El Cuartito – Pizza & Empanadas
Step into a time warp and a grab a table at El Cuartito: one of Buenos Aires’ oldest and most popular pizzerias. With vintage boxing and football posters covering the walls, a frantic waiter running around the tables to take orders and deliver food, and the most delicious pizza I’ve eaten in quite some time, this incredible restaurant is one of the city’s best.
El Cuartito has been in business since 1934. Found in Recoleta, it’s a busy place during lunch; you can either order at the counter or sit down for service. Well you’ll get service if you can grab the waiter, which isn’t so easy. And once you do get his attention, don’t expect him to patiently answer all the questions you may have about the menu. While taking our order, he didn’t even pause at our table, just slowed down his pace a bit as he passed by.
The prices at El Cuartito are great and the pizza is out of this world. At least, it is if you like cheese, mounds of heavy cheese dripping off every slice. A lot of people might turn their noses up at this style of pie, but I was in heaven. We ordered the medium size (“chico”), which came with six slices. You can combine different styles of pizza, and try out a variety; we went with the Atómica and the Cuartito. The empanadas are another house specialty, and we got one filled with spicy beef. We noticed that a lot of locals were skipping on pizza entirely and had a meal of two or three empanadas.
Dessert was a silly idea. My stomach was already full to the breaking point, but when we saw the dish served to a guy at a nearby table, we couldn’t resist. “Eso! Lo quiero también!” I shouted at the waiter as he zipped by. Minutes later a rich portion of flan, with a side of sweet, carmelly dulce de leche was set in front of us.
El Cuartito instantly vaulted itself onto my list of favorite places, and I would have to return. But there were so many other pizzerias to try! Suffice to say, weight maintenance was a constant struggle during our time in Buenos Aires. If you’ve got some restaurant tips, leave a comment or let us know!
Hey Guys, I recommend you this place http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Los-Chinos-1556
it is called “los chinos”, as you can see is chinese food -duh-, the thing is that this place is outside the barrio chino (not far away actually, around 20 blocks or so) and it has affordable prices with great food (not greasy and oily as most chinese food places here in BA) and it is located in an old two story house owned by these people, and you are having dinner and perhaps the owner would be watching TV on the back, kids would be running through the tables and most of all, great food that will fill you up with great prices. We went a couple of times with Natalia since it is 6 blocks from her apartment and loved it.
Hope this helps when you are in a mood for Chinese
Cristian
Hey guys!! Awesome your photos and your chronic about my city! It’s till someone tolds you how great your city is that you became conscious of it.. I mean, there’s a lot of places and things here that I do not see just because I’m here every day, so thank you for remember me to have a look to my city.
Where to go? mmm Maybe you can go to “Parque Centenario”. It’s a great place and if you go at weekend you will be able to see a great craft fair (maybe a everything-to-sell fair it’s more accurate..)
Another place you can visit, that everyone that comes to Argentina loves, is Puerto Madero. I do not prefer this place because I find it so boring, but it’s a good place to have a look and take pictures.
The last thing I want to advise you is to buy the “Guia T” book. It’s the biggest secret to go everywhere here and don’t get lost in the way. You can buy it in almost every newspaper stop.
Hope you have a great time here! And hope to read your posts soon!
Maite ^^
We are not the biggest fans of Madero either but I do love the cranes – we will blog about it at one point I think.
We love the Guia T, it’s fairly easy to use and you can’t never get lost and you will always find your way back home.
Parque Centenario – is already on the list. It looks very interesting just by looking on a map.
If you got more tips, please feel free to share 🙂
While I will acknowledge that “El Cuartito”‘s pizzas are indeed very tasty and filling (and we had the most basic ones), specially at late hours like 3 p.m. without having had any breakfast.. I still have to rule in favor of “Guerrín”, a very similar pizzería in Corrientes Avenue. The Calabresa is a sin in the shape of a pizza. Seriously.
Here’s the address and also, wink, a website that I suppose might come in handy to you:
http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Guerrin-499
🙂
P.S. You take gorgeous pictures!
Débora – Guerrin is marked down and I think Pizza is on the menu very soon again. Thank you for the the tip. Got more tips? Sightseeing know interesting people? Share with us 🙂
I am an expat living in BA for just over a year now and have yet to try El Cuartito. I am also a photographer and find it refreshingly awesome to see some seriously quality photos to go along with your travel blog.So, this pizzeria and your blog are on my list to things to follow 😉