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Buenos Aires, Argentina > Buenos Aires restaurants > Cervantes II Cervantes IIJ.D. Perón 1883 (@ Riobamba); Tel. +(011.54.11) 4372-5227
 The secret's in the sauce. The food at Cervantes II is as Argentine as the flag in the window! Photo by Clare Nisbet. Cervantes II is so unexciting to look at that until your food arrives at the table you will be scratching your head wondering what the big secret is. The restaurant consists of two large, smoky rooms containing about 20 and 30 tables respectively and are busy by 9pm and standing room only by 10pm. The walls are putrid lime green and decorated with almost nothing but a poster from several decades ago. Aging light fixtures hang above the tables and terribly uncomfortable chairs. There is no music because the place is stowed with enough porteños to make the din deafening, delivery boys in blue shirts hustle in and out the door at light speed, and the action from the kitchen never lets up. So what is the big secret? For more than 20 years Cervantes II has been serving up giant helpings of porteño favorites. Locals that know the bring friends and family to help them polish off heaping plates of pastas, parilla dishes, specialty pescados, ribs, and possibly the biggest plates of papas fritas (French fries) that you’ve ever seen. The food is cheap, delicious, and arrives hot in massive portions. The restaurant is about the food and family not the ambiance so solo diners have as great an experience as the two old men catching up in the corner or the group of 5 twenty-somethings laughing as they break bread. The service leaves a little to be desired but what can you expect when the place is so popular and the waiters are pulled in a million directions? Come before 9pm for a table and bring a huge appetite or a friend to share – people generally don’t leave hungry. This is the kind of place that will really make you feel ensconced in local flavor and is as Argentine as the flag in the window. —Cervantes II review by Clare Nisbet
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