El Gran Paraiso — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

This review was supposed to be a shiny 5-star, but we went in on two separate occasions and they just went downhill.

ATMOSPHERE: You're literally eating in someone's backyard on temporary tables and chairs either under the covered patio next to the house or on the grass/gravel lot. A huge barbecue grill at the front is a great showcase and emits obnoxious amounts of smoke onto the sidewalk which draws in the people while leaving an indelible scent on your person. A live singer serenaded us with Spanish music. Hopefully you won't be greeted with an "all full sign" as we were on our second day due to its popularity. If so, try and put your name in with one of the staff though there was no organization whatsoever.

MENU: Salads, barbecued meats and poultry, desserts. Good selection of wine and beer.

TAKEOUT FOOD: Chorizo Sandwich We walked in to the place and just did takeout on this cheap, absolutely tasty sandwich. Definitely 5 stars.

IN-HOUSE FOOD (NEXT DAY): Cerveza Cristal We ordered a liter of the local brew which was smooth and very affordable.

Carne Empanada My favorite Argentinian food never came to the table. Very disappointed!

Our Salad A small dish of arugula, mixed greens, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese were tossed in a balsamic dressing. Very mainstream.

Provolone Cheese with Mushrooms & Onions Ooey gooey? Nope. The skillet of cheese sat somewhere and was delivered coagulated, almost cold and hard. Come on!?

Complete Barbecue A portable charcoal-heated grill-pan arrived with chorizo, blood sausage, ribs, flank steak and chicken. Missing were the kidney, intestines and pork. We informed them about the kidney which was brought separately, nixed the intestines and totally forgot about the pork. The steak and chicken were dry and over cooked, the ribs were super fatty. This was my first try at kidney and it was pretty good! The best of them all was the single chorizo.

SERVICE: Dreadfully slow and really non-existent. The locals seemed to be well taken care of though. One female worker who we waved over acknowledged us but never returned. The only person who helped us was the cashier/host who brought us utensils and who we informed of the missing empanadas. Everyone else was too busy servicing other tables.

TIPS: They have a "cover charge" of $1 per table. Why?

Cash only, USD accepted.

Their proudly posted WiFi password didn't work.

OVERALL: Dry barbecue, horrible service, incomplete orders. Do...

Unfortunately very overestimated place, at least for European standards.

Very lovely place, fair pricing, but very disappointed grilled food and service/speed. Due to the very good rating on Google and TripAdvisor we accepted to wait 45+ min to get into the restaurant. Ok that's a fair deal for great food.

When we got it, we were surprised finding 1/4 of seats/tables unoccupied. Most tables had left food on it, the one next to us remained with leftover food for the next 1,5 hours.

After waiting for 20+ minutes to get a menue, I decided to get one from the kitchen entrance on my own. In the meanwhile a bigger Argentinian family next table, arriving after us, already got their food. We were still waiting for the waitress to get to our table. 10 mins later I walked to her to make the order.

+10 mins to get the drinks, +40 min to receive the food, +20 min to get a sauce for the meat, at that point most of it eaten already :-(. We had a grill with different meat, a small salat and vegetables. To shorten a long story: only the potato and the salat were eatable and ok, the meat was grilled hard like stone and the blood sausage was still fluidly.

The payment process was a disappoint as well. No credit card payment accepted and after receiving the check quickly nobody came to the table for collecting the money for 20+ mins, so we walked to the reception our self and left the cash there before leaving the place.

We actually have no idea, how the place got such...

I've dined in El Gran Paraiso over 8 years ago, when I visited Buenos Aires for the first time. It was a pleasant experience. I came back this November since I was in La Boca area, and the place is still the same, crowded and full of tourists. I would say they added more seating, and they have an upstairs bar, which is cool. The food is good here, and for me, what sets this place apart is the location of the place and their courtyard. The area is very busy, lots of hustle nad bustle, artist, bars, plenty of food places, but I feel El Gran Paraiso offers a calmer more relaxed dining experience without having to be away from the area. I sat outside in the garden sams as I did the first time, the weather was good, they had fans on too which helped a lot, the service was good, even though they were busy we atill didn't wait too long. The meat is seasoned, unlike a lot of places in Argentina, the sides were good! Overall very good experience, I would pick this place over a lot of other places if I'm in La Boca area. Little bit more expensive than others. However, you get good quality, good food as far as taste, quantity and...