Chori ★ 4.4
Chef-driven choripan counter from Pedro Pena and German Sitz: house-made sausages, four pickles, three chimichurris; the cheapest meal at Palermo quality.
Try: Choripan with house sausage
El Obrero is an argentine bodegon budget eat in La Boca, Buenos Aires.
La Boca bodegon since 1954. Soccer scarves on the walls, simple parrilla, daily specials chalked up; a famous Bono and Bourdain pilgrimage stop.
Address: Agustin R. Caffarena 64, C1157 Buenos Aires
Chef-driven choripan counter from Pedro Pena and German Sitz: house-made sausages, four pickles, three chimichurris; the cheapest meal at Palermo quality.
Try: Choripan with house sausage
Recoleta empanada institution since 1976. Order a dozen mixed (salteña, tucumana, cuyana) and take them away to the cemetery park for a working-lunch budget.
Try: Empanadas salteñas and tucumanas
Pueyrredon empanada counter famous for tucumana-style and the picante (spicy minced beef and potato). Winter Tuesdays and Thursdays bring locro at the bar.
Try: Tucumana empanadas
San Cristobal Spanish-Argentine bodegon since 1948. Paella on Sundays, weeknight classics; one of the city's last big wood-panelled rooms at bodegon prices.
Try: Paella de mariscos at Sunday lunch
Palermo natural-fermentation pizza by the slice or full pie. Cheaper than a Don Julio steak, dialled-in dough, brings a small queue at lunch.
Try: High-hydration Argentine pizza
Chacarita Argentine-Italian bodegon since 1953. Hand-rolled noodles, baked pastas and cheap Sunday family lunches under wood-beam ceilings on Corrientes.
Try: Cannelloni rossini