Café Tortoni

Order a coffee at the city's oldest and best preserved historic cafe.

With its marble tables, dark wooden panelling and stunning stained glass, the Café Tortoni is the oldest and perhaps best preserved of the city’s many officially recognised historic cafes.

It was founded by a Frenchman in 1858, named after a café in Paris, and moved to its current location in 1880. The cafe became a meeting point for politicians, musicians, and writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar. The tango singer Carlos Gardel even had his own regular table.

Order a coffee and media lunas or chocolate and churros and soak up the atmosphere.

The café also serves cider on tap and a traditional Spanish dessert called leche merengada. Evening jazz and tango shows are hosted in basement, where artist Benito Quinquela Martín's literary society used to meet.