FOOD & FIRE · PARRILLAS · 2026
Every porteño will tell you their parrilla is the best one, and every porteño is telling the truth about something.
July 2026 · 9 parrillas · Buenos Aires
The parrilla is not a restaurant category in Buenos Aires. It is closer to a form of local government. Every barrio has one that its residents defend with the seriousness other cities reserve for football clubs, and the argument about which is best has been running, without resolution, for about a century.
What follows is not that argument. It is a list of nine places where the fire is handled with intent, spread across enough of the city that at least one of them is near wherever you are sleeping. Some have Michelin distinctions. One has a queue on the pavement most nights. One is a corner bodegón in San Telmo that has not changed its formula and has no reason to.
Every address below was checked against the restaurant's own listing in July 2026. Book ahead where we say to book ahead: the good ones fill up, and turning up hopeful at 9 pm on a Friday is how you end up eating somewhere forgettable.
01 · DON JULIO
PALERMO · MICHELIN STAR · SINCE 1999
The one the whole world has heard about
Don Julio has been serving beef on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga since 1999, and somewhere along the way it stopped being a neighbourhood parrilla and became the address people fly in with already written down. It holds a Michelin star. The walls are lined with empty wine bottles signed by diners, the beef comes from cattle the restaurant follows closely, and the cellar is one of the most serious in the country.
The queue is real, and the restaurant handles it with a glass of sparkling wine on the pavement, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place. It opens every day, from 11:30 to 16:00 and again from 19:00 to 01:00.
→ GUATEMALA 4699, PALERMO
02 · EL PREFERIDO DE PALERMO
PALERMO · ALMACÉN AND KITCHEN
A grocer's shop that learned to cook
El Preferido spent decades as an almacén with a beverage licence, one of those corner shops that sold tinned goods at the front and poured wine at the back. It reopened as a kitchen without losing the tiles, the shelves or the sense of humour. The result is a bodegón in the good sense: vermouth, conservas, milanesas and a grill working quietly behind it all.
It sits on the block where Jorge Luis Borges spent part of his childhood, which is the kind of coincidence Buenos Aires produces without trying.
→ JORGE LUIS BORGES 2108, PALERMO
03 · LA CARNICERÍA
PALERMO · NUEVA PARRILLA
Small room, smoked provoleta, no ceremony
La Carnicería is where the phrase nueva parrilla argentina stopped being theory. Germán Sitz and Pedro Peña opened a tiny room on Thames with a butcher's aesthetic and a willingness to smoke, cure and char things that traditional parrillas leave alone. The smoked provoleta is the dish people describe to friends afterwards.
It seats very few people. Reserve, or accept that you are gambling.
→ THAMES 2317, PALERMO
04 · FOGÓN ASADO
PALERMO · COUNTER FORMAT · RESERVATION ONLY
Asado as a tasting menu, cooked in front of you
Fogón Asado turned the asado into a seated performance: a counter around the fire, a fixed sequence of cuts, and a cook who explains each one as it lands. You cannot walk in. It runs on advance reservation only, which makes it a good choice for a first night in the city when you want the whole ritual explained rather than guessed at.
→ URIARTE 1423, PALERMO
05 · CORTE COMEDOR
BELGRANO · BUTCHER SHOP NEXT DOOR
Where the cut matters more than the sauce
Corte Comedor sits beside its own butcher's shop, and the entire proposition follows from that: traceability, ageing, and cuts you can point at before they reach the fire. It is the most technical entry on this list, in the sense that the staff will happily talk you through why a particular piece has been hanging for a particular number of days.
→ OLAZÁBAL 1391, BELGRANO
Eating your way across the city? Our drivers know which of these have parking, which street to be dropped on, and how to get you back to the hotel at 1 am without negotiating anything.
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06 · ANCHOÍTA
CHACARITA · TUESDAY TO SATURDAY
The kitchen that treats fire as an ingredient
Anchoíta is not a parrilla in the strict sense, and it earns its place here anyway. Everything runs through fire, charcuterie is made in house, and the bread deserves its own paragraph. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, from 20:00 to 01:00, and takes reservations only through its website, not by phone and not by email.
Its wine bar operates as a separate venue a few blocks away, which is a useful thing to know before you type an address into a phone.
→ JUAN RAMÍREZ DE VELASCO 1520, CHACARITA
07 · MISHIGUENE
PALERMO · JEWISH ARGENTINE
Two diasporas meeting over the same embers
Mishiguene cooks the food of the Jewish communities that arrived in Argentina and then let the local fire rewrite it. Pastrón, smoked fish and slow-cooked lamb sit beside dishes that would be recognised in Odessa or Aleppo. It is the most interesting answer to the question of what Argentine cuisine actually is.
→ LAFINUR 3368, PALERMO
08 · MENGANO
PALERMO · BIB GOURMAND
Bodegón cooking with the volume turned up
Mengano holds a Bib Gourmand, the Michelin distinction for cooking that is worth what it costs rather than worth the occasion. Argentine comfort food, a grill in the background, prices that do not require a decision, and a door you have to ring to get through.
→ JOSÉ ANTONIO CABRERA 5172, PALERMO
09 · PARRILLA DESNIVEL
SAN TELMO · THE CLASSIC
Plastic tablecloths, enormous plates, no concept
Desnivel is the control group. It is on Defensa, in the middle of the most walked street in San Telmo, it has been feeding locals and travellers for decades, and it has never once tried to be anything other than a parrilla. Portions are large, the grill is visible from the door, and nobody will explain the provenance of anything.
Go on a Sunday after the market, when the whole neighbourhood is doing the same thing.
→ DEFENSA 855, SAN TELMO
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does dinner at a Buenos Aires parrilla cost in 2026?
The range is wide. A neighbourhood parrilla like Desnivel will feed two people generously for a fraction of what the Palermo names charge, while Don Julio or Fogón Asado sit at the top of the market and are priced accordingly. Prices move with the exchange rate, so ask when you book rather than trusting a figure written months earlier. Paying with a foreign card in pesos is usually the cleanest option, as we explain in our guide to money in Argentina.
Do I need a reservation?
For Fogón Asado, yes, always. For Anchoíta, La Carnicería and Don Julio, strongly recommended. Corte Comedor, Mengano and El Preferido are easier but still fill on weekends. Desnivel does not take the concept very seriously, which is part of its charm.
What should I order if it is my first asado?
Ask for provoleta to start, then bife de chorizo or entraña, and let the kitchen decide the doneness if you are unsure. Argentine beef is usually served closer to well done than a European or North American diner expects. Say jugoso if you want it pink, a punto for medium.
The Fire Is the Point
An asado is not fast food eaten slowly. It is a long table, a slow fire and an argument about football that nobody intends to win. Give it the evening it asks for.
If you would rather not think about how to reach Belgrano from Palermo at midnight, or where the car goes while you eat, that part we can handle. Our private drivers work at parrilla hours.
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