Santos Manjares — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Tourists be wary: I promise I am usually not one to leave a bad review but my experience here was terrible. My two friends and I are visiting Buenos Aires from the U.S., we chose Santos Manjares based on the glowing reviews and it was close by to the theatre where we spent our evening. Walking into this establishment, the ambience was nice, lots of locals having a great time. It looked promising. It was about 11pm when my two friends and I went, we were sat a table pretty quickly and brought menus and waters that we asked for and we let her know that we are not fluent in Spanish but know enough to get by and order en Español. Our sever then left us to look over the menu which had translation in English (which we thought would make our ordering experience easier for both the group and our server.) The server came back about 15 minutes later to take our order. Without doing so, she then disappeared and never came back. We waited an additional 20 minutes before we decided she may have forgotten about us. We tried getting the attention of several different wait staff, there were about 5 or 6 on the floor at the time, and we were ignored every time. After desperately trying to catch their eyes and waving respectfully, finally one member of our group had to get up and walk back over to the service station to ask if someone could please come take our order. We didn’t want to stay too long since the restaurant was closing soon. We were at last able to put in our order and get our food fairly quickly. We ordered wine, steak, rustic fries and vegetables: the steak and fries were good, not spectacular but the vegetables were not seasoned at all and we didn’t really eat them. We all agreed that the food didn’t exactly reflect the very positive reviews that specifically highlighted the reviews we had read. Our group took our time eating and talking and by this time it was past closing time. Not once did any staff come to check on us to make sure everything was to our liking or see if we needed more drinks. We spent about an hour and a half there and we had minimal interaction with the staff the entire time even though they were all visible from our table and seemingly taking care of the several other guests who were there. At last we figured we would have to initiate getting our bill so we went to the payment station and got so many dirty looks from the staff as we were paying for our meal. We left as quickly as we could after that because it couldn’t be more obvious that the staff did not want to interact with us and we did not feel welcome there. Really our only complaint was that the staff were extremely unwelcoming and cold to us the entire time. I have hopes that ours was a unique experience and that the employees are normally friendly and efficient but unfortunately that was just not our experience. If not, I hope the management here will take notice of its hospitality staff and make major improvements, especially in a tourist area where a little extra effort...

First of all, the waiters listen but don’t actually hear. They asked me twice about the doneness level of my steak, but still got it wrong. I had to call the waiter multiple times, and they rudely signaled how busy they were. When they finally came over and realized I wasn’t ordering something extra but asking for my steak to be fixed, they suddenly claimed they didn’t speak the language well. However, I had overheard them speaking with other customers, and their language skills were clearly sufficient to understand my request—they just refused to engage.

After waiting for the third waiter to come over, I explained that the steak was undercooked by two doneness levels. They said they would fix it. After another wait, they brought back the same steaks, just slightly more cooked. One of them was finally at the correct doneness, but the other was still undercooked, barely reaching one level higher. At that point, I was too exhausted to argue further, as the waiters acted as if it was my fault for asking too much rather than their mistake in the first place.

They also took our already fried potatoes and refried them instead of replacing them, making them unbearably greasy. I was surprised they didn’t replace the dishes but merely subjected them to additional cooking, which, in my opinion, speaks to a lack of professionalism both in culinary skills and customer service.

Additionally, they misheard—or failed to remember—our preferred payment method, so we had to go up to them ourselves. To top it all off, the waiters decided to add a tip to the bill on their own, apparently believing their service was outstanding.

Overall, I do not recommend this place. It used to be better. The steaks themselves are decent, but the restaurant does not get doneness levels right, the waiters don’t remember what you say, and if you request a correction, they will just cook your dish further instead of replacing it. Despite the terrible service, they will still add a tip for themselves. The prices are comparable to steakhouses in more developed countries, but the service does not match the level of restaurants in the U.S., Canada, or Europe. Be prepared for a significantly...

LET ME EXPLAIN! The restaurant was definitely not a 4,7 as it was rated for. FOOD: The beef (lomo) was "okay" but not a hit. I asked them to prepare the beef "raw" but they didn't understand. I asked to prepare it "blue" as most Argentina restaurants call it. They didn't understand. She said "punto". I didn't know what she was talking about. But in the end, I showed them a picture. The lomo beef came medium-raw. I chose vegetables as a side dish. They didn't taste much. They served some pre-baked bread in the beginning. Mine was very hard and dry. In the middle of my meal, they came again with hot pre-baked bread and asked if I wanted more. First, it was super hot and short time later very try again. I think they should stop that and focus on all main orders and service instead. SERVICE: Service was so bad. I waited 10 minutes before I called someone. They asked what I wanted to order, and I said I needed to see the menu first, please. Same for the bill in the end. I asked 3 times and even went to the front desk to pay. And it still took them time. All the time, I just heard "disculpa". Everyone runs stressed around. ATMOSPHERE: The atmosphere was very bad, not cozy at all and it was super noisy in the restaurant. You sit very close next to each other. For just 2-4.000 ARS more you can eat in a much better and fancy restaurant with good service (e.g. Tucson which is near by). Maybe I was just there on the wrong timing.. but still very disappointed about a 4,7 rating if I look at the whole experience. But go and judge yourself. Best regards, Tourist from...