Despite receiving mixed reviews about Buenos Aires, and since our flights in and out of the country were through EZE, we decided to spend two nights in Buenos Aires at the start of our trip. And we are really glad we did, as it was a good mix of relaxtion, pool time, city sightseeing and some very yummy food and authentic asado.

After some hotels in South Africa that weren’t quite up to our preferred standard, we opted for a known quantity in Buenos Aires with the Four Seasons. It was a fantastic choice and a great hotel in the heart of Recoleta - a very affluent, walkable area with lots of shops, restaurants and sights to see.

We booked a mansion view junior suite through Jet Set Getaways. When we arrived at the hotel at about 10:45am, we were offered an upgrade to a city-view 1 bedroom suite that would be ready by the time we finished breakfast. Our originally booked junior suite wouldn’t be ready until 3pm. Easy choice, we took the upgrade (thanks Jet Set Getaways)! Our 9th floor suite had a nice sitting room, a good sized king bedroom and bathroom (two sinks, free standing tub, toilet room and separate shower), plus a small dining area and a powder room. And while I find that hotel website photos are rarely reflective of the actual rooms, the website photos were 100% spot on for this accomodation. The Four Seasons Buenos Aires was a perfect home base for our time in Buenos Aires.

After a stop at the main restaurant - Elena- for an expansive breakfast buffet, we were given keys to our room and promptly changed and headed to the pool for an afternoon of relaxing, decompressing and thawing out. The 85+ degree weather and sun were quite welcome given all the snow in New York! Although in less than an hour in the sun, Dave was pretty much fried and was the proud bearer of a sunburn for the rest of the trip!

When we started planning our trip to Argentina, we had no idea the quantity of Michelin Star restaurants scattered throughout the country, including a two-Michelin Star restaurant in Buenos Aires - Aramburu. During the height of the summer months, Aramburu offers an early bird dinner at 5:30pm that includes a wine pairing. Y’all know that I booked it months in advance, and at 5pm, we headed out of the hotel to walk to an early dinner.

The restaurant is tiny and we were one of three couples enjoying the early bird dinner. Dinner was advertised as 18-courses (apparently only 17 for the early bird dinner) and it was really 12 courses - 2 of which had 2 parts, plus 3 dessert courses.

There were no written menus, so the following are my descriptions from memory (no idea what the wines were!):

Herb cracker and tomato water. The cracker was presented in an envelope with a note that read “Non est ad astra mollis e terris via” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2025 which translates into “there is no easy way from the earth to the stars”
Mushroom tart & hazlenut cracker with peach
Crab cannoli
Brioche with smoked trout and cavier (definitely one of our favorites)
Oyster “pudding”
Beef crudo taco
Rockfish with clam chowder (another favorite)
pork and vegetable ragu, saffron cream and passion fruit (not pictured) (also, what the what?? It was rich and delicous and another favorite)
BBQ sweetbread
Duck
Watermelon palate cleanser
Reverse affogato - coffee ice cream with cream
Avocado white chololate mouse in the shape of an avodaco with a green candy shell (not pictured)
Chocolates

At the end of the savory courses, we were moved from the restaurant to the bar area upstairs. Since we were the first ones moving between the two spaces, we got to pick our table. Of course Dave picked the wine cellar for the last few dessert courses.

Overall, I’d give the dinner a 7.5. The restaurant is very modern and beautiful with an open glassed in kitchen so you can watch dinner being prepared (which you know I love). The food was very good and inventive - combinations that blew your mind and left you wondering (1) how did the chef come up with the dishes, and (2) how do things like pork ragu and passion fruit even go together. I have no idea but they did and it was delicous.

My only complaint is that dinner was very rushed. As soon as you set your fork down, the waiter was removing dishes, the sommelier was pouring the next wine and the next course was presented. Given that some of the food was really rich, some breathing room between courses would have made for a much more enjoyable experience. And I am very glad we went for the early bird dinner which included the wine pairing (versus it being an additional add on to the hefty price of dinner).

For our one full day in Buenos Aires, we booked a 5-hour private city tour to see some of the city highlights in a relaxed fashion. This was definitely worth the price as we had a very knowledgable tour guide, a private driver, and any entrance fees to sights were included in the price of the tour (flat hourly rate). Before the heat of the day set in, we started the tour at the Recoleta Cemetary, which was so much bigger than we realized. You could spend hours wandering through all the mausoleums - which include lots of famous Argentinian leaders and stars including Eva Peron. From the cemetary we headed to the Palermo Rose Garden to walk around this beautiful park area, the trendy district of Palermo Soho, the obelisk, Casa Rosado or “Pink House” which houses the president’s office, the national cathedral, the historical market at San Telmo where we grabbed some quick snacks and a glass of wine (hello wine window!), then finished the day at La Boca (including driving by the La Boca futbol team stadium which was decked out in blue and yellow)!

After a busy day of touring, we parked ourselves at the pool for a few hours before a late asado dinner at Fogon Asado. We booked the 14-course wine-paired Chef’s Counter experience at the Uriate location. When I booked dinner, the location closer to our hotel was already full (the larger Fogon Asado restaurant), but it worked out perfectly because the Fogon Asado Uriate location is a private dining room hidden away (and it was only about 20 minutes from the Four Seasons in the Palermo Soho neighborhood which we visited earlier in the day). Plus, it was a 16 person dining counter built around the asago (grill) so it made for a very initmate and enjoyable dining experience with outstanding service.

Here’s the menu and some photos from the traditional asado dinner - everything was cooked over a giant open flame in the middle of the dining counter.

14 Course Tasting Menu

This dinner was a 9 (maybe 9.5) and definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Argentina and our time in Buenos Aires. It was also one of our more reasonably priced dining experiences although you did have to prepay when booking the reservation and there was a 48-hour cancellation policy (dinner was $125pp and the wine pairing was $75pp). With the exception of the lamb course, I thought every course and wine pairing were fantastic. The amount of flavor and smoke in each of the courses made for an authentic asado experience. Plus, the wine was flowing and refills were passed out with no judgment. In fact, I am petty sure an old guy at the other end of the restaurant singlehandedly drank about 5 or 6 bottles of wine over the course of the 3+ hour dinner. Like I said, no judgment!

Plus, y’all know I love to cook, so being able to watch all of the food prepared directly in front of us added to the experience.

If you find yourself in Buenos Aires, I would definitely recommend the Chef Counter Dining Experience at the Uriate location of Fogon Asado!

It was about midnight by the time we got back to the Four Seasons after dinner and we were done after a long day. We headed to bed to get some reset before an early morning wake up call for breakfast and then to head to the airport to fly to El Calafate!

A few pointers that could be helpful if you decide to venture to Buenos Aires:

EZE was very easy to navigate - especially just with carryons. If you are a regular traveler, there is no need to book the VIP arrival services (outrageously priced at about $400pp) as customs and immigration took less than 15 minutes. I’m so glad we didn’t waste the money on this service.
The only time that security at the airport was a pain was at EZE on our way back to New York. Security lines were long, security was very strict with liquid toiletries being in a separate bag, laptops/ and other electronics had to be removed, along with shoes.
- There was also a second luggage search at the gate before boarding the plane (unzip carry-ons and go through your suitcase type of search) and all liduids were thrown away. Do not buy a bottle of water for the plane, security will make you throw it away.
Car services booked through the Four Seasons were very expensive (think $100+ each way to dinner). We ended up caneclling the car services for everything but transport to/ from airport and using “Uber Black” which was just a pre-booked taxi and less than $20. Plus it felt very safe and was easy to schedule through the Uber app. Just hailing a cab was also about half the price of uber black.

No portion of our time in Buenos Aires was gifted.

Buenos Aires

Fly Me to Somewhere (preferably in first class)