I went to the location at:

Scalabrini Ortiz & Cerviño
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I’ve already mentioned that Argentina has some of the best Armenian food you’ll find, largely due to the fact that there’s a huge Armenian community. As an Armenian myself, I have to eat some homemade Armenian cooking every so often or else I suffer from withdrawal and go a bit mad. It was during one of those very fits of withdrawal that I just had to go on an Armenian food binge, and, lucky for me, there was a place that could satisfy even my gluttonous appetite, Garbis, which Forbes calls the best “family friendly restaurant” in Buenos Aires.

Garbis is Armenian food done buffet style. Hot dishes and desserts are ordered and brought directly to the table, while cold dishes are served at the traditional buffet bar. And the best part? It costs just 60 pesos, or about $17. Unlimited kebab and rice for $17? Now that’s bank, even in Argentina.

Unfortunately, that’s where the thrill of Garbis stops. The restaurant itself is small and somewhat cramped, the service is slow to the point of being sluggish, and the quality of food is very low (as expected of a typical buffet). I won’t go into heavy detail, since there are too many dishes to list, but all in all, the food was a mess. As with Sarkis, the other popular Armenian restaurant, the kebab was in general horrible, with meat tasting oddly seasoned and poorly marinated, with little of the satisfying greasiness and succulence that results from a true kebab preparation. The other lowlight was the dessert, which was unjustifiably bad, with nothing actually tasting like cream or chocolate. The rice, some of the salads, and the less Armenian, more traditional Argentine dishes (like ravioli) were actually quite good, as was the chicken kebab surprisingly.

Overall, this is just a cheap eats stand. Go if you really have a humongous appetite and don’t care about food quality. While I left satiated that night and really did recover from my nostalgia for Armenian cuisine, I also developed somewhat of an aversion to Armenian food and never felt inclined to eat it again in Buenos Aires.

Suggestions:

Hits: Chicken kebab, Farfalaj with chicken in cream, Persian rice (though the one at Sarkis just destroys this dish), Ravioli in cream sauce, Eggplant dishes

Misses: Cold appetizers in general (especially the hummus), all the other kebabs, the desserts in general (sinfully bad. Avoid the brownie and cheesecake at all cost)

Ambience: 1.0/5.0
Service: 2.0/5.0
Taste: 0.5/5.0
Value: 4.0/5.0
Overall Score: 2.0/5.0. Only go for value eating. As long as you stick to the warm dishes and chicken, you’ll be fine. Still, head over to Sarkis, pay one and a half times as much, and get some real Armenian food.

Thames 1101
1414 Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

As an Armenian, I was more than thrilled to find out that Buenos Aires has a popping Armenian district, with one of the largest communities of Armenians outside of Armenia. In fact, the Armenians have their own street, Calle Armenia, with tons of Armenian food on and around it. Coming from a traditional Armenian family, I have to say, I’m very heavily biased towards Middle Eastern, specifically Armenian cuisine, and I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a taste of home while studying abroad, especially when I was feeling nostalgic. So I decided to head over to Sarkis, which, to my surprise and satisfaction, is not only ranked the best Armenian restaurant in the city, but according to the Guia Oleo, the largest guide to restaurants in Buenos Aires, is one of the most popular restaurants (if not the most popular) of any kind in the whole city.

Just off Calle Armenia, Sarkis really does serve up some mean Armenian food at a low cost. Armenian food consists mostly of kebab, rice, stew, and some salads, and it is eaten group style, like you would with Chinese or Indian cuisine. Sarkis not only got the formula right, offering a variety of options and serving huge portions, but it also nailed the taste surprisingly well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, in terms of the rice and stews, you can find better Armenian food in Buenos Aires than you can in my hometown of Glendale, CA, which is the largest community of Armenians in the world outside of Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

Was it authentic Armenian food, though? Well, except for the fact that an Argentine was cooking it (ironic, isn’t it?), it actually was pretty authentic. It had all the Armenian classics, great rice dishes especially. The problem came with the kebabs—the kufte, typically my favorite kebab, was sinfully bad, and I couldn’t really even eat it. Also, they have an option of serving kebab completo, or with yogurt and herbs. Yogurt on kebab just isn’t a great idea, nor is it what I’d call the true, complete version of a kebab. In fact, it really detracts from the nice, juicy, flavorful greasiness of the meat. The rice, though, really makes up for the kebab’s failures. The Persian rice (rice with saffron, chicken, and some nuts), in particular, is an amazing feat of culinary creation. It is quite possibly the best use of saffron in a rice dish at a normal restaurant, and I wouldn’t change a thing in the recipe at all.

I have to admit, though, the restaurant isn’t without its fair share of flaws. The ambience is downright crappy. It’s just a bunch of crowded tables and plain decorations, and people and waiters are scrambling around constantly, making it feel a bit hectic. The service, moreover, wasn’t the greatest, nor was I, as an Armenian, pleased that nobody in the whole restaurant except for myself actually spoke Armenian.

Overall, though, this is a great restaurant, and several of my friends found themselves returning constantly to this place. I, as an Armenian, unfortunately can’t judge it quite as highly as my friends did, but I will say that it is the authoritative Armenian culinary experience in Buenos Aires

Suggestions:

Hits: Hummus, Beef kebab, Chicken Kebab, Persian Rice (a must!), Ensalada Belen, scrambled eggs with  sausage, bread

Misses: Dessert in general (baklava and halva especially), Kufte (the ground beef kebab), kebab al completo in general (kebab topped with yogurt)

Service: 2.0/5.0
Ambience: 1.0/5.0
Taste: 3.0/5.0
Value: 4.5/5.0
Overall Score: 3.2/5.0. Avoid the dessert and order the right dishes, and this is easily a 9.0 experience, at the value.