No sushi, no seafood, no ethnic food, no taco places, none of all these burger places you see today. Yes, the pasta, steaks and empanadas and milenesas were great but there is only so much you can eat that of that stuff. I was eating steak like 4 times a week.

Today there is are a LOT of different types of food there and I think they have elevated it much higher. Lots of good restaurants now. Still, I don't think it compares to other places. I definitely would disagree with people that say the food all sucks there. They have a LOT of great restaurants there. But you can easily spend as much or more in some of these than you'd spend in the US in some of them. Lots of places there with really good food are prohibitively expensive for locals.
 
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