Con gloria a morir — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

I’m afraid that most of these positive reviews are from people who think Times Square is a good place to grab dinner.

I didn’t have a good experience and I’m angry at myself for wasting a meal in this amazing food city at a tourist trap. I should have heeded the warning signs, but I was hungry and didn’t want to rebook and head elsewhere. I regret that now. No one eating there was local.

Okay, so what were the positives. They had really fast free WiFi.

The negatives:

You cannot see the kitchen from where you are eating, a very bad sign for a steak place in BA. The food coming out of that kitchen was made from poor quality ingredients charged at high quality prices.

There were TVs located in multiple places advertising the food and drinks. I think this is to help the tourists who don’t speak English or Spanish still order? Killed any potential decor or ambience.

The food was served on chipped and cracked plates. That’s a clear sign that the business is struggling: either it can’t afford to replace broken dishes or it can’t be bothered to pay attention to obvious issues like this.

Even though we were not drinking, they left a bottle of wine in the table. Folks, it’s not just how tacky that is, it was a bit rude and frankly took up space on a not big enough table.

They had a waiter call button. It was almost funny how dirty it was, stuck to a plant pot full of…dirt. If the tables aren’t clean, you can imagine how dirty the “hidden kitchen” must be…

The service sucked. The waiter, who in his defense was alone serving multiple tables, was so unfriendly and short and clipped in his communications, we almost left after the first interaction. I wish we had! But, you know, when you need to eat, you need to🤷🏼‍♂️ I only left 5% tip, which as an American was heartbreaking, but…it was bad.

People actually raved about the gratin potatoes. It was like a 10 year old had put the dish together, greasy, with low quality cheese thrown on top and partially cooked. None of the food was good, but people here really seemed to like them. Yuck.

I figure, that either there was a chef change at come point or that the positive reviews here are a bit suspect.

Book a table ahead of time at Hierro. That place was amazing and fascinatingly less expensive that Bíbaro despite the clearly superior ingredient quality. We tried going three times in addition to the time we reserved for, but they were always full. Of locals. Go figure😉

Sorry Bibaro management; I hate to ding you, but it would be wrong not to let other travelers know, that despite the super heavy investment in the restaurant’s exterior facade, you didn’t invest enough in anything your customers experience once walking...

I rarely make any reviews if I am dissapointed by a service, but today is one of the days where I can not give any stars at all. Service at the restaurant started with an unfocused and hectic waiter who spilled our drink on the table without apologizing, which happens from time to time, fine with that. Secondly he did not listen to our order: We asked for a T-Bone steak Medium Rare but got it well done... which should not happen in a top rated steak restaurant!

After giving it back we were offered a fillet steak - medium rare, which turned out to be well done as well. The waiter was not very open to our further complaints and was blaming his colleagues without apologizing... we gave up and ate our food but expected at least a free coffee or a discount, which did not happen. Fine on that as well.

But the worst part was the final step of paying the bill... even after stating our dissapointed with the food and service the waiter tried to add 20% tip without letting us know, we just figured this out by checking the bill.... so overall very disappointing and...

We were a table of seven Americans and two Argentine’s on our second night in town. Antonella was our waitress and she did not steer us wrong. We shared the Argentine typical meat plate which was plenty for us to share along with some french fries which were the best we had in four restaurants that we’ve eaten in so far and a delicious salad. The wine, which was only About $14 US was amazing. Also, they play bossa nova versions of American pop songs, which is quite hilarious especially when the Candy Shop comes on and it’s bossa nova beat

We were very pleased with everything, especially after we found out that the wait at the parillada across the street would have been over an hour - the Birbari staff moved tables and had us sitting within 5 minutes. Also, the staff at Birbari were incredibly accommodating and welcoming.

The sausage were among the best...