NEIGHBOURHOODS · FOOD · 2026
The interesting cooking moved west of Palermo years ago, across Avenida Dorrego into a few blocks where Chacarita, Villa Crespo and Colegiales run into each other and nobody agrees where the line is.
For most of its history Chacarita was known for its cemetery, which is enormous, and for being quiet, which it still mostly is. Over the past decade the low blocks around Avenida Jorge Newbery and Avenida Dorrego filled with chefs, natural wine importers, ceramicists and small publishers priced out of Palermo, and the result is the most interesting few square kilometres of eating in the city. At Buenos Aires Transfers we drive people out here most weeks, usually for dinner, which is how this list got written.
One caveat before the list, because the apps get this wrong constantly: on the city's official map all four addresses are in Chacarita, a block or two north-west of Avenida Dorrego, which is the legal boundary with Villa Crespo and Palermo. Google Maps and half the food press file the same corners under Villa Crespo, and locals treat the whole strip as one neighbourhood anyway. If a taxi driver calls it Villa Crespo, do not argue; if the app does, trust the address, not the label.
01 · ANCHOÍTA
CHACARITA · MICHELIN GREEN STAR
The restaurant that started the shift
Enrique Piñeyro, who has also been a doctor, a commercial pilot and a film director, opened it in 2018 in a former soda siphon factory, and it does one thing with complete seriousness: Argentine produce, handled in house. Charcuterie cured on site, a wood-fired grill, river fish, a cheese room, and a wine list that is long even by the standards of a country that takes wine seriously.
It has held a MICHELIN Green Star since the guide's first Argentine selection in November 2023, and kept it in 2025, which is the recognition the neighbourhood had been building towards.
→ JUAN RAMÍREZ DE VELASCO 1520, CHACARITA
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 20:00 to 01:00. Reservations for the whole year open on 27 December and are gone within a day, but about half the room is kept for walk-ins: put your name on the list around 19:00 and go for a walk, or come after midnight, when tables free up. The kitchen takes orders until closing.
02 · DONNET
CHACARITA · VEGAN · MUSHROOM LED
Almost nothing but mushrooms
Manuela Donnet fell for fungi while working a stall at the San Telmo market, where the vendor next to hers sold portobellos, and in 2016 she built a whole kitchen out of the idea. The house dish is still the same: portobellos in green olive liqueur on a fermented cashew cream with seed crackers. Around it, oyster mushrooms off the griddle, fermented fainá, empanadas and a mushroom stew, some of it grown by the restaurant itself. It has since moved a few blocks to a new room on Fraga, colourful and slightly kitsch, with a four-course tasting menu on one side and a rotisserie counter on the other.
Worth knowing before you book: it is fully vegan, with no flour and no animal products anywhere on the menu. That is a feature if you are looking for it and a surprise if you are not. Vermouth, natural wine, cider and kombucha to drink, no ceremony.
→ FRAGA 675, CHACARITA
Open Tuesday to Saturday, evenings only. The listings disagree on the exact hours, so check @donnet_te_ama before you go.
03 · NARANJO BAR
NATURAL WINE · SHOP AND BISTRO
Pick a bottle off the wall and sit down
Half natural wine shop, half corner bistro. You pick a bottle off the wall and sit down with it, inside or at a table on the pavement under the trees. The wines are the point: small producers, organic, biodynamic and minimal intervention, from all over the country. The name is the orange tree that shades the tables on the pavement. The food is small plates off a board that changes.
Condé Nast Traveler named it one of the best new restaurants in the world in 2021, and it has stayed exactly as unpretentious as it was.
→ ÁNGEL JUSTINIANO CARRANZA 1059, CHACARITA
Monday to Friday from 18:00, Saturday from 12:30, until midnight. Closed Sunday. No reservations for fewer than eight, so go early.
04 · ANCHOÍTA PANADERÍA
SOURDOUGH · COFFEE · FROM 9:00
The best breakfast in this part of the city
A few blocks from the restaurant, the bakery arm: sourdough, croissants and medialunas, focaccia, chipá, organic flours, house-made ice cream and bean-to-bar chocolate. The coffee is good. It is the best breakfast in this part of the city and the easiest place on this list to get into.
→ AGUIRRE 1562, CHACARITA
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 9:00.
The four, at a glance
| Place | What it is | Open |
|---|---|---|
| Anchoíta | Argentine produce, grill, charcuterie, Michelin Green Star | Tuesday to Saturday, 20:00 to 01:00 |
| Donnet | Vegan, mushroom led, small and informal | Tuesday to Saturday, evenings; confirm hours |
| Naranjo Bar | Natural wine shop and bistro | Mon to Fri from 18:00, Sat from 12:30; closed Sun |
| Anchoíta Panadería | Sourdough bakery and coffee | Wednesday to Sunday, from 9:00 |
The blocks in between
The other reason to come is the walking. Between Avenida Dorrego, Jorge Newbery and Calle Charlone, old mechanics' garages and small warehouses have turned into ceramic studios, lighting workshops, vintage furniture rooms and galleries, most of them with the shutter half up and somebody working inside. It is not a designed shopping district and there is no map of it; you find things by walking.
Two of the city's old pizzerías that sell by the slice are close by: La Mezzetta, on Avenida Álvarez Thomas where Chacarita meets Villa Ortúzar, and El Padrino in Villa Crespo, both counter only. They are in our guide to pizza by the slice in Buenos Aires.
Getting there and back
Chacarita is a fifteen to twenty five minute drive from Palermo or Recoleta depending on traffic, and the Subte B line reaches the neighbourhood, which handles the trip out. The trip back is the awkward one: these restaurants finish late, the streets are residential and quiet, and app cars take their time on a Tuesday at midnight.
Book a driver for the evening. Message us on WhatsApp at +54 9 11 2404-0448 or book a private car and eat where the city is actually eating.