Jay's — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Overall, this is decent American-style diner food but not great. It's quite old-fashioned in that most of the diner-inspired food in urban areas in the US by the mid-90s had already started making better food with more interesting ingredients that what's offered here in Jay's with plenty of Mexican-inspired dishes, as well, at least in Chicago.

This is about the same quality breakfast as your average Denny's except that Denny's hash browns were actually crispy but Jays' were cool and soft. Too bad because I was the most excited about the prospect of good hash browns. These weren't it.

The diner-style coffee was certainly authentic in that it wasn't very good. It tasted exactly like the weak, watery highway-side coffee you'd get while traveling. Like truck-stop coffee. Not exactly the sort of verisimilitude we should celebrate. I mean, this city is already full of bad coffee.

The bacon was pretty darned close in flavor and crispness to American bacon so that was great. I stole my friend's portion off her plate when she set it to the side to eat her pancakes.

The pancakes were the best thing I ate although I would have preferred them to be thicker, more tender, and fluffier. They were juuuust on the verge of getting tough because of over-mixing or the batter sitting too long. Good flavor though. Someone had told me Jay's had real maple syrup but that turned out not to be the case on this visit.

When asked how I wanted my eggs in Spanish I answered "over easy" in English just to see what would happen. They just came out sunny-side up. That's fine. But maybe if you don't understand what I said, ask?

I think maybe the American affectations and mixed signals kind of annoyed me by the time I moseyed up to the counter to order. What's that about? In what diner with menus on the table, laminated like placemats, do you have to order at the counter as if it's fast food? I noticed, however, that the flip side of the menu was more like a fast food menu and everything was served in red plastic baskets with waxed paper. They bring your orders to you though. Shrug.

Someone said the onion rings are good so I might be back for those. But I think I've sufficiently indulged my American-breakfast nostalgia...

Update: knocking a star because it’s hit or miss. Last time it was heaven this time way too much of that fake salt with the orange lid in the eggs. No salt on the buttered toast. Bacon cooked to perfection. Pancakes slathered in strong fake vanilla flavored peanut butter. Could not eat the eggs or the pancakes. Disappointed. Original 5 star: If you’re North-American living in BA and missing a traditional all-American breakfast go here! They salt and pepper things like American cooks do so the scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast, etc will taste the way you want it too. Friend said the sweet stuff is also American sweet not Argentine sweet. I’ve been searching for a breakfast to hit the spot for quite some time and this did it! So glad we ordered it in so I didn’t distract other patrons with my noises of happiness lol. Thank...

More like Argentinian American style breakfast, as this is not what I get back home in the U.S. Pancakes are thinner and very sweet ( like cake batter) with powdered sugar on them, bacon was good but not crispy, the hashbrowns look like more like a lump of mashed potatoes but were really good, the toast was gross and cheap, syrup was more like a liquid honey consistency but was good, and I didn't like the cafe leche, it tasted bland and watery. Definitely NOT a diner style as there are no booths and thankfully it wasn't crowded when we went, as this place would not be fun when full (claustrophobic nightmare). It's worth going once, but is expensive for what it is and I won't go back. Service was good and the food came...