Gioia Cocina Botánica — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Oh golly, I cannot believe how bad the service and food are at Gioia.

The service was frankly weird: the staffer who was supposed to be taking me to my table instead took me to nowhere - to the back door (onto the patio), where the tables close by were already occupied. She seems not to grasped the concept that her job was walk the customer from A (the entrance) to B (their actual table): she expected me to find my own way. Just weird. She really didn't know what she was doing. Another staffer, who took my order, was equally, well, bizarre: I ordered the white garlic gazpacho, to be followed by another starter (the cauliflower). But she said that this would be problematic: but she couldn't articulate why - she merely asked me was I sure, because the 'white garlic gazpacho' had, um, garlic in it. I said that yes, I had noticed that 'garlic' was in the name of the dish, and therefore I ordered it, obviously, knowing that it had garlic in it. For some bizarre reason, she made a huge fuss about the garlic, and I have absolutely no idea why. She seemed to think that this dish having garlic in it would be a problem - as though she assumed that I did not know what garlic is????? Just bizarre. She made a big issue out of (for goodness sake!!!) garlic, even though I didn't even mention it other than ordering the damn dish!! Weird. This 'service' was just embarrassing, awkward and clumsy, and needlessly. It made me really uncomfortable.

But the food was worse. These are chefs who clearly pay no attention to output. The menu and ingredients read beautifully, but there is no execution, resulting in absolutely tasteless food. To be clear, I am a vegetarian because vegetarian food (to me) just tastes much, much better than anything else. I adore the fabulous vegetarian restaurants in BsAs such as Buenos Aires Verde, HierbaBuena, etc, etc: the food in these restaurants are lavish, luxurious, an abundance of gorgeous flavors and textures. By contrast, at Gioia, I am utterly nonplussed at how my dishes could have zero taste - not even the 'white garlic gazpacho' had any flavor, let alone (very ironically) any garlic in it. These chefs really need to actually start to sample their own output - I have only ever before come across such utterly tasteless food at, um, MacDonalds? (The couple at the table beside me made similar comments, actually.)

This is also a really good example of how gullible people are (I see the rave reviews on Google and TripAdvisors): just because food is (i) very expensive, and (ii) looks prettily presented, and (iii) served at an expensive venue, does NOT mean that the quality of the food is good. This is definitely the definition of 'emperor's new clothes' (re the rave reviews).

I was so utterly disappointed - this was perhaps my worst meal in my 5 months of being in BsAs (a city jam-packed with fabulous vegetarian and other...

Pretentious. That is my first impression of this restaurant. We arrived at 19:15 on a Saturday night to see a nearly empty restaurant. Although there were people seated on a patio outside which we could not see from the restaurant entrance, there was only one table seated in the very large indoor space. I asked for a table for 3. The hostess looked at me blankly, then said, "Do you have a reservation?" I said no, surprised, since, as I said, the restaurant had only one table seated inside. She then asked if I was staying at the hotel (it is located in a Hyatt), which I also replied, "No." She then walked away, presumably to look outside, then came back as said, "Well, we can only seat you in one of these 2 tables," and pointed a table right next to her and one 2 tables away. With this very unwelcoming reception, my friends wanted to leave right, but I as a long-time vegetarian, I was intrigued to try the food.

While the server was very pleasant when speaking to us at our table as we were ordering and delivering food, we were forgotten the rest of the time. No one ever checked to see if the food was ok, or if we needed more drinks, or if we needed anything else, and our drink glasses were empty for more than half the meal. Meanwhile, our table was about 1 meter away from the hostess, and while we ate, she was looking at her phone the whole time, and didn't bother to glance our way at all.

Finally, after 20 minutes of waiting for someone to clear our plates AFTER we finished eating, I asked the hostess to get our server. The server cleared out plates, and then again nothing. We waited another 30 minutes, fortunately in good company with each other, when we again had to ask the hostess to get our check. I have worked in restaurants and food service for years, as both server and manager, and I was appalled by the service here. Meanwhile, with the cold reception from the hostess which might have indicted we needed a reservation that night, during the whole time we were eating, there was only one other table seated in the indoor area of the restaurant. No wonder this place is nearly empty on a Saturday night. Other local people must realize that no matter how good food might be, the atrocious service does not make for a...

The place is beautiful, staff is kinda good with hospitality yet the taste experience despite having some astonishing dishes some felt totally out of topic and not so flagrant in flavours and textures; would help telling an story, having a topic, as my girlfriend said "no cuenta una historia", so you have a random set of delightful things but together is not something to remember; yet is to be recognized that, some served together in shorter breaks would have telled something interesting; and is to be cheered to build a vegan cuisine! Be bolder as well with desserts tell how they should be eaten the citric one was meant to be angrily eaten in a war in your mouth all flavours in the spoon... yet nothing was recommended by the staff and could have been missed, the chocolate and cherry one definitively needs an improvement felt like sand not so vibrant at all, should be replaced

Thanks for the experience

Btw thanks for preparing/gifting us a custom made pastry as birthday gift for my gf we enjoyed it a lot, service was excellent !...