to recommend. We stayed in Palermo this time and it has now firmly
established itself as my number one 'barrio'. All the recommendations
below are in the Palermo Soho or Palermo Hollywood areas.
1. Bars - interspersed in what until fairly recently must have been a
purely residential area are hundreds of bars, restaurants and clubs.
Very few chains and most have made a real effort in creating a unique
interior. A couple of specific recommendations are Unico and Akabar.
Unico is dingy but cool and Akabar is very Boho with crazy
decorations, good cocktails and loads of board games to play (note to
self: stop playing boardgames with Paul. You never win despite how
drunk you try and get him!)
There are also plenty of middle of the range places to go, which have
long (normally 7pm to 11pm) and cheap happy hours e.g. Sullivans and
Cronico both of which are near a square with lots more drinking options.
2. Restaurants - despite the hipness of the area the predominant
cuisine is still Argentinian parilla which Paul is loving but is going
to wear very thin with me soon! Having said that we did have some good
meals in some mid-range very local restaurants. Specific
recommendations:
El 22 Parilla - very local place with a very cheap long list of
grilled meats. Will stick in my memory for Paul falling off his seat
while demonstrating a football move. Everyone in the restaurant
assumed he was drunk even though he wasn't (although the most
economical way to buy beer is in 1L bottles) and seemed to think it
was a typical gringo move. Hilarious and definitely one for Undignified.com
!
El Trapiche - amazing home made pasta with Roquefort sauce. Probably
about 1000kcals a plate though!
Gardelito - cute local place with lots of football memorabilia
scattered about. And they had seafood, thank god!
Oui Oui - cute French cafe.
One thing to beware when eating and drinking in BA is that service is
mostly rubbish. Don't be surprised if they take their time serving you
even if the place is empty and if it takes half an hour for your
drinks to arrive with no word of apology. Generally service is very
friendly but slow.
3. Shopping - I was a bit unimpressed by the shopping last time I
wrote about BA but staying in Palermo gave me time to do a proper
recce of the area and the shopping here is top notch. The best
shopping streets are around Gurruchaga, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
The international brands are pretty pricey but there are a lot of
local boutiques selling clothes etc. They are also very into design so
there are a lot of cool homewares and graphics of all kinds to buy.
This also means that the stores in this area have really cool interiors.
The best thing I have found to buy is leather which is a massive
homegrown industry and therefore cheap. I bought a beautiful leather
jacket from Doma (El Salvador y Gurruchaga) but there are leather
shops everywhere. Hope I can get it home in one piece!
There is also a beautiful bookshop called Libros Pasaje in Palermo. It
is a chain but the nicest one has a wooden interior complete with book
ladders as per an English stately home library.
And finally...
We got a bit of rain this time, so we also went to the cinema and saw
'Date Night'. Considering the calibre of its two stars it is
unfortunately pretty lame but passed a couple of rainy hours.
We also watched our second Arsenal match (in a decent little bar
called PorteZuelo in Recoleta) and they have lost both. Jinxed.
Confusingly there is a local Argentinian side called Arsenal. We
watched them play on TV in Sullivans and they lost too. Bah!
Currently waiting for a delayed flight to Iguazu. Hopefully worth
waiting for!
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