El Querandi - Cena Tango Show — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

You do NOT want to miss El Querandí Tango Show on your next visit to Buenos Aires. Everything about the experience is designed to give you the very best Buenos Aires has to offer in terms of tango shows. The building exists since 1860 and is considered a a piece of Argentine cultural heritage for its instrumental place in the history of the development of tango. The decor is an authentic representation of the 1920s in Buenos Aires with a large, dark, ornate cedar bar, panels covering the walls, and a welcoming archway at the entrance as well as beautiful black and white checkered floor tiles. Reservations are required for the dinner and tango show. The dinner portion of the evening begins at 8:30 PM. The menu includes 3 courses with a solid selection of Argentine dishes as well as a few Italian dishes. We all chose empanadas for our appetizer. The dish included one chicken and one beef empanada, both stuffings well prepared in their respective broths. As a second course, we opted for bife de chorizo (sirloin steak) with steamed vegetables on the side. The steak was cooked to perfection with a lovely chimichrri sauce to garnish it. Many of the desert options featured Argentina’s famous dulce de leche (caramelized milk jam), including the crepe I selected. Another interesting dessert option was the so-called “vigilante,” which features slices of jelly-like fruit paste and soft cheese to break it up. A bottle of the house red wine, the San Telmo Malbec, was included with our package. The restaurant was completely full, with a fantastic comunal atmosphere, brought on by large, shared tables and the proximity between tables. The waiters provided excellent service, circling frequently to assist customers. The tango show was absolutely spectacular, spanning the very beginnings of tango music and dance at the end of the 19th century all the way through modernism in the genre beginning in the 1950s and going onward. The musicians and dancers were very professional, displaying a high level of skill in their respective crafts. The dancers switched costumes many times throughout the show to showcase the fashion of the time they were representing. The dancers also displayed an exquisite level of dynamism and acrobatics in bringing to life the various stages of tango’s development. They also extended the performance to include the floor between tables and the bar, which allowed customers to really feel integrated into the fabric of the performance. The band featured a pianist, a bass player, an accordionist and a viola player, who kept the show moving with the changing moods of tango music decade to decade. The show also featured two singers, a male singer who passionately brought to life various tango songs à la Gardel and a female singer who put a bit of a modern twist on classic tango pieces. The show was exciting and engaging from beginning to end. I would recommend this...

Nice show while in Buenos Aires but there are a lot of things that tilt this good show towards a tourist trap. I really dislike tourist traps so this review is a bit biased. If you are fine with touristy things and don't mind being overcharged don't read any further, this show is for you.

The good parts: The live music band is actually good and the dancing is enjoyable, which I guess is why we were there, making this a 4 stars and not less. The desserts that we tried were pretty good.

The bad parts: There is no transparency around the price, we had to really ask what the price is multiple times (we went to book in person) and we explicitly asked for pesos not dollars. If you pay in USD cash you are likely being bamboozled by the exchange rate: we were quoted 120 USD while the price in pesos at the blue rate is around 60 USD and we paid around 40 blue dollars because we didn't want the dinner (we didn't want anything but the show, but that is not really an option). It would be nice if the price is transparent in pesos so that you know what it costs and if it is worth it. At 75 USD per person without dinner or 120 with dinner my impression is that it is not worth it, half that is acceptable.

There are a lot of extras which don't make sense in these times: pick up from the hotel, cheap wine that is included in the show, this is the middle of the city, not sure why taxis wouldn't work. Also your choice of wine is likely better than theirs.

The photographer. We ignored him but many people didn't. (Friendly reminder that you can take a selfie)

The redeeming parts: If you are actually strong headed you can likely get what you want: a good show for a reasonable price without too many extras, but if you really don't like touristy things, go to a proper milonga and see the Argentinians dancing, it will be a...

A well-executed tango dinner experience with a couple of small hiccups.

We booked through a third-party tour (Signature Tours) and were told to arrive at 7:45. In reality, the dinner service doesn’t start until 8 p.m. and runs until about 10, so there’s no need to rush—arriving any time before 9 is fine if you want the full meal. At around 10, the lights go down and the tango show begins, lasting about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The show itself was excellent—professional, well-organized, and easy to enjoy from any seat. The food was solid. I started with a charcuterie board, had a local steak for the main, and finished with a crepe filled with dulce de leche. The filling was delicious, though the caramelized topping wasn’t quite to my taste. My brother and dad also enjoyed their meals.

A unique touch: because my brother’s reservation profile was in French, we were given French menus and the servers spoke French with us. It was a thoughtful detail and made the evening feel more personal.

The only downside was the gap between finishing dinner (around 9) and the start of the show (10). There’s not much to do in that hour, and the way tipping was handled was a bit awkward—a server placed a check presenter on our table with a verbal reminder that tips weren’t included. A simple printed note or discreet message would feel more professional.

Overall, El Querandí delivers on the classic Buenos Aires tango dinner show experience. Go for the performance, enjoy the meal, and just know in advance that gratuity...