Allenby

Book Allenby when the brief is a Recoleta meal built around Eastern Mediterranean flavors rather than a generic event dinner. In Buenos Aires, where long lunches and late dinners can blur into the same social rhythm, this is the better pick for diners who want a table anchored by shareable breads, grilled meat, and a dessert list with enough range to carry the end of the meal.

The strongest reason to go is the pastrami. Ordered “al Josper,” it comes from an oven-grill hybrid and is served with crispy potatoes, roasted apples, onions, and mustard sauce. That makes it the safest first order for a first-timer and the dish that gives the meal its clearest point of view. The laffa option pushes the order further into Eastern Mediterranean territory: the Iraqi flatbread is baked in a wood-fired Neapolitan-style digital oven and cut at the table with scissors.

Order around the pastrami, then save room for dessert

The menu signal is clear enough: start with the pastrami format that suits the table, then treat dessert as part of the plan rather than an afterthought. The listed sweets are broader than a token finish, with the restaurant flan, mixed berry pavlova, pistachio ice cream profiteroles, financier cake, assorted chocolate mousses, and house-made ice creams.

For an event, the draw is not formal tasting-menu theater. It is a meal with recognizable crowd-pleasers, a Recoleta address, and enough table-side detail in the laffa service to feel more considered than a default night out. Lunch should work better for a more focused meal; dinner is the stronger call when the point is a slower, more social evening.