Café Tortoni — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Here are my thoughts on Tortoni, which I visited after it came up in multiple conversations and travel recommendations.

Summary: Consider going once. Be patient, go for the interior view, expect average service and food (be surprised if you get a good waiter!)

Atmosphere: Without a doubt the space is very interesting! It's historic and there are multiple rooms that are like mini-museums. You can't just walk in to see the space, so to see it, you have to wait in the line for a table.

Food: eat a real meal elsewhere and just get chocolate con churros or dessert here. The chocolate con churros (as expressed by other reviewers) were delicious and by far the best thing. The savory items were average at best.

Service: Go with the right mindset and low expectations. There will be a wait (line outside), and the length of time for the wait is not predictable or well communicated.

Service is highly varied. No one was attentive to my table, so I had ample time to observe, look at the displays, and practice patience. There was 1 waiter who was fantastic, and I wish I had been seated with him. He was friendly, funny, hard working, and his tables all left with smiles on their faces. (I also saw multiple people slip him tips and gratitude.) The rest of the wait staff that I could observe were much less engaging and slower (mine included).

The part that was most upsetting was the front staff. (The 3 couples in line in front of me bonded over this shared complaint/frustration.) 1 host was letting multiple groups cut the line to enter (we assume these are his friends?). Not just 1 small groups either, mutiple groups and at least one was 6+, which delayed the line significantly. He also did not communicate well with the line (like ask for the next few party sizes and give updates). Once inside, the front staff points parties to a direction (they do not walk you to your table or give you a menu), and then the 3 front staff mostly socialized with each other, while the wait staff did everything. (They didn't help with cleaning or setting tables, so many tables sat for a while until the waiters could bus them. They also were rude to customers...

This place is extremely overated! Other than the historical building and pictures, there is nothing good to offer. Frankly, we have seen better restaurants/ cafes. -Price- over priced -Quality of food - way lower than accepted clealiness: poor - the empty tables where previous guests had eaten remained dirty. Very dirty toilets. The tap for hand wash was completely broken, and the other one was defective . I had to press/hold down the tap for a lady so that she could wash her hands. Staff: Extremely rude. The head manager told us told us rudely not to sit on the table as it was already reserved. His tone was very derogatory and offensive. We were kept standing for 5 mins till a waiter guided us to another table which had not been cleaned. the black forest cake- Selva Negra torta was excessively sweet and had canned cherries instead of using fresh ones (already in season and available in the market) My mint Lemonade had no mint. I was served with water which had alot of lemon but no signs of mint and no sugar/sweetener. The lemon used in Lemonade was not fresh. It felt as if it was an artificial lemon essence/flavouring was used. I had to add sugar myself as the waiters decided to ignore my call. Last but not least, the place is expensive and absolutely not worth the money or time. After a bad service, when we called for the cheque, the waiter gave us 1 official receipt and another one which was a tissue on which he had added 1350 ARS service/tip. He asked us to add to the official bill. The cost for a mint lemonade, black coffee, and 1 slice of cake cost us 17470 ARS. I have never seen such a blatant way of asking for tips at any place, especially a renowned eatery. One could get the same, better quality stuff at any other restaurant for half the price. Very disappointed and total...

This café has been open for more than 160 years, it is a BIG name in Buenos Aires.

We came for “snack”, what they call “Merienda” in Argentina. A lady was at the door and kinda didn’t let us in... she jumped on us trying to convince us to go to the tango show. We were not sure whether we wanted to watch the show or not so she closed the door on our noses until we decided.

Finally my group convinced me to go to the tango show and she let us in. We paid $15 dollars each to watch the show. Can’t say it was bad but it was definitely not the best.

While we were watching the tango show, we tried to order something to drink but the waiter refused, he stated he wasn’t going to take an order for us to have drinks because the show finished in about 45 minutes and there wasn’t enough time for them to bring them down to the basement, where the show takes place. It was, honestly, the most absurd excuse I have EVER heard of. He was at the back of the salon, texting the whole time while our throats were dry as the summer breeze.

45 minutes later and the show was FINALLY over... it was like we were in the dessert, where there was not even water for us to drink. We came up to the Café and another waiter came to us and gave us some menus.

We ordered really fast and got some coffees and sandwiches cause it was not dinner time yet.

The coffee was good but not the best I tried while in Buenos Aires. It’s an old cafe but I didn’t find it as special as it should be. It was all a combination of service, tastes, time taken, etc...

You can go and rate yourself but to me, Cafe Tortoni was not what I was expecting. They failed my...