The best food tours in Buenos Aires, walk by walk

Our pick spends 3.5 hours eating through Palermo with an English or Spanish-speaking guide and no more than 12 guests. Its route visits 4 restaurants, serves no fewer than 8 dishes and pours the drinks as part of the fare. Its Viator listing carries 8,399 reviews and a 4.9 average, a far longer track record than the other Palermo walks we found. Standard bookings meet on Thames street and premium ones at a Nicaragua street restaurant; both finish at the final table.

A second Palermo walk offers 5 tastings over 3.5 hours, guided in English, from $94. It meets at Plaza Serrano, by the Palermo sculpture, where the guide carries an orange umbrella. With 13 reviews, it is still building its reputation. A third option is a traditional food tour of 3 to 3.5 hours with an optional Michelin experience, as its title calls it, from $110.

These walks cover similar streets, so the choice comes down to group size, guide language and how much eating you want. The walk on this site keeps to a capped small group and prepares vegetarian or gluten-free menus when you ask at booking, which helps if you travel with restrictions. If you want an extra tasting rather than a bigger meal, the 5-tasting walk is the closest alternative.

Cooking classes are the food tours that stay in one place. In San Telmo, a class devoted to empanadas and alfajores keeps its kitchen to 8 people for 3 hours and starts at $37. Its 644 reviews are the most of any class in our comparison. You fold, bake and then eat, so plan it in place of a meal, and come with an appetite rather than a full stomach from lunch.

A Palermo empanada and alfajor lesson takes 2.5 hours from $49 and runs rain or shine. An Argentine cooking class whose title says it was designed by a Michelin chef lasts 1.5 to 3 hours for up to 10 people, from $60. Its listing recommends closed-toe shoes for standing at the counter. Each class suits travellers who would rather take a recipe home than a list of addresses.

Empanadas are the obvious subject. The city tourism board calls them crescent pastries, most often oven-baked, packed with fillings that range across ham and cheese, beef, chicken and garden vegetables.⁷ Alfajores join them in most classes: the city defines the alfajor as a cookie filled with dulce de leche, a national favourite.⁸ By the end you will know both from the inside out.

Buenos Aires eats late. According to the city tourism board, porteños lunch from 12.30 to 15 h and sit down to dinner from 20 to 23 h.¹⁰ A food walk timed for lunch lets you see Palermo's street art and shops in daylight, while an evening walk shows you the city at its liveliest. Starting times vary by date and option, so look at the booking calendar before you decide.

Before you book, ask a few simple questions. How many stops, and are they sit-down tables or counters? How big is the group? Which languages does the guide speak? And what happens with dietary needs? The Palermo walk answers the last one with vegetarian and gluten-free menus ordered at booking, though it cannot cater for vegans, and both the Palermo walk and the San Telmo street food walk say bad weather can cancel them.

Reviews tell you something too, but read the number behind the stars. Hundreds of reviews mean a walk has met many kinds of traveller; a flawless score from a few guests tells you much less. Read a handful of the newest ones, too, since guides and stops change over time. Use the comparison table on this page as a starting point and open the listings that fit your day.