The Best Buenos Aires Food Tours: Eat Like a Local

Asados, empanadas, ice cream, pasta, and street meat…

You’re going to want to come to Buenos Aires hungry.

Food plays a major role in Argentine life.

Between family asados and communal mate, some aspects are inaccessible without a local guide or tour.

Argentine culture is relationship centered – family and friends are everything – and food is in the center of all of it.

Asados, a typical weekly family event, for example, are nearly impossible to experience without a local to invite you in.

Yerba mate isn’t something served in restaurants, it’s enjoyed among friends in the local parks.

And when it comes to eating out… local holes in the wall and greasy spoons could deliver the best meal of your life or the worst.

A local guide will know which ones will be memorable in the right way.

Ready to dive in?

This guide of my favorite Buenos Aires food tours will help you find the perfect tours and unique dining experience to perfect your itinerary.

The Best Buenos Aires Food Tours

Below are the best food tours in Buenos Aires, but while you’re at it, prepare for your gluttony.

What pairs best with a food tour? A cooking class!
Learn how to make all the tempting dishes you’re about to taste.

My favorite is Criolla Cooking & Wine, click here for my review or here to book.

1. The Asado Adventure

Whenever friends visit I always prepare an authentic asado for them.

Translated to: My husband always puts on an asado and then I invite my friends.

It’s always a hit.

Asados are the Argentine version of a backyard barbecue.

While they’re an incredible, authentic experience, they’re nearly impossible to access unless you’re friends with a local. This isn’t a restaurant steak, this is a lived experience.

If you want to learn how to grill like an Argentine or you simply want to pig out like one, then the Asado Adventure is the Buenos Aires food tour for you. They were the first asado experience here in Buenos Aires and remain the best.

I loved my experience on this tour and wrote a whole post about it, read it here.

You’ll learn how to make chimichurri, how to prepare the grill (nothing like the gas grills up north), and how to prepare the meat.

The day even includes a tour of the neighborhood as you go pick up the meat, wine, and veg.

This is a truly local experience from start to finish.

The button below opens Asado Adventure in Viator, which is a trustworthy booking site. But if you book direct, I have a discount code for you.

If you want to book directly with AsadoAdventure, click here, and use my code SOLSALUTE to save 10% on any tour booked!

2. Sherpa Food Tours, The Best Food Tour in Buenos Aires

Join the wildly popular Sherpa Food Tours that takes small groups of maximum 10 guests around Palermo Soho and San Telmo.

Their Palermo tour starts at around 5:30 pm and ends at 9:30.

This start time is perfect for any Americans out there struggling to adjust to Argentina’s late dinners.

The timing also makes this Buenos Aires food tour an easy add-on to an otherwise full day of touring or a good start to a night out in Palermo.

But pro tip from me to you, go with an empty stomach and elastic pants (think your Thanksgiving pants).

I found the variety of dishes offered to be a great representation of Argentine cuisine from empanadas and escabeche to Spanish tortilla and milanesa.

We had four stops throughout Palermo Soho and all were top notch.

This is one of the highest rated Buenos Aires food tours for a reason. And if you’re traveling alone or simply want to mingle with other travelers, Sherpa is the best option.

Check Rates & Availability Here

3. Asado Adventure’s Food Tours

Parks, Hidden Restaurants, and History in Palermo

Frank at Asado Adventure (described above) also offers unique food and walking tours.

The most complete is of his home neighborhood, Palermo Viejo.

I went on their full day tour and highly recommend it if you have the time. If you’re a time crunch they do offer half-day tours.

In 6 hours we covered a lot of ground, starting with coffee and pastry for breakfast before trying Argentine staples like choripan while wandering through local parks and dive bars only found with a local.

His tours offer the option to add on a craft beer tasting or wine tasting.

On our tour we had a wine tasting, trying wines from around the country.

And if craft beer perked your ears up, he also has a dedicated craft beer tour where you can try some of the city’s best brews.

For all of the tours on AsadoAdventure.com use the code SOLSALUTE to save 10%.

I loved our food tour with Asado Adventure because I learned a TON about the history of Argentina, the meaning of many of the area’s murals, and more that I didn’t know even after living here for over a decade.

Pizza Tour with Asado Adventure

Asado Adventure also offers a niche tour of one of my favorite aspects of Buenos Aires cuisine – pizza.

I’m partial to this city’s historic pizzerias, particularly because of their frozen in time restaurants that haven’t changed in decades.

This tour is one I really love, you would never go into these restaurants without a guide to point them out.

With it starting at 6:30 pm you also get to sneak in an early (meat-free!) dinner, two rarities in Buenos Aires.

Check out the pizza tour here, reminder to use SOLSALUTE to save 10%.

4. Betty & Marcelo – A Family Dining Experience

Betty & Marcelo is a family run asado in Palermo inviting you the backyard barbecue that is usually impossible to access for tourists.

Where Asado Adventure is a full day experience that I highly recommend for small groups, Betty & Marcelo is more accessible and ideal for those wanting to meet fellow travelers at their family style dining table.

Marcelo is at the grill, Betty is your host, and their daughter Vero is on hand to help with everything in between.

Between the expertly grilled meat, Betty’s charm, and conversation with your fellow travelers, it will definitely be a memorable night.

5. Unique Tours with DeTour BA

“DeTour BA was created when three family members, including a professional chef and restauranteur, a marketing manager, and a sociologist decided to pour their love for food, travel and culture into a business idea.”

DeTour BA offers unique spins on the classic foods tours of Buenos Aires.

First, I went on their Tango with the locals tour and finally experienced my first milonga.

If you’re looking to experience tango like a local, this the tour.

But this is a food tour guide (not a tango list), so don’t worry, we ate our weight in milanesa, empandas, and drank plenty of wine.

Their other tours include options like a Peron themed history food tour, a tour of the upcoming foodie neighborhood Chacarita, and a historic cafe tour.

I also attended their Evita Flavorful Tribute tour and learned so much about the political legends.

And of course, we at plenty of delicious food in restaurants that double as shrines to Evita and Peron (photos below).

Click here to view Detour BA’s options and use code SOLSALUTE to save 10%.

6. The Argentine Experience & Fogón Asado

The Argentine Experience and Fogón Asado aren’t tours but they are two dining experiences that encompass Argentine cuisine.

They both take the traditional asado and turn it on its head to create a tasting menu.

But they’re completely different experiences, which one is right for you?

The Argentine Experience is one of the most popular activities in Buenos Aires.

You’re seated at a table with fellow diners family style.

It really encouraged all of us to talk and make friends with everyone at the table.

There was an empanada making competition and a lot of explanations about Argentine culture throughout the night.

It was a bit fast paced (there was a lot packed into those few hours) but it was a very fun night.

I highly recommend the Argentine Experience for solo travelers, friends, or couples wanting to make friends and be social (our whole table went out for drinks together after).

Fogón Asado is another dining experience owned by the same operators but is more upscale than the Argentine Experience.

It even made the cut to be included in the newly announced Michelin Guide for Argentina.

The dining situation is a large bar facing an open kitchen, with the grill in the center of the room.

I loved our meal here, it’s easily one of my top 5 meals in Argentina. Everything was impeccable from the service to the quality of the steak.

This is a more refined dining experience, ideal for couples or friends looking for a nice meal out.

If I had to choose one, my favorite was Fogón Asado for the quality of the food (that steak…), but both were great nights out with delicious steak.

7. Yerba Mate Master Class

Yerba Mate is a major facet of Argentine life.

You’ll see groups of friends passing mate around in a circle at the park. Or a couple on a bench passing the gourd back and forth as they catch up between sips.

Every desk in an office isn’t complete without a thermos, bag of yerba, and a mate gourd.

If you want to learn how to prepare your mate and drink it like a local, take I highly recommend Wine Discovery’s Mate Class, use code SOLSALUTE to save 10%.

Preparing mate isn’t as simple as dumping the tea into the cup with some hot water and jamming a straw in. There is a ritual and every step matters.

At just an hour, this experience is easy to squeeze into busy itineraries but if you have the time, you can combine it with an empanada workshop.

And if you read their name closely, then you’ll notice that it focuses on WINE. Aby and Bertie run one of my favorite wine tastings in Buenos Aires, my code SOLSALUTE gives you 10% on all of their experiences.

More Buenos Aires Food Guides & Tours

• 11 Traditional Buenos Aires Food Experiences
• 27 Popular Foods in Argentina You Have to Try
• A Beefy Guide to Eating Steak in Buenos Aires
• A Gluttonous Guide to Ice Cream in Argentina
• Self-Guided Argentine Pizza Crawl
• 11 Traditional Desserts in Argentina You Have to Try
• The Best Buenos Aires Bike Tours
• 20 Things to do in Buenos Aires
• Where to go Wine Tasting in Buenos Aires