My new Twitter pals at Buenos Aires Life know a thing or two about what’s going on in the city and where to dine.  Here’s what’s at the top of their list:

• La Cabrera  Reasonably priced traditional Argentinean parilla/steakhouse.
  Cabrera 5099,  Palermo Soho  Tel: 4831-7002
  
• Osaka  Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant getting rave reviews.
  Soler 5608, Palermo  Tel: 4775-6964
  
• Cabaña Las Lilas  Superior steakhouse with an impressive wine list.
  Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo 516,  Puerto Madero.   Tel: 4313-1336
  
• Green Bamboo – Authentic Vietnamese cuisine in a seductive setting. 
  Costa Rica 5802, Palermo  Tel: 4775-7050
  
• Sucre  A modern take on Argentinean and South American gastronomy.
  Sucre 676,  Belgrano Tel: 4782-9082
  
• Sudestada Southeast Asian fare, a welcome option for those seeking spicy food in BA
  Guatemala 5602,  Palermo Hollywood  Tel: 4776-3777
  
• Dashi Arguably the best Sushi restaurant in Buenos Aires
  Fitz Roy 1613 and Gorriti,  Palermo Hollywood  Tel: 4776-3500
  
• Mama Racha  Great restaurant and outdoor café for a lunch or snack any time of day.
  Costa Rica and Armenia, Palermo  Tel: 4833-4950

Chances are you will have a positive dining experience in any restaurant you visit in Buenos Aires.  But if your priority is to go to the best restaurants the city has to offer, let me point you to some authoritative sources: 

Arguably the most respected restaurant guide is Vidal Buzzi (in Spanish).  Their top ranked restaurants include:

• Le Mistral  - Contemporary Mediterranean, including tapas, at the Four Seasons Hotel. 
  Posadas 1086, Barrio Norte Tel: 4321-1730
  
• Tomo 1 – Contemporary Argentine, with excellent wine list, at the Panamericano Hotel
  Carlos Pellegrini 521,  San Nicolas  Tel: 4326-6695
  (It's also my mom’s favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires)
  
• Oviedo – Award winning Spanish cuisine,  Beruti 2602, Recoleta Teléfono: 4821-3741

Guia Oleo (in Spanish) offers a very complete restaurant guide.  Some restaurants at the top of their rating lists are:

• Casa Coupage – Wine tastings, individual attention and New Argentine cuisine in an intimate setting.  Reservations required.
  Güemes 4382 1st floor, Palermo  Tel: 4833-6354
  
• Nectarine – Superior French restaurant
  Vicente López 1661, Recoleta Tel: 4813-6993
  
• La Bourgogne –  French cuisine in the beautiful Alvear Palace Hotel
  Ayacucho 2027, Recoleta  Tel: 4808-2100/4805-3857
  
• El Baqueano – Exotic Argentinean meats and fish, including llama, boar and cayman
  Chile 495 and Bolivar, San Telmo  Tel: 4342-0802

If beef is the national dish of Argentina, dulce de leche is undeniably the country’s sweet treat -- the average Argentinean eats 6 pounds each year.  Dulce de leche is a creamy, silky dessert made from sweetened milk.  It tastes something like caramel, without the syrupy aftertaste.  The texture is smoother and fuller than caramel but not grainy or dry like peanut butter. 

Describing the taste does not do it justice, of course.  You’ll just have to try it.  And in Argentina, it’s hard not to be exposed to dulce de leche – it is almost literally everywhere.  The dessert menu of just about any restaurant will feature it prominently.  Every confiteria (café) will offer pastries with dulce de leche and every ice cream shop includes dulce de leche as a basic flavor.  I recommend the ‘dulce de leche granizado’ ice cream – dulce de leche with tiny chocolate chips.

The appeal of dulce de leche is not just in its sweet deliciousness.  DDL (as our household has nicknamed it) is versatile and can accompany almost every bread, cookie, pastry and dessert. My father used to say “there’s no dessert that can’t be improved with dulce de leche”.  I think that’s a bit extreme (candy corn, jello, watermelon?) but he was not too far off.  In the US, dulce de leche is known as an ice cream topping, but it can add spectacular taste levels to:

• Crepes:  spread a tablespoon or two of dulce de leche on the center of a crepe, roll it up like a cigar and place it in a baking dish.  Continue until you have about a dozen filled crepes, place the dish in the oven and broil for 5-10 minutes.  Serve warm and, for extra decadence, with real whipped cream.
• Waffles: top with dulce de leche.  If you insist on extra calories, use whipped cream on them also.
• Cake:  use dulce de leche as cake filling and or frosting.  It’s great with vanilla, chocolate and mocha flavors.  Brownies with dulce de leche frosting are incredible.
• Flan:  to me, most flan tastes bland.  But pair it with dulce de leche and it’s a hit.
• Shortbread:  the perfect compliment to a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth piece of shortbread is creamy dulce de leche spread on top.
• Fruit:  cut an apple into slices and serve with dulce de leche for dipping.  Especially good with a tart Granny Smith – yum.  You can do the same with bananas, or you can smoosh a banana together with a heaping tablespoon of DDL.  It looks like a gooey mess, but it’s delicious.  If you have kids that are fussy about eating fruit, you may win them over with this dulce de leche strategy.
• Toast:  spread dulce de leche instead of butter while the toast is still warm
• Yogurt:  take plain or vanilla yogurt and stir in some dulce de leche.  The blend of sour with sweet makes this a healthy indulgence.  Just don't go overboard with the dulce de leche or you'll hit your daily calorie count by lunch time!

Every Argentinean is a dulce de leche connoisseur, and is often stubbornly loyal to his/her brand.  If you want to try dulce de leche for the first time, it is best to stick with a well-known brand, for consistency of flavor.  The best sellers are San Ignacio, La Serenísima, Gándara, Chascomús and La Salamandra.  I can sometimes find La Salamandra at Williams-Sonoma but I can always count on Amigo Foods, my reliable, convenient online resource, whenever we run out of our precious jar of San Ignacio.

Have you tried dulce de leche?  Are you turned off by the sweetness?  Or are you a fan? An addict?

On my next trip to Argentina, I will definitely go back to Siga La Vaca, an excellent, inexpensive all-you-can-eat restaurant with several locations in central Buenos Aires and the suburbs (see map).  For US$20 per person you can indulge in appetizers, excellent beef, chicken, and/or pork, salad bar fare, sides and dessert.  Your first drink (wine, beer or soft drink) is also included.  Stop by for lunch on a weekday, and you pay less than US$15.  Incredible!

I visited their location in Pilar, a suburb of Buenos Aires.  The restaurant was spacious, warmly lit and had a fun, informal ambience.  It's family-friendly and can get a bit noisy.  The food was great - fresh, high quality meat grilled to your taste.  My favorite part of the meal was going up to the counter for seconds.  The asadores (grill cooks) display the meat, fresh off the grill, and you just point to what you like.  You'll see familiar food like steak, beef kebabs, chorizo (sausage) and chicken breast, along with some cuts and parts that may be new to you such as morcilla (black pudding), mollejas (sweet breads) and chinchulines (small intestine).  I really recommend that you try anything new.  "Just take a small bite," as your mom used to insist.  If you don't like it, you didn't waste your money and you can move on to something else you might like.  When else are you going to get such a great opportunity to discover new foods?  I'll bet that you become a fan of at least one of these adventurous foods andthat you find yourself back at that counter.  

The other nice thing about SLV is that you'll dine among regular Argentinean families. This may be the closest you get to a traditional family asado - the food, the laughter, the easy-going mood, the amped-up protein levels.  This is less true of the Puerto Madero location where half the clients are tourists, but on the other hand, this particular restaurant is open continuously from noon until 2am, accommodating both American and Argentinean dining schedules.  The restaurants are popular, and although they can take in over 400 diners in some locations, there may be a wait during peak times. 

SLV locations in Central Buenos Aires.  They also have a take out place in Belgrano and restaurants in Pilar and San Isidro

View Larger Map  

When you think of all-you-can-eat, the term "wine choices" doesn't immediately leap to mind.  Unless you are in Argentina!