Buenos Aires III – The ultimate cake

The cafe culture in Buenos Aires is famous. And boy do they do this to perfection! The locals from the city of Buenos Aires, called Porteños, chat leisurely and lengthy with friends over cordados or capuchinos in the many cafes.

When they are not in the heladerías, eating their beloved ice creams. The art of making ice cream came with the Italian immigrants from Italy. I must confess that I’m not a coffee drinker. So I will not gripe over the quality of coffee that so many foreigners seem to like to do. But I scoured Palermo’s cafes with an interior designer eye looking for nicely designed spaces as well as indulging in my new passion…

My newly discovered passion is eating cake, chocolate cake to be precise. And to my delight I found the best chocolate cake in the world here! Hidden away in a small backyard is the loveliest of cafes, Decata, with this the best of the best delicious and mouth-watering masterpiece. That there also is a teashop called Tealosophy, a tiny plant shop and a tasteful interior design store here too makes this place even better. Decata is on Gorriti.

Lattente is the cafe that is known by the locals to have the best coffee in town, at least in Palermo. I liked the blackboard they have in the tiny cafe. It states that this is a WiFi banned area because the purpose of drinking coffee is solely to socialise with each other. As a WiFi junkie myself I still liked this statement. Not a single person in sight staring into their iPhones but everybody actually talking to each other.

One place I immediately liked is the combined bookstore and cafe Bar de Libros Del Pasaje on Thames. Wonderfully quite with a lovely ambience it’s a perfect spot to bring your laptop and work and to have lunch.

Fifí Almacén on Gorriti is a great spot to have lunch with homemade bread and food using local and organic ingredients. Nice design with the high ceilings that is so typical here.

Another nice place for lunch is Cocu, a French Bakery, on Malabia close to Gorriti.

A favourite cafe is B-Blue having a lot of healthy fruit juices and organic food. Always full and busy. I’m pleasantly surprised at the many healthy restaurant& cafe options there are here in Buenos Aires.

Another favourite spot is Bartola Corner. I liked sitting outside by the cobblestoned street corner of Gurruchaga and Costa Rica and have one of their salads and freshly made lemonade. Indoors is nice with a quirky decor.

Ninina Bakery is a trendy cafe and bakery on Gorriti.

When I moved to Palermo Hollywood I found a delightful little lunch spot called Meme with delicious freshly made soups, which is my all time favourite choice for lunch. It’s on the Hollywood side of Gorriti. Loved the Japanese influenced crockery as well.

The best ever shrimp salad is at Le Pan Quotidien in the shopping mall Distrito Arcos under the railway. Sourdough bread and friendly service made this a favourite spot to lunch. I was surprised at the relatively bland food i Buenos Aires in general, and this place was a pleasant exception serving a yummy dressing with it’s salads, making it a complete and tasty dish. Photo borrowed from Le Pan Quotidien, because I guess I probably was to busy savouring my tasty salad to have the sense to take a photo of it.

Cusic had a pop up cafe on the pavement outside the sweet home decoration shop Violraviol on El Salvador in Hollywood. Very appreciated by me as you can imagine.