Argentina: Day 1: Cabana Las Lilas: Touristy Dinner

On our first night in Buenos Aires, we decided to go to Cabana Las Lilas, which was mentioned up and down and left and right by nearly everyone who’d been to BA, it was mentioned in the guidebook we had, and everyone, everything had nice things to say about the place.  We being very silly girls went with no reservations, but the suggested wait time of 45 minutes was only 20 and we weren’t that hungry to begin with.  The wait wasn’t that bad also because the locals tend to eat very late, and we went at 8:30 (this is actually very early for dinner in Buenos Aires; most places we went to were just filling up when we left them around 10.  We have no idea how they function and have regular jobs, since dinner tends to last a few hours too!).  But as you can see in the above picture, at 8:30, there were still a good number of people eating- [fellow] tourists.

When you walk in, directly to your left is the bread and amuse bouche/antipasti station.  This woman was constantly plating up new plates for the new arrivals… and the bread?  Well, I didn’t have any of the bread pictured, but another woman walked around with a giant bread basket offering diners bread with their meals.  Unnecessary for any of us… you’ll see why in a few moments.

Further in is the kitchen, in the center of the restaurant/to the left of the corridor you walk down to get to the hostess stand.  Enclosed with glass, you can watch the men manning the grill, hacking at the meat, and other various fun moments.  I snapped a few shots and this guy waved to me, laughing at my silly tourist self.  (He may have thought I was Japanese, increasing the humor factor with the stereotype that Japanese tourists take pictures of everything… whatever, at least he wasn’t giving me the finger!) 

Before we get into the food- the thing about this place is that it’s located along the waterfront, so you can sit outside and enjoy the [super hot and humid] weather while you eat, and it really is a nice view.  But that does increase the touristy angle to the place, which was good in that the waiters mostly spoke English or at least understood enough to get by, and we didn’t realize just yet how different from other places this dinner would be.  Also of note: though I didn’t capture it on camera, I thought it was odd that directly to the right of the above picture was the wine cellar, separated from the hot kitchen just by a thin pane of glass.  I have no idea if the wine cellar was temperature regulated- one would assume so!- but it was still a curious placement to me.

But now, the food!

The plates we’d seen the woman making up – marinated mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, roasted red peppers and garlic, eggplant, and salmon with a chimichurri like drizzle atop it – yum, a delicious start to our forthcoming meal.  Nothing outstanding but a nice touch nonetheless.

I snagged a picture before diving in, so I didn’t focus on the real star of the bread/sticks shown here: the PAO!  The bottom right, as StB informed me, were pao, basically Argentinian/South American gougeres (which I’ve never tried but have always wanted to because they look fantastic…).  Cheesy, dense, moist, and so deliciously buttery, I crammed 3 of these in my greedy gullet and was thrilled when the waiter brought more without our asking.  OMG, these were so freaking good.  I searched in vain for more of them at later restaurants…

Spicy chimichuri and some sweet onions on the bottom; yummy with the bread or your steak.

Considering it’s kept right next to the hot kitchen, the wine as chosen by HB tasted fine.

Our salad with Balsamic dressing.  Nothing out of the ordinary, though we would later find it was hard to get salad at other places! 

HB and MD/PB both ordered the strip steak.  They proclaimed loudly and often “Like BUTTER!  Buttahhhhh…” and really enjoyed their steaks, though the waiters mixed up the done-ness of our steaks. 

StB and I both ordered the rib eye.  I love the cute red cow indicating how we’d ordered our steaks, even though mine came pretty rare while StB’s was more on the done side, despite both of us ordering it medium/medium rare.  Ah well. 

I believe the potatoes were called potatoes souffle- completely hollow inside, these were fun to eat but one order came with only 12 “fries”, which was a bit disappointing.  Ah well, low carbing it, right?  The creamy corn was a bit more cream than any of us expected, but delicious- super sweet, fresh corn kernels complemented by the creamy sweetness of the sauce.  A bit hard to eat with a knife and fork, but I dipped some of my steak in the sauce, hehe. 

As for the steak.  I was by far the least pleased with our steaks, keeping silent while everyone else proclaimed butter and how much they liked it.  Maybe I was expecting more from our first steak meal in the country known for cows (leather and steak!).  I don’t know.  I just know that I wasn’t too thrilled with my meal, deeming it only “alright” and that I definitely, definitely make a better steak than this using probably inferior ingredients (I can’t afford grass-fed beef!).  But the overall experience was pleasant, with great service and solidly good food, and a terrific value (comparing it to New York City prices; otherwise it was quite expensive for Buenos Aires). 

Our entire meal including all that was pictured here plus 4 bottles of mineral water came out to roughly $50USD a person.  This was our most expensive meal for the entire trip. 

Yvo says: If you really want to go where all the tourists go, and if you really want to sit on the water (though there are a ton of restaurants along this waterfront!), and if you really want to go where everyone else has gone and all the tourbooks mention and… well, then this is the place for you.  You could definitely feel like you’re back in the States at this place.
recommended with above criteria satisfied