Buen Ayre

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Buen Ayre A real gem
I went here with my boyfriend who is a real meat lover so while I expected him to have a great time i was not so sure as an ex-vegetarian how I would enjoy the cuisine. I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised - I found my steak really enjoyable - and they had this amazing side of butterbeans that we got the recipe for afterwards from the chef! The atmosphere is amazing and the service was great - I will be going back as soon as I have an excuse, and I have realised that I actually really do quite like red meat after all!

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Buen Ayre Outstanding
I had the filet steak one of the best I have ever had , anywhere and I am not exaggerating

Medium rare the way I like it , perfect

I can´t comment on starters or desert as I didn´t try them

The argentinian beer is great

I went on a wednesday evening busy but not over busy

This is a local feel authentic restaurant if you want great steak this is the place , if you want west end gloss then its not for you

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Buen Ayre Good, but not great
I decided to try this place after reading all the reviews on here. I was expecting great food and bad service from what I read.

I thought the service was fine and the staff were friendly. Me and my friend ordered a brazier between us which was £23 a head. It included a sirloin, a ribeye, 2 black puddings and 4 sausages. And also 2 blocks of cheese which melt onto the barbeque\hotplate that it all comes on.

First problem is that it dosen't come with any salad or chips so you have to order them seperatley which brings it up to about £28 each.

The other problem I had was that it was just not anything special. It was nice but just not worth the money. You could do the same thing at home, just light a cole barbeque, get some ribeyes and some taste the difference sausages, and some black pudding and you're pretty much there.

I also ordered a bottle of Malbec for £18, which is a lovely Argentinian red. That was very enjoyable and it went well with the meat.

My friend ordered a dessert that I didn't try as I was busy drinking wine. So I don't know what that was like.

Overall it came to about £100 including a tip as the staff were nice, and professional, and they gave us a shot of tequila on the house.

So basically it was nice but for me just not worth the money, I think I should have just ordered a ribeye main for £20 and I would have been better off, but it was a fun night anyway. I just don't think I'd go there again, too many other places to try.

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Buen Ayre Good meat in Buen Ayre
This Latin-American restaurant is located on the trendy Broadway market and is known for serving fantastic meat.
The staff were very friendly and even entertained some bored children left alone by their parents…
I had a 8oz grilled Argentine Sirloin steak which was very nice and even better than the one I had at Santa Maria del Sur.
Two from our group ordered PARRILLADAS (Braziers) which is basically a barbeque full with mixed meat on your table… It was so huge that we had to enjoy from it and eventually it was put into doggybags…
The chips were chunkey, covered with spices and had a nice texture.
Try the Quilmes Argentian beer (4.9%) it is a great one!
I had a home made crème caramel with dulce de leche for dessert with a good espresso which was a nice way to end this amazing meal.
gilka.co.uk

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Buen Ayre Carnivorus Maximus
Popeseye to the West, Buen Ayre to the East and when I do forget to top up the Oyster I shall walk to Black and Blue on Wigmore Street instead. These are my steak faves.

No I’ve not been to Argentina and yes I’ve certainly been to at least three of the Gaucho branches. This place unequivocally knocks the spots off the latter. Tremendous steaks, the best so far. Dining companions are absolutely mandatory for the sole reason of sharing the Parrillada (brazier mixed grill) courses. The sirloins and the rib eye were suitably beefy, well hung and beautifully tender, which can only suggest that they came from a herd of happy cows and a savvy griddler. My fellow diners almost always pass up on the black pudding that comes with the course, oh well all the more for me, as they were contrastingly luscious to the steaks. Given the presence of the huge amount of meats on the table the relative parts of the salads and Atkins’ nightmare of chips were purely cameo. A bottle of Malbec provides the right synergy with these beautiful steaks. Helado (ice cream) is the ideal afters following the epic red meat mains. Service was no nonsense and time wasters are promptly dealt with, the friendly multi-tasking waitress was brilliant. Veggies are thankfully acknowledged as well.

You can’t take the fertile pastures of the Pampas out of Argentina but Buen Ayre has more than allow us Londoners to enjoy its beef.

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Buen Ayre Best Argentinean restaurant in London
If you're looking for Argentine beef, this is the place to go.

Having lived in Buenos Aires for two years, I always enjoy going to Santa Maria del Buen Ayre. They took the best of Argentinean restaurants (the beef) and added proper service and confortable seats.

Do not expect refinenement, a parilla is simply beef that's grilled steak till it's very well done. It's perfect for meat lovers.

The atmosphere is nice as well, informal and packed with people having a good time. Service is consistently friendly and efficient.

Pricewise it may be a bit expensive given that's it's just a parilla place. You'll be paying 8 times BA prices for food and 16 times for wine, but you're in London. That amounts to about £20-30 per person total.

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Buen Ayre Finally a nice steak house

Those who live in Hackney can tell over the past few years the quality just gets better and better. The complete tranformation of broadway market still astonishes me. That said when Buen Ayre was open, i immediately fell in love the restaurant. We are not talking about steak which is flatted out, dry and tasteless that you will in pubs these days. This was steak was huge as if it was just chopped off from a cow. Anyone tried the suagages there.. man they are huge. The food there is lovely and service is quality everytime i have been there. The dissappointed thing i can say is that it is always packed out, full of people, and it can be hard to get a reservation there.

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Buen Ayre A good place to take fat friends to
Not bad - but it did seem to over-prioritise quantity over quality, and the beef I got was neither as tender as full of flavour as I would have expected.

That said, there was lots of it, and if you have a big appetite - or a fan of novelty-sized superbig cuts of meat, then you won't be disappointed. And the atmosphere is nice and lively, and the service fine.

Also the house red wine wasn't too harsh - not expecting world class here obviously, but it didn't complement the meat at all.

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Buen Ayre An absolute London must - but don't take it from me, go there yourself
If only I lived around the corner from Buen Ayre... this Argentinean shrine to all things meat has been open for a couple of years now, its main attraction the South American style of grill called the parilla, where meat is barbecued in a special fashion over a long, moveable charcoal grill in order to achieve the most tender and luscious results.

Owned and run by an Irish-Argentinian who mans the grill on a regular basis, Buen Ayre pays homage to the Argentinian tradition of celebrating family get-togethers and events over the asado, or barbecue. All meat on the bone is imported from Argentina; due to import restrictions, meat off the bone cannot come from Argentina but is supplied by niche UK meats purveyor.

The prices are excellent, especially when you take into consideration that someone must stand over a very hot grill for hours on end in order to achieve the intended juicy and slow-cooked result when using more difficult cuts of meat, and the wine list is a very thoughtfully chosen point of reference for Argentinean wines. Of course, the focus of the restaurant is on the meat - and I'm lost for words when it comes to describing how fantastic it is.

Buen Ayre acts as a home away from home for many ex-pat Argentineans, many of whom travel from outside of London on the week-ends to eat here, and it's safe to say that 95% of the staff is of South American descent; it is very, very busy with an extremely loyal clientele and it is advisable to book roughly three days in advance.

Please, please go here - I promise that you will not leave disappointed - the food is simple and superb, the staff is incredibly friendly, and the prices are just right.