After we’d landed and settled into our gorgeous boutique hotel (more on that in a breakfast post!), we headed over to the closest structure- the luxury mall attached, Galerias Pacificos. We quickly found the food court – you know, all of us had positive experiences eating in the mall adjacent our hotel in Barcelona – and this place drew us in because despite the empty mall (which we later realized was because the mall is in the business district, and it was a Saturday afternoon), they actually had people ordering from it.
***I wish I’d gotten a picture of the above grill the last time we were there, when it was a weekday lunchtime and it was packed with mobs of people ordering… but it was too crowded!
As it was, since we’d recently eaten “breakfast” on the plane, we weren’t that hungry and definitely were not yet interested in eating steak (one of the bovine items this country is known for; the other being leather goods). So MD/PB decided to order a choripan, which appeared to be a split open sausage on a hero.
This came with fries and your choice of mineral water, beer, or soda. She chose a Fanta. The fries were decent, but she liked her sandwich… and I think it cost about 12P (Argentinian Pesos), which is roughly $4USD.
The remaining three of us chose to order empanadas, which we’d heard while we were still in NYC were something of a national delight. Baked, not fried, and these were carne, filled with delicious meat. At 8P for two empanadas, along with your choice of soda, beer, or mineral water, well, that comes out to less than $2 for a complete meal. You can’t beat that.
Filled with meaty goodness, almost stew-like insides, these were easily the best empanadas we had in Argentina, surprisingly. A winner on our first try! (Every other place we had them also put in chopped hard boiled eggs and olives, and used ground meat as opposed to chunks of meat, which made a huge difference.)
We actually went back on Thursday for lunch, after we’d landed in Buenos Aires returning from Iguacu Falls. We all craved the yummy empanadas after too many bad experiences with the black olives and hard boiled eggs empanandas – half of us like olives, one of us doesn’t like them, and one of them is developing her taste for them.
I bit one of mine before snapping the picture…
So we all got empanadas, at which time we saw the grill was bumpin’ and everyone was ordering these delicious looking steaks from the place. At 24P, about $8USD with all the same choices (beer, soda, or mineral water; and a side, salad or fries or anything from the above picture of the “salad bar”), a total steal and great value.
Unfortunately, when the time rolled around the next day, we weren’t hungry yet and with our flight time fast approaching, we had to opt out of trying the steak. We were very disappointed… they likely do not offer a to-go option. We noted that mall food is done right in other countries: good food, fast, but you sit down and enjoy the meal anyway, despite being in the middle of a shopping center.
I definitely recommend checking this place out if you happen to go to Galerias Pacificos while you’re in Buenos Aires. It’s in the back of the food court, and the name is La Parillada or something along those lines – there are only two grill places in there, and it’s the one that’s not called blahblah Americano.
konrado says
Those steak sandwiches look mighty fine.