Looking for the best food tour in Buenos Aires, I stumbled upon Asado Adventures. What I thought was just a food tour turned out to be one of the most memorable culinary experiences of my travels. Not only did we learn about the Argentine Asado, but we also had a great tour of Palermo, a wine tasting, and so much more.
Asado Adventures: The Best Food Tour in Buenos Aires
Frank created Asado Adventures in 2016 to deliver the first food tours in Palermo, Buenos Aires. He offers several tours, including a pizza tour, a beer tour, and the Palermo Food Tour. However, The Asado Adventure is the main attraction. This isn’t just a tour, it’s a full-day, immersive culinary experience.
Preparing the asado
At 10:30 a.m., Vanesa and I met Frank at his house along with two other guests. After introductions, we were given aprons and started preparing the chimichurri sauce. Each guest took turns adding different ingredients and mixing them. One of the guests brought the pan to leave in the fire while we went off to explore Palermo.
A history tour of Palermo
While the chimichurri was in the fire, we all went on a history tour of Palermo. Frank gave us a considerable amount of facts that Vanesa and I didn’t even get on our walking tour of Palermo three years earlier. I was fascinated by how the neighborhood went from one of the least desirable parts of Buenos Aires to one of the most affluent.
Just a couple decades earlier, much of Palermo was automotive garages. In fact, even Frank’s home was originally a repair shop. An artist renovated it into her studio before Frank purchased the place. To this day, you can still see many old buildings around Palermo alongside modern establishments. Nowadays, the neighborhood is full of hip cafes, restaurants, shops, and, as of 2025, the best steak house in the world.
Frank also brought us to a very cool communal garden and another beautiful garden with Moroccan designs that the community installed just recently. I got the feeling that Palermo is more than just a tourist spot. The locals really make the neighborhood their own with great artwork, places to relax, and family-run cafes and establishments.
Wine and cheese tasting
After an hour walking around Palermo, we ended up at a wine shop near Plaza Serrano, where the sommelier already had a full spread of wine and a small charcuterie board set up for us. We each had a red, a rose, and a white to sample. The cheeses, fruits, and salami on the board paired perfectly with the wine selections. I thought the wines were excellent, although the other guests on the tour felt the red would be better aged.
Fernet con coca
While we toured Palermo, the chef had been preparing our food. When we got back to Frank’s home, we joined him for a Fernet con coca, a drink made with Fernet and Coke. We learned a lot about the drink, such as how San Francisco has the second-highest consumption of Fernet after Argentina. I also learned that I still am not overly fond of the drink, despite having tried it several times before, although the lemon that Frank added did help.
Backyard asado
Of course, the highlight of our food tour was the asado in Frank’s backyard. Asado is the Spanish word for roast, referring to both food roasted over a fire and the gathering around the roast. Asado in Argentina is integral to the local culture. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find a home across the country without a barbecue pit, and most families have an asado at least once a week, if not more often. Frank’s industrial-size, hand-built barbecue was plenty big enough to cater to his tours.
The table was already laid out for us, and we soon started with our first dish – the provoleta we had prepared earlier. I’d already tried provoleta several times on both my trips in Argnetina, but this one was so much more delicious. It was paired with a fresh salad, although I think everyone was more focused on the upcoming meat dishes.
Finally, we came to the main courses. Over the next hour, we had morcilla (Argentine blood sausage on a baguette), matambre (thin slices of beef served as an appetizer), chorizo (Argentine sausage), mollejas (sweebreads, a.k.a. veal glands), cinchulines (beef small intestines), ribs, ojo de bife (ribeye steak), and vacio (one of the most popular Argentine cuts of beef).
I wasn’t the most fond of the mollejas and chinchulines. While I’m willing to try just about anything once, I’m not overly fond of organ meats unless they have a very different flavor and texture from their normal state. Otherwise, I loved every dish. I think my favorite was the matambre, reminiscent of Mexican carne asada. And while I tend to enjoy more tender parts of meat, I still really enjoyed the ribs, ojo de bife, and vacio.
Of course, across the table from me, Vanesa was in complete heaven. These were the dishes she’d grown up on. However, Frank’s preparation and the quality of the meat made them exceptional. I was also surprised by how much Vanesa was learning on the tour. Frank was a complete wealth of information. It just goes to show how much locals can get from doing a food tour of their own cuisine.
Obviously, no asado would be comnplete without the wine. Every course came with a different vintage, all served in a cute pitcher shaped like a penguin. While I don’t drink a lot, I was more than happy to same each glass and loved how well they complimented the dishes.
At last, we came to dessert. We were served bowls of roasted sweet potatoes topped with ice cream and caramelized pecans. It was the perfect dish to fill in the cracks after our gluttonous meal.
Smoked mate
But the Asado Adventure wasn’t over yet. We still had the finale, and probably the most traditional ritual in Argentina. With us gathered around the barbecue, Frank prepared mate, but in a very unique style. First, he used a hot coal from the fire to infuse the mate with a smoky flavor. Then he served the drink in mate hooves.
The word mate has three meanings: the tea, the mug it’s served in, and the gathering when everyone drinks together. Just like the Swedish drink coffee for “fikas” throughout the day and the English drink countless cups of tea, Argentines drink mate constantly. Most of the time, it’s a communal affair, with several friends or family sharing the same mug.
While mate mugs are normally made from gourds, Frank had hooves. These were literally cattle hooves, hollowed out with a metal rim and used to serve the mate. It was a beautiful presentation. While Vanesa didn’t like the sugar Frank added to the mate (a common way to serve it), I was quite happy with this version. However, that’s probably because, unlike how it’s usually blisteringly hot, Frank served it at a reasonable temperature.
Parting gift
Before we left, Frank presented us with our final gift – the porcelain wine penguin he had used throughout the meal to serve wine that everyone had fallen in love with. Each group got one, and thankfully, we were able to keep ours intact all the way back to Edinburgh.
What I Look for in a Good Food Tour
As I routinely tell my guests, doing a food tour in any new destination when you first arrive is one of the best ways to start in that place. You have to eat three times a day, so knowing what and where to eat is important. But more than that, good food tours include (hopefully accurate) history of the location, while giving you an orientation of the city.
Another key factor of the food tour is the guide. Companies (like the one I used to work for) that prefer to hire actors who can fake their passion and understanding of the cuisine and culture don’t make a good tour. Sure, that company works to get good reviews by incentivizing guides with a bonus, but those reviews are brief and disingenuous. Guides that truly love what they do and have a passion for the cuisine they are presenting really stand out, and make such a better experience.
Having said all of that, Asado Adventures blew me away. Of all the food tours I’ve done around the world, it was easily one of the best. Then again, it was so much more than just a food tour. Over nearly six hours, we ate, drank, and learned a staggering amount.
Booking Asado Adventures
The Asado Adventure is Frank’s signature tour, but he has several other tours as well:
- Palermo Viejo Food and Neighborhood Tour
- Craft Beer Adventure: Local Breweries in a Buenos Aires Neighborhood
- Buenos Aires Pizza Tour: A Slice of Local History on Corrientes Avenue
- Curated Tours and Experiences
These tours run year-round. Check the Asado Adventure website for current prices, start times, and more.
Further Reading
If you’re looking for good food tours around the world, here are some other suggestions of tours operated independently by passionate locals.
- The Stockholm Food Tour is So Much More Than Meatballs!
- A Moroccan Food Tour to Find the Best Dishes of Marrakech
- Finding My Favorite Romanian Dishes on the Bucharest Food Tour
- Pho and Egg Coffee on the Old Quarter Street Food Tour in Hanoi with Lan
- I Ate Too Much Good Food on the Food Tour in Krakow
And here’s a list of other articles about Buenos Aires and Argentina.
- Staying at the Best Hotel and Spa in Cordoba, Argentina & Azur Real Hotel Boutique
- Fun Things to Do in San Telmo: El Zanjón, Central Market, and More
- 13 Amazing Activities to Do in Ushuaia, Patagonia
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