The Best Old School Pizzerias in Buenos Aires

Where to Eat the Best Classic/Old-School Argentine-Style Pizza.

Las Cuartetas, where the cheese flows. ph: Tim Fitzgerald

Argentines eat a lot of meat. They also consume a huge amount of pizza and will quickly tell you that Argentine pizza is the best. In fact, when wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, you’ll probably see as many pizzerias as you will parrillas and cafes. Pizza in Argentina is another of the nation’s customs brought and adapted by Italian immigrants.

Traditionally, Argentine pizza comes with a thicker crust and spongier base than your quintessential Italian pie. Look out for three varieties: masa alta (thick dough), al molde (thinner and crunchier dough), and media masa (a combination of the two). Regardless of your choice, expect about an inch of cheese – traditionally mozzarella – sprinkled with compulsory green olives and the toppings of your choice.

The classic pizza menu will read something like this: mozzarella (or muzza), which is similar to a Margherita but with more cheese; Neapolitana, the muzza with added garlic and tomato; Calabrese, with the ubiquitous chorizo; and cuatro queso (four cheese). Typical toppings include anchovies, blue cheese, boiled eggs, mushrooms, red pepper, or more olives.

Another icon of Argentine pizza is the fugazzeta, a slice of pizza with a cheese-filled crust topped with caramelized onions. The pizzeria Banchero (see below) lays claim to having invented it way back in 1893 when founder Don Agustín Banchero landed on Argentine soil from Genoa.

What’s that unusual extra piece of bread accompanying the pizza? This is fainá, an Italian-origin flatbread made from chickpea flour. It’s good as a starter – some variations come with Parmesan cheese and rosemary – but in Buenos Aires, it’s eaten as a topping to create pizza a caballo (horseback pizza).

For the complete porteño pizza experience, order a moscata-pizza-fainá and wait for your waiter to deliver a slice of cheesy mozzarella pizza, the chickpea flatbread, and a glass of Muscat (sweet wine) to wash it all down. The combination is so popular that local blues-rock band Memphis La Blusera wrote a song about it.

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Where to Eat the Best Classic/Old-School Argentine-Style Pizza

Pizzería Güerrín (Corrientes 1368, Centro)

Pizzeria Güerrín, always busy. ph: Tim Fitzgerald

The classic of all classics. Since being founded by two Genovese immigrants in 1932, Güerrín has become a Corrientes institution, popular with theatergoers and workers on their lunch break. The signature pizza is the mozzarella, which arrives overflowing with melted cheese plus toppings of your choice. It’s busy and rowdy, but you'll find some quiet in the upstairs salon.

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Las Cuartetas (Corrientes 838, Centro)

I don’t think this pizza has enough cheese…. ph: Tim Fitzgerald

Las Cuartetas is the go-to place for pizza after catching a show at the art deco Teatro Gran Rex across the street. Open