Elena

01What to order

• Bife ancho dry age, 60 daysARS 102,900 with creamed potatoes and a mixed salad, on the menu Perfil read in April 2025.
• Milanesa de ojo de bife maduradoNew in July 2026: a breaded milanesa cut from the center of a dry-aged rib-eye. In 2025 Perfil listed a New York strip–style milanesa to share at ARS 84,000.
• Angus T-bone, aged 45 daysOn the Michelin Guide's list of what goes on the Josper, with Angus sirloin and Argentine Wagyu rib-eye.
• MollejasGrilled sweetbreads, ARS 32,500 in April 2025; The World's 50 Best described them with a lemon emulsion and bitter leaves.
• Pulpo a la gallegaGalician-style octopus, back on the menu in 2026 and, per the hotel, the chef's most personal dish; ARS 76,200 in April 2025.
• El RecorridoSeveral dishes in smaller portions for a small table, closing with the Balcarce, a dessert that is not on the menu.

02The beef

The beef has changed over the years. About 14 years ago, the hotel says, Elena bought younger, lighter, grain-fed animals; it now buys larger, older cattle raised mainly on pasture: Holstein (Holando) cows of 700 to 800 kg / 1,543 to 1,764 lb and Angus of up to 1,000 kg / 2,205 lb. The steaks, from grain-fed animals, age 45 days in the restaurant's own chamber, and the house offers dry-aged Wagyu, which it says no one else in the market sells. In September 2026 Folha de Pernambuco described T-bones, rib-eyes and bifes de chorizo in Wagyu and Angus aged 45 to 90 days, in chambers both in the dining room and behind the kitchen. The hotel also says it runs laboratory tests on the meat beyond the industry standard.

03The fire

The Michelin Guide says the meat is cooked on a Josper grill. No source names the fuel.

04The story

Elena is the main restaurant of the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires. A 2014 food blog, Tiny Urban Kitchen, dated its opening to 2012 and said the name honors Elena Peña, wife of Félix de Álzaga Unzué, who had the hotel's mansion built for her as a wedding gift. Juan Gaffuri, executive chef and director of food and beverage, has led the restaurant for 14 years, the hotel said in 2026, with head chef Nicolás Díaz Rosáenz. Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants ranked it No. 45 in 2019 and No. 40 in 2022, and World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants No. 56 in 2025 and No. 54 in 2026. The Michelin Guide Buenos Aires & Mendoza recommends it in its 2026 edition.

05The practical

Posadas 1086/88, Recoleta, inside the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires. Lunch 12:30 to 3:30 pm and dinner 7 pm to midnight, seven days a week, per the Michelin Guide, which puts it at $$$. A Menú Balance, written with nutritionists, has vegetarian and gluten-free dishes. Book through the hotel's website, fourseasons.com/buenosaires, or OpenTable; for the cellar room, ask when you book.

Address

Posadas 1086, Four Seasons Hotel, Recoleta, Buenos Aires

Phone

+54 11 4321-1728

Directions

Google Maps ↗

06In Buenos Aires’s selections