Paladar Buenos Aires
At Paladar Buenos Aires, chef-sommelier duo Pablo Abramovsky and Ivana Piñar open up the second floor of a charming Villa Crespo house to just 16 people each night, offering a five-course tasting menu paired with Argentine wines. The husband-wife power couple gets creative in the kitchen, designing a new menu each week that features local, seasonal products with dishes like homemade lamb-confit ravioli in herb butter or molasses sweetbreads with a fennel-and-potato crumble. The warm red-toned walls, candlelit mood lighting, cozy fireplace and wonderful service add to one of the city’s most romantic and intimate dining experiences.
Price per person: 250 pesos with wine pairings, 180 pesos without
More info/contact: paladarbuenosaires.com, reservas @paladarbuenosaires.com
Cocina Sunae
In a beef-centric city, it’s not every day you come across a traditional Southeast Asian-style restaurant. Cocina Sunae offers tourists a break from the steakhouse diet, while introducing locals to exotic spices, with four courses parading Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai and Malaysian dishes. Asian-American Christina Sunae Wiseman invites guests into her Colegiales home and cooks up a different menu each week, presenting recipes handed down by her Filipino and Korean family. Think fiery Thai curries, soul-warming pho, tamarind-glazed shrimp, and Vietnamese caramelized braised pork. Urban gardening enthusiasts should make their way up to Sunae’s impressive rooftop garden, where she grows many of the Asian spices that aren’t native to Argentina.
Price per person: 180 pesos
More info/contact:
cocinasunae.com, reservas@cocinasunae.com
I Latina
Four nights a week, Colombian-born Santiago Macías creates an elaborate five-course tasting menu (with wine pairings), where he adds a modern spin to his Colombian cooking roots. I Latina’s food transports diners on a tropical journey to the beaches of the Caribbean coast, with elevated fusion fare like coffee-braised lamb served in a green-plantain cream sauce and tamarind-marinated ceviche-style duck on top of a goat-cheese arepa. Unlike other puertas cerradas, this reservations-only closed-door restaurant operates more like an underground private restaurant; guests sit at tables with their own party. And although it’s located inside a stunning renovated house, in the up-and-coming Villa Crespo neighborhood, the space doesn’t double as the chef’s home. The set menu changes monthly.
Price per person: 490 pesos with wine pairings, 360 pesos without
More info/contact: ilatinabuenosaires.com, reservas@ilatinabuenosaires.com
NOLA Buenos Aires
Hailing from the Big Easy, Liza Puglia made Buenos Aires her home during what was supposed to be a Latin American backpacking stint, and has since teamed up with her sommelier/beer-brewing boyfriend Francisco Terren to create a tasting menu in their cool, refurbished Palermo loft. A first in the Porteño capital, NOLA puts a jazzy twist on New Orleans and Creole cuisine, fusing it with a colorful Mexican flair and a dash of classic French style. Guests can sit with their own party or join the 12-seat communal table and gorge on a seasonally changing menu with Louisiana favorites like crab, shrimp and okra gumbo, slow-cooked pork with grits in an ancho-chili jus, and for dessert, a bourbon pecan pie.
Price per person: 350 pesos with wine pairings
More info/contact:
nolabuenosaires.com, nolabuenosaires@gmail.com
Allie Lazar writes about Buenos Aires dining at pickupthefork.com.