Before arriving in Buenos Aires, I read online that Cafe Tortoni is the oldest cafe in town dating back to 1858, beautiful and rich in history. I'm a sucker for cakes and pastries and always love to visit nice cafes when I travel. I made sure this was on my to go list. The fact it was in the city center and a short walk from my airbnb made it very convenient. I walked past Cafe Tortini a few times during my stay, and there was always a long queue outside. Even when it was raining, people would still be waiting outside with their raincoat on.
During our last day in town on a Sunday, it was drizzling again and there wasn't a lot to do. We were heading off to Antarctica the next morning, leaving the hotel at 3am, so I wanted a quiet, calm rest of the day in preparation for an early rise. We still had an afternoon to kill and still hadn't managed to visit any of the iconic cafes from the city's golden tango era. I wanted to visit Cafe Tortoni, but I wasn't prepared to queue to get in. Life is too short for that even if I have a spare afternoon to kill.
As we were wandering around town down a little side street, we walked passed a rather elaborate shop front that look quite out of place, snuck in between the sad looking buildings on either side. I nearly walked passed it without giving it a thought, till I quickly took a peak inside and saw a very welcoming sight. It was a cafe, and a very grand one that extend quite deep inside. There was no queue outside, that could be a good or bad sign depending on how you look at it. In the end we thought what the hell. It's our last day in town.
It was a good call. I was at Confitería La Ideal, a beautiful French style iconic cafe opened in 1912 and visited by dignitaries, politicians, artists etc in its heydays. I later learnt Cafe Ideal used to be one of the city's most beautiful Milongas (tango dance halls), hosted on the first floor. It closed in 2017, renovated and reopened again in 2022 to the glory we see today. It's absolutely stunning.
The patisserie counter was at the front of the store. It was early December and they had already laid out the Christmas theme decorations and cakes. It does not take a lot of cakes to desserts to excite me.
There were quite a few staff greeting visitors in the lobby. As we were led to our table, we were asked to stop and stand in front of the arch doorway with the beautiful cafe as the backdrop. Then they took a photo of us. Not sure why, probably as a memorabilia. I've experienced that in a couple of fancy restaurants before. We were sat at a couple of tables away from the arch doorway and got a nice view of the patisserie section outside and the magnificent stained glass dome upstairs.
Here's another view of the cafe taken from further inside. I was very impressed by its opulence.
As I was waiting for our order to arrive, I went to check out the upstairs. The view of the cafe from half way up the stairs gives visitors another perspective of the grandeur of the café. It's not too difficult to visualise a massive ballroom with dancers gliding across the hall.
Continuing up the beautiful marble staircase, led to the original lifts. The lifts doesn't work anymore but I'm glad they kept it after the renovation. They are so classy.
There's a grand piano upstairs, I'm sure one or more person on Hive would love this. Tango classes are held here regularly as are the city's famous tango dinner shows. Completing the belle epoque ambience is the iconic dome made of 60 pieces of stained glass panel.
My afternoon tea arrived soon. We ordered the classic tea set. Omg!! They look so inviting, screaming to be ate.
The set included a quatro of petit gateaux mousse. The flavours were passion fruit with white chocolate, chocolate, hazelnut, and praline. Then there are four pieces of patisseries. I think the first one is their signature Diamond biscuit. It has the fleur de lys imprinted on the surface, a nod to its french heritage. Then there's a marcaron, a citrus biscuit. And finally an Alfajor, a local delicacy. I had quite a few of them during my trip, they're very nice.
Each of the mousse are so silky smooth, and every mouthful was sheer indulgence.
I opted for a coffee instead of my normal tea, let's just say I don't have much confidence at places serving good tea outside of England😊. It is quite easy to please me with coffee because I don't know much about it. This did it's job, as did the entire afternoon tea experience. Job well done for £26/USD35!
Do you remember the photos we took at the entrance? They weren't given to us when we paid our bill (wishful thinking), so that was a bit of a disappointment. On the way out, we saw them stuck on a board for sale. You get two photos in a pretty paper frame and a pin, inside a posh paper carrier bag... for the same price as my afternoon tea.
Thanks but no thanks🙃