Cabana Las Lilas (Argentina steak)

“Who has the best steak in Buenos Aires?”

You can try your hardest to search as much as possible on this subject, and you’ll soon realize that there’s no real agreement.

Sure, there are the obvious famous ones, like La Cabrera, which not only can be found in every single guide book, it’s also listed on prestigious lists such as the S. Pellegrino Latin American Top 50 Restaurants list.

But there are always naysayers to these popular destinations, saying that they are “over-hyped” and not as good as people think. It gets overwhelming and confusing pretty fast.

I knew I had limited time in Buenos Aires and, more importantly, a limited number of meals. Just like every food-obsessed tourist before me, I tried my best to choose my restaurants wisely.

Part of me knew I had to try La Cabrera, since most sources still cited it as one of the best. However, I was intrigued by the many people who would often point to other steak parillas (grill places) as being better than La Cabrera.

Were they right? Was I missing out?

And if I were to pick one, which one should I choose?

It was a hard and agonizing decision. I finally sought the advice of my food friend and food blogger, Cindy, from Chubby Chinese Girl. Cindy grew up in Argentina and was just back there a few years ago.

Cindy gave me tons of advice. She personally preferred Cabanas Las Lilas over La Cabrera, which she found underwhelming.

Cindy told me to make sure to get the sweetbreads, which were amazing.

At the end of the day, I decided I trusted Cindy a lot more than the mixed messages I was getting from all these food forums, so Bryan and I booked dinner at Cabanas Las Lilas our very first night in Buenos Aires.

Cabana Las Lilas is located in the modern Puerto Madero neighborhood, a beautiful riverside area that’s lined with shops and restaurants. Some people say it’s the safest neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

Though the neighborhood is a bit further from some of the sites, it’s a beautiful place to walk around at night. It’s also where our hotel was located, which made it an easy place to visit on our first night in a new foreign city.

If the weather’s nice, diners can sit outside with lovely views of the river.

The minute you walk in Cabanas Las Lilas, you feel like you are in a restaurant that’s serious about its steak.

We walked by multiple huge grills as well as saw all different cuts of meat laid out. It was pretty incredible.

Sides are all ordered a la carte. Although simple grilled vegetables may not have been our first choice, our server highly recommended this side, so we got it. It was good – nicely grilled zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, and mushrooms.

The server also recommended that we get the sauteed mushrooms in butter, which were pretty tasty. You can see him serving them to Bryan here straight out of the copper pot.