HORNO ARGENTINO, Cumaná — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

A beautiful, yet unassuming establishment slap bang on a busy street and yet a beautiful and peaceful sanctuary. The decor is simple, yet effective. I stumbled into this quite by accident. The waiter didn’t speak English but was very helpful in indicating what I should try. He recommended the locro, a stew made of white beans, pork, beef and chorizo with a mild spice. The dish arrived in all its understated glory. The first mouthful had me hooked. A porky, meaty and gently spiced bowl of thick and rich goodness! The meat was slowly cooked so it simply melted in my mouth. Served with thick, crusty bread with lashings of butter, this dish is sublime. At 130 pesos (about NZ$11.00) you really can’t miss this delicious...

Perfect dinner after a long haul flight. Very cosy atmosphere, highly attentive service and delicious food and wine at great prices. What more can you ask? We had three empanadas (AR $19 each) fresh from the oven, a massive ovendish of gnocchi (AR$ 101) a Milanga de carne napolitana (basically a schnitzel with cheese gratin and tomato on top) with a side salad (AR $119). This dish is also oven baked not fried. To drinj we had 1/2 l of house wine (syrah/malbec) for about AR$ 50 served in a porcelain penguin :) (they call this "pingüino") and a lemonade with mint and ginger for about 45. All in all it was a fantastic first meal in Buenos Aires. Strongly recommended. Lots of locals were ordering takeaway...

We were visiting from the states and had terrible service. The waiter seemed afraid of us. When he first approached the table we ordered drinks and empanadas as appetizers and that was the last we spoke to the waiter in an hour. The empanadas were actually pretty tasty and we watched as the two tables sat beside us (Spanish speakers) that arrived after us received their entrees before the waiter had even made eye contact with us. We were planning on ordering dinner, and instead had to flag the man down to bring our tab. After 90 minutes of being ignored in this restaurant I would never recommend this to any visitor. The apps we did have were good, but the poor service made it impossible to enjoy anything...