Two friends and I recently rented an apartment for 7 days in the barrio (neighborhood) of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We didn't know it when we booked our apartment, but located half a block from where we stayed is one of the most famous pizza restaurants in Palermo. It is called Romario's. This place has really good pizza and empanada's. It is also so cheap (for tourists)! We ended up eating at Romario's for dinner two times during our stay in Buenos Aires. This place was always full of people! You are able to eat inside at a table, at the bar, or even outside at one of the three tables on the sidewalk. The first night we arrived in Buenos Aires we had dinner at Romario's. We landed in Buenos Aires at 10pm, and by the time we had gotten ready to go out for the night it was 12pm. If we were in any other country than Argentina, I would have told my friends that we were going to skip dinner. But in Argentina, 12pm is about perfect time to grab something to eat before going out. Romario's still had a lot of people eating and drinking when we showed up (12:15 am). We took a seat in the middle of the restaurant, and noticed that we were the only "gringo's" in the whole place.
Inside Romario's, it almost felt like a club. The first thing I noticed was the techno music they were playing throughout the restaurant. They also had these reddish lights that were turned down making a little darker inside then normal lights. The atmosphere gave Romario's a cool vibe! The staff there was also very friendly. The waitresses talked "spanglish" (half english/half spanish) with us, and always had a smile on their faces when they showed up to our table.
We ended up ordering a large pizza with two toppings, and had a liter of beer to start. For those of you that don't know the customs of Argentina, you order a beer and have to share the liter. So you pour the beer into these little 8 oz. glasses for you and your friends. It makes it a lot more social to share a drink instead of each having your own individual drink! I like it a lot! The pizza's are made in this giant open oven that you can see from anywhere in the restaurant. In about 10 minutes the pizza came out to the table. The pizza was still bubbling from the heat of the oven when it was put on our table! We were starving at this point in time, but we had to wait a minute or two so that we didn't burn our mouths! The pizza was great! We had a jamon y queso pizza (ham and cheese). There are about 20 different kinds of pizza to choose from if you want something else!
We ended up having one more liter of beer before we called it quits. When we asked for the bill we couldn't believe how cheap it was. For 2 liters of beer and a pizza, it came out to be like 65 pesos or (about $19.50). That was about $6.50 for each one of us!
When I travel abroad I like to eat in places that meet my two criteria's for a good restaurant:
- have a lot of people eating in the restaurant
-
more locals than tourist
Romario's meets both of these! Romario's also delivers pizza if you are ever in Palermo, and you just wanted to try a good pizza without going to the restaurant. The number for delivery in Buenos Aires is 4511-4444. The delivery boy was wearing roller skates. It was pretty crazy to see him carry 3 pizzas out of the door, and then skate down the road heavy traffic. If you want more information on the restaurant check out its website:
