Eating in Buenos Aires is a delight—and not just for adults. Children will love the licuados (fresh fruit shakes), extensive dessert range (the ice cream is like gelato, the pastries are divine) and freshly made pasta and pizza on nearly every menu.

Adults typically want beef—Argentina’s pampas grass-fed cattle produce the best beef in the world. And anyone who thinks otherwise should pretty much keep it to themself, as it’s one of the quickest ways to rile a local (known as a porteño). There also are plenty of cafés in which to while away the hours and a diverse range of excellent restaurants with everything from sushi to Middle Eastern to modern European/Argentinean fare. It’s sophisticated food, beautifully presented—you are far away from rice-and-beans land (so far it’s impossible to find great Mexican food here).

What’s more, the produce is lush. Argentina encompasses so many different climates that everything from pineapples, avocados, potatoes, asparagus, strawberries, pumpkin and broccoli is grown locally.

When to Eat

• Argentine cut of beef with all the fixings at La Cabrera Restaurant.
• aprillynn77

The real challenge is dining times. If you’ve been to Spain, you know what you’re in for. Dinner is around 9 or 10 p.m.; most restaurants don’t even open until 8:30 p.m. Argentines eat late, and so do their children. Their trick is a special tea time, called merienda, around 4 to 5 p.m., to tide children over until dinner. But merienda takes place at home—no help when you’re a tourist.

The best strategy is to have nice big lunches, which are a bargain, and to eat a lighter dinner in the cafés and restaurants that stay open throughout the day. There’s also a fair amount of decent, cheap on-the-go food in local panaderias (bakeries): sandwiches (made with white bread and no crusts) and empanadas (little pastries filled with meat and/or cheese). We often grab one or two jamón y queso (ham and cheese) empanadas for our daughter Indigo when we go out for the day, in case our hungry periods don’t coincide. At A$2-3 (US 65 cents-$1) each, they are a bargain.

Most Restaurants are Family Restaurants

There is not a culture here of family restaurant versus fine dining. People take their children with them everywhere. Forget that oh-so-familiar sigh of resignation when you show up with small ones. Our 3-year-old daughter loves eating out here as the waiters make a fuss over her, giving her carmelitos (candy chews), and she can spend hours playing with her favorite drink, the submarino—a make-your-own hot chocolate where kids are given a chocolate bar to dunk into hot milk.

• Outdoor dining at Bio, an organic vegetarian restaurant in Buenos Aires.
• Nichole Beauchamp

High chairs (sillita alta para bébé) and booster seats (almohadón), however, are not as common, so you may have to improvise or feed little ones in their strollers.

Check out the most expensive places, or those that feature “romantic” in the reviews, beforehand. We often take our daughter to El Mercado at the lovely Faena Hotel+Universe (designed by Philippe Starck) in Puerto Madero, but she has been swigging water out of wine glasses since she was 2.

If traveling with little ones, you definitely should check out Recursos Infantiles in Palermo. It’s a combination of toy store and café. It's open seven days a week, serves pasta and other child-friendly food at reasonable prices (A$8-18), and has all the gear you will need—high chairs, dog-eared books they won’t mind your teething child chewing on, puzzles for the older ones to play with, and more. You may not escape empty handed, however; they sell gorgeous wooden toys, puzzles and dolls.