Buenos Aires Forever

Oh no! Its says FOREVER on the sign, but in truth:
IT’S CLOSED!!! GONE FOR ETERNITY!!!
And the lady at Ritz Tango didn’t even know it existed, already erased from the memory of mankind!!!

I’m not an expert on Argentine food but this was excellent! Of course I had to order a steak, and it was simply great. The fries were greasy and lovely!
The empanadas are really good too. I lived in Spain and was spoiled by great empanadas there, so these passed the test. Some of them like buffalo chicken empanadas, seemed strange but were surprisingly tasty.
So we barged into this place on a Friday night, with 8 people and a 24 pack of beer. The staff was really friendly and happily moved tables together for us (they even asked another to move to make room for us, so maybe those people won’t be writing such a nice review, but for us it was really accomodating!)

Ok, so I admit I am partial to BYOB places, they will usually always get high marks from me. But all the food I ate was wonderful and it made me want to go to Argentina!

OK, so the steak is definitely not from the grass-​fed cattle grazing on the six foot deep topsoid of the Argentinian Pampas, but for $ 14, not bad. The empanadas were incredible — especially the caprese and some sort of bbq’ed pork. BYOB is always good.

Back in March we dined here and the food we so overcooked it was almost inedible. I guess the cook was sick so the manager was running the grill or something like that. Given that we live pretty close and I could tell it wasn’t their normal operations I swore to give them another try.
Last weekend was their redemption. I went with an out of town friend and we both ordered steaks. They were good portions and cooked perfectly. I am glad cuz for where I live it’s a great location and BYOB. We’ll be going back to try more of the menu.
OK, we went back again and it keeps improving. We had a party of 8 and we sampled a lot of the empanadas. We each found something we liked and something we would pass on next time. We all agreed that our entreee selections were great. Everything was cooked more or less as ordered and each cut of meat was as expected. I upgraded to 4 stars for this place compared to other joints in it’s category. Awesome value.
B

It’s hard to have a bad experience with something as amazing as Argentinian food. I wandered in on a last-​minute Valentine’s Day reservation after being unable to score reservations for a more upscale joint. The place is small and a bit run down, but the design really plays along with it so nobody seemed to mind. Our host was also the only waiter, and probably the owner. He led us to our table that had a tiny reservation tag on it that he must’ve made by hand… which led me to believe that this place must not get them very often. Despite being way understaffed, the owner really made my visit warm and even entertaining. He was an older Latin American gentleman with the build and aura of a cartoon character. He loved every second of his job and you can tell he naturally loved joking around with his customers. He even took pictures of every table in the restaurant and then offered to send them to us. Adorable!
I think a lot of restaurants could learn from customer interaction like this. Nothing was forced, ass-​kissy, or awkward. I sincerely enjoyed my time there.
So, on to the food. With the atmosphere and the animated host/waiter/owner…I really really wanted to taste something revolutionary.
I tasted something very good. The empanadas were the highlight. Not so much because they were better than any other I’ve tasted, but because they interestingly weren’t fried and had some brilliant variations, like the Hawaiian Empanada, which featured ham and pineapple baked with various cheeses inside the dumpling.
Everything else? Very good. Average for Argentinian food. I have no specific complaints at all. I feel like I got my money’s worth… a good meal.
So why 4-​stars?
Again, the service is just untouchable. On top of that, the place is BYOB. This might help or hinder your cause depending on how you dine… but if I can bring a bottle out of my own wine collection without paying a corkage fee… I’m on the road to being a very happy customer.
If you’re less concerned with location and convenience and more concerned with an amazing meal, you might rather check out Nandu or make far-​advance reservations for Nacional 27 and let your wallet take a hit.
But all in all… Buenos Aires Forever offers a good moderately priced meal blended with a unique warm and friendly atmosphere. I’ll be back again.

I didn’t want anything heavy for dinner since I had Hooters (yes, Hooters) for lunch. We (gf and I) started out with empanadas. One each. One at $ 3? Jeez, it’s just a glorified dumpling. They were fairly tasty though. I opted to get some ravioli and she had the gnocchi with meat sauce (it was highly recommended by the waitress that I get the white sauce). I get it, and there are about 5 ravioli on my plate, smothered with the sauce. But instead of being filled with meat, they could actually be called nutmeg ravioli. Not interested in the flavour but I ate it all. Gnocchi arrabiata turned out ok.
I think that we just ordered the wrong things (i.e. not meat) so if we had the steak instead, the place may have turned out ok. Perhaps another sacrificial visit will occur in the future.
P. S., this is a BYOB spot… maybe in an effort to compensate for their food.

Can’t go wrong with any of the following: flap meat, sweetbreads, empanadas, eggplant.

Service is excellent and so is the food. So far themost authentic argentine food I’ve had in the city.
Update: I had to take away a star. Went there recently and I don’t know why, but everything was way off. (It seemed like there were new owners running the place.) The steak wasn’t as juicy or tasty nor were the empanadas.

Stopped in for lunch. They have a lunch special which includes 2 empanadas or 1 sandwich, a drink plus choice of soup/​salad/​fries for $ 5.95. Although spartan, a pleasant place for lunch. Dinner items are also available. Grant it I like my food spicy, I disagree with some of the reviewers who thought the empanadas were flavorless, I thought it was more a subtle blend of flavors. Other cuisines, such as caribbean, may have more highly spiced empanadas (meat patties). I also sample a milanesa (breaded beef) sandwich which was tasty but maybe a little dry. I have to go back for dinner but all-​in-​all a favorable first visit. Service was pleasant and attentive.
UPDATE: CLOSED for a while now.

Great little casual café style, typical of central/​south america. Simple and delicious menu. Best empanadas. Just plain good.

This place is right on my commute home, so I really wanted to like it. And I like the idea of baked (not fried!) empanadas. But…
We tried the selection of five empanadas. The picadillo was very tasty… some of the others were a bit bland and mushy. My daugher tried one and wouldn’t eat any more.
We also tried a steak. It was flavorful but kind of fatty, and came with a «salad»… a big pile of iceberg lettuce with a few tomatoes (and no dressing). No other veggies were to be seen on the menu.
The owner /​manager was really nice. He brought my daughter a bucket of crayons to use. And he gave her a cookie for dessert… that was the best part (we had to get them too). Two little cookies with dulce de leche in the middle. Yum.

So I don’t know if it’s Argentinian food I don’t like, or if it’s this resturant I don’t like. Since this was my first taste of Argentinian food, I had nothing to compare this to.
I stopped in here for an empanada because I was told they were good. We ordered a sampling of empanadas. I don’t remember which ones we ordered, but seemingly that doesn’t matter because they pretty much all tasted the same, which was flavorless, and had the same texture, which was mushy and gooey. I mean I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to spices or what, but all the empanadas were extremely neutral in flavor.
I want to like this place. It’s BYO, it’s close to me, it’s cheap, but yo, I need more flavor.

It’s not that it’s bad… it’s just… not… remarkable… at all… I went there not too long ago for the first time with a group of people. To be honest, there was nothing outstanding about the place. Yes, the staff was friendly, yes, the prices are reasonable, and yes, it is BYOB, which in my book are major brownie points, but overall the food was nothing to be impressed about, and lets face it, THAT is one of the major selling points of a restaurant, know what I mean?
The steaks we ordered had a nice flavor to them, though my «medium cooked» was too «well done» and one of my companion’s «medium-​rare» dish was so raw that I swear I could hear the cow mooing with every bite she took.
The empanadas were a’ight, but I could have done without them. I want to note that I was disappointed with the ham and cheese one — it was like biting into a Hot Pocket, in the form of an empanada. Stick to the beef ones, if you feel that you have to have one.
My biggest beef (pun not intended) was with: a) The chimichurri — they did not serve us with any! Uhm, helloooo! Isn’t that a staple of Argentinian grilled meats?!? And b) The dulce de leche mousse cake — believe you me when I say that it was bland. I know all about dulce de leche, and the mousse part was completely flavorless, as in It.Tasted.Like.Nothing.At.All. It could be that they served us the dessert while it was still frozen — uhm, yeah…
I don’t oppose to going back and trying different menu items — like I said, it wasn’t «bad»… But given that Chicago is a mecca for international cuisines, I think I’ll head out to a different place for now.

I went here for a friend’s birthday dinner. He was supposed to call ahead but forgot, and we arrived with 20 people in tow. They were very accomadating and the empanadas were amazing, very flaky crust and the fillings very flavorful. They also let us serve our friend birthday desserts not purchased at the restaurant, which they didn’t have to do. I was very happy with the service and atmosphere, and can’t wait to go back with other friends.

A friend and I went to a dining-​out meetup here and we both enjoyed it a lot. The restaurant closed the place for our group of 40. Our meal included the sweetbread (oh, so THAT’S what sweetbread is!) It was very good. Then we had a choice to pick 2 empanadas (beef, ham & cheese, spinach, corn). My friend and I picked one of each so we could try all four. I thought they ALL were good, my friend didn’t care as much for the ham one. Then we had a choice of skirt steak or flap steak. Since we just wanted to try everything, again, my friend and I picked opposite steaks and both thought the skirt steak was much better. We both thought it could have been just a little pinker, but the flavor was there. Dessert was dulche de leche cake… YUM!
It’s hard to comment on service because the restaurant was closed for our private party, but the gentleman who took our orders was very nice, friendly, and explained everything well. I can’t believe he would just do that for us. I believe he’s probably that way all the time.
Prices on the menu seem very reasonable and BYOB is great.

Food was between mediocre and good (2.5 Stars), but gave it an overall 3 Stars because of Service — extremely attentive, friendly and helpful. For Appetizer/​Side Dish, we had the marinated Egglant which was very good. But the grilled meat for two (Parrillada Doble) while fun to try, was only so-​so (meat was not good quality) though interesting/​adventurous with included Kidneys and Sweetbreads. On the plus side again, it is BYOB.

I haven’t gotten the chance to eat an actual meal here yet, but I definitely want to come back here! My friend and I were driving down Ashland when I spotted the sign for empanadas. We immediately pulled over to park and walked into the restaurant. We were very excited about the fact that there were a ton of different empanadas that they offered! I ordered the beef and spinach ones and was VERY impressed by them! The staff is very friendly, too, so I look forward to coming back here soon!

Having been to Buenos Aires recently, I was up for trying a restaurant named, «Buenos Aires Forever». The waitress was very friendly and I did tell her that I had just came back from Argentina and that the food was incredible. Oddly enough, she told me the food there wouldn’t taste like it did for me in Argentina. She says its difficult to get the same texture of meat as well as flavor here. She said the food tastes better because its grown there. Either way, prices were reasonable. Empanadas are baked not fried which is traditional to Buenos Aires. Had the breaded skirt steak and it was alright. Its byob so that lowers the cost more for dinner for four. There was no corkage fee. The décor is bland and they didnt do much to the restaurant to make it look «authentic». I would recommend this place for lunch but not for dinner.

Was okay, but only okay. It’s casual and a little oddball. Night we went they had a big ol’ TV on in one corner. You expect that at a burrito or hot dog joint — seemed a little odd here.
Food was decent but I wouldn’t rave about it. If you’re nearby, you could do worse. We live 40+ blocks away — not disappointed that we tried it, but wouldn’t go out of our way to head back there.

My friend believed that we were meant to dine at this place since she’d been meaning to try it out, and we saw an empty metered parking space right in front of the restaurant. The pricing of the steaks are pretty comparable to the other Argentinian restaurants that I have been to. It’s a small little restaurant that looks like it just caters to the neighborhood. We were both not that hungry, but had the craving for empanadas. We both had the beef empanadas that were ok. They have dates in them as well as potatoes and onions. We’ve had better at some other places. We split the beef steak that came with a choice of fries or a salad, so we went healthy and got the salad. I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the steak. There wasn’t really anything special about it. There wasn’t any real distinguishing flavor. I could have easily seen this steak at a bar. The service was good. I felt bad because the guy that looked like he was the manager asked how the empanadas were, and my friend hesitated and started to tell him what she really thought. So, I had to lie and say that it’s good — so that he wouldn’t feel bad. There is no way that this could ever compare to Tango Sur — Tango Sur Forever!