Unlike many restaurants, Pequeño Buenos Aires is getting better with time. When Ezequiel (the owner) opened the small restaurant 9 years ago, he basically had no competition except for local taquerías and a rotating group of short lived italian pizzerias.
Now the restaurant is much larger, better decorated, has better wine list and above all the quality of the beef is excellent. When in low season you see most of the restaurants empty, Pequeño Buenos Aires always has patrons sipping red wine and enjoying an “asado”. Reason must be that no matter what, Ezequiel is always there taking care of customers or the grill (his passion since he was a child in Bragado, in the Argentine Pampas).
My favorite cut at Pequeño Buenos Aires is “vacío” (flank steak), a pound big and medium rear, married with a powerful Luiggi Bosca Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition to beef, he offers the other pillar of the Argentine cuisine, home-made ravioli filled with spinach and with a fresh tomato and basil sauce. Prices at Pequeño Buenos aires are much lower than in fancier restaurants at the Tulum beach, and you can have a full protein and good wine feast for a fraction of what it cost in an Argentinian restaurant or a steak house in the US. Two large vacíos enough to feed 4 adults, a bottle of Luiggi Bosca ($55) and some soft drinks plus tip and taxes for about US$ 100, a great deal. But if you do not want to splash with expensive wine and tons of beef, you could have a smaller cut and good wine bottle for two for some US$ 25 each.
Also, due to its strategic location, the sidewalk tables of Pequeño Buenos Aires are the right place see what is going on in Tulum, watching locals and tourists go from shop to shop and bar to bar. Pequeño Buenos Aires is located at Tulum Avenue (town’s main road) at the corner of Beta Sur. Usually no reservation is needed but in high season it can become crowded. Opens daily and is one of the restaurants in downtown that work the latest in the evenings.
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