Of course we all know that Argentina is famous for steaks, and Buenos Aires is chock full of great parillas where you can enjoy them. When I first came here, I heard that La Gran Parilla del Plata — popularly known just as La Gran Parilla — was one of the best. I wouldn’t doubt it, even though there are many I haven’t tried yet.

La Gran Parilla is in the lovely old barrio of San Telmo, which still retains its character despite little pockets of gentrification, and is a typical Argentine steak house. People don’t go here to eat other types of food — it’s all about the steak. They have a variety of cuts and we all have our favourites. Mine is the bife de chorizo, which is sirloin. Many prefer the lomo, or filet mignon, and there are several great ones.

Although I grew up eating my steak well cooked (some might say burnt), here I’m learning to eat it rarer. I now order it a punto, which is medium leaning to the rare side.

As you can see from the photo, they don’t skimp on the servings! We were four women. Lola and Venetia both like theirs bleeding all over the plate, so they shared the smaller one furthest from the camera, which was lomo — actually it’s just the angle of the camera that makes it look smaller but it definitely wasn’t. Lucy used to be one of the group here, but last year her company transferred her to Boston, and she was back for a visit. She hadn’t had a Buenos Aires steak for a year and she didn’t want to share! So she and I each had one of the monster ones at the front — but I brought home what I didn’t eat and it was sliced up in my salad at lunch today and finished off with a plate of homemade chips for dinner!

Truly, if you’re a steak lover, this is the place to be!