Backstreet Bites of Buenos Aires: Cafés Parrillas and Beyond

Embark on a 5.5-hour guided tour through Buenos Aires' culinary scene, sampling traditional dishes and exploring the city's rich food heritage.

• Historic cafés and bodegones
• Traditional Argentine dishes
• Local wine and vermouth tasting
• Exploration of immigrant culinary influences
• Hidden culinary gems of Buenos Aires

Dive into the heart of Buenos Aires' vibrant food culture with this immersive 5.5-hour walking tour. Traverse the city's historic cafés, bodegones, bakeries, and parrillas, each offering a unique taste of Argentina's culinary evolution. Savor flaky medialunas and savory empanadas, delve into hearty bowls of locro stew, and indulge in slices of fugazzetta pizza topped with onions and mozzarella. Experience the rich flavors of Argentina's meat culture at a classic parrilla, and sip on local vermouth in a bar that helped define the city's aperitivo culture. Conclude your journey with a sweet treat of dulce de leche gelato, reflecting the nation's love for this beloved flavor. This tour offers a delicious exploration of how immigrant flavors—from Italy, Spain, Syria, and beyond—have converged into a distinctly Argentine table. Join us to taste the stories that make Buenos Aires a gastronomic paradise.

To understand Buenos Aires, we don’t just look at monuments — we sit down at the table. The city eats the way it lives: big, loud, and with a touch of drama. Porteños, as the locals are called, stretch meals into marathons, layering courses with conversation, opinions, and plenty of laughter. Parrillas send plumes of smoke into the streets, trays of medialunas gleam in bakery windows, and award-winning ice cream shops serve some of the best gelato in the world. What ties it all together is not a single national dish, but a culinary identity shaped by migration, improvisation, and the belief that food is best when shared. 
Buenos Aires has never settled on a single flavor, or a single story. Italians, Spaniards, Syrians, Jews, and more recent arrivals from Bolivia, Peru, Korea, Paraguay, and Venezuela all left their mark, layering their traditions onto native flavors from the Pampas to Patagonia. The city’s food culture reflects its identity as a port city — layered with migration, memory, and reinvention. The result is a table without borders, where sizzling cuts from the parrilla, gooey fugazzetta pizza, golden empanadas, dulce de leche helado, and glasses of vermouth sit side by side in cafés, bodegones, and contemporary restaurants. 
On this full-day walk, we trace that story from morning through sobremesa — the Argentine ritual of lingering long after the plates are cleared, chatting as if the meal might never end. We begin in a historic café, where it’s customary to sit for hours and people-watch, before stepping into a century-old spice shop on Corrientes Avenue, the city’s cultural artery. We join the lunchtime crowd for a steaming bowl of locro stew, thick with hominy and squash, and stop for empanadas, their crimped edges and fillings carrying the flavors and migration stories of different regions. 
From there, it’s into one of Buenos Aires’s great pizzerias for a slice of fugazzetta, piled high with onions and mozzarella and sip vermouth in a bar that helped define the city’s aperitivo culture. Later, we visit a classic parrilla (steakhouse) to see what Argentina’s meat culture is all about. The day ends on a sweet note, with helado swirled with dulce de leche — Argentina’s most beloved flavor and a taste that lingers on nearly every menu.

Liability Waiver

By completing the reservation you acknowledge the following:

If you have food allergies, you are ultimately responsible to ensure your own health and safety. If you share information about your allergies, we can provide you with some guidance about the food purveyors on your tour, but we are not responsible for any allergic reactions that you may have. We are not responsible for any damages or losses incurred as result of acts by entities beyond our control, including but not limited to restaurants, shops, market stalls, eateries and food carts. We are not responsible for acts beyond our control, including but not limited to acts of God, act of nature, acts of war, or other unrest caused by state or non-state actors. If you are disruptive, we have the right to ask you to leave the tour without refunding you or providing you with a credit for your tour. You are aware of and responsible for all damages or losses that may arise during the course of the tour resulting from:

Risks associated with food, water or other drinks, including alcoholic beverages; physical accidents during the tour or at any of the locations visited; transportation failures; forces of nature; criminal activity; damage, loss or misplaced property; or accident or illness without means of rapid evacuation or availability of medical supplies or services. You agree that any claims that may arise will first go to arbitration and only if not resolved in that manner shall be heard in court. In both cases, grievances shall be heard in the jurisdiction of Washington, DC. You further agree to be responsible for your own welfare and property and accept any and all risks of delay, unanticipated events, inconvenience, illness, injury, emotional trauma or death. You further acknowledge that participation in Culinary Backstreets tours is based upon execution of this Liability Waiver. By completing the reservation process you release and discharge forever Culinary Backstreets, its employees, owners, affiliates, officers, directors, successors, agents, and assigns, from and against any liability arising from participating in this tour. You further agree that this release shall be legally binding upon you personally, all members of your family, all minors traveling with you, your heirs, successors, assigns, and legal representatives, to the maximum extent of the law.

I am aware that while on or traveling to or from my activity with Culinary Backstreets, I might be exposed to COVID-19 from other people, animals or objects. I assume all risk of any such contacts, including sickness, incapacity or death and agree to hold harmless Culinary Backstreets from any such developments. In addition, I recognize that the World Health Organization, U.S. Department of State as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have warnings concerning same and am choosing to travel and assume all risk myself.