Buenos Aires Argentine Steakhouse

32 Turnham Green Terrace
W4 1QP

020 8747 8772


Argentina is famous for the Malvinas, Malbec, Maradona and Messi. And meat; specifically, beef. On average Argentinians consume 97lbs a year (just the beef, that is) according to the ironically-named website beef2live. Sticking 'Argentine' in front of 'steakhouse' gives a restaurant a certain macho authenticity which using 'Hong Kong' (the world's biggest beef consumers at a whopping 123lbs per capita) does not. And so when carnivorous Master WEST4URANTS was allowed to select the venue for our latest outing, Buenos Aires Argentine Steakhouse was an obvious choice.

Cristian and Linda Barrionuevo opened the first Buenos Aires restaurant in Purley in June 2007 and they now run 8 steakhouses in London and the South-East. Chiswick opened in May 2013 on the site of the former Gallery, a slightly seedy (tautological?) bar/nightclub.

They've done a pretty good job of smartening the place up, but it still feels a bit cavernous and lacks soul. The outside tables have the ambience of sitting in a side passage and the inside ones are not designed for larger parties. Six can sit in a booth, but not particularly comfortably.

We skipped starters and just shared some olives. If you're going to take this place seriously, you need to leave room for the steak. And it is exceptionally good. Argentine Angus cows eat Las Pampas grass, and as a result their meat is less marbled and has 10% less cholesterol.

We sampled various different sizes of fillet and sirloin, and none disappointed. The meat was tender, succulent and perfectly cooked. I had the South American chimichurri sauce (parsley, garlic, oregano, oil, vinegar) but the peppercorn sauce also received the thumbs up.

As she might have expected from the name of the restaurant, vegetarian Miss WEST4URANTS was not spoilt for choice. She went for two starters, adding a side salad to the Provoleta, a typical Argentine starter of Provolone cheese with slow cooked tomato and oregano.

As I might have expected from the name of the restaurant, there is an extensive selection of Argentinian wine, from which we chose a decent Malbec (obvs). And Master WEST4URANTS continued his quest to drink his way around the world in 80 beers with a Cerveza Quilmes, the most popular beer in Argentina and - appropriately for him - sponsor of the national football team.




Food (for 6): £153.55
Drink: £45.95
Total: £219.45