NESS, My Favorite Restaurant in Buenos Aires Right Now
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Our dinner at NESS restaurant in Buenos Aires started with a table beside the open kitchen, only a few steps from the fire.
A soufflé cooked in a cast-iron pan inside a wood-burning oven is not something you divide neatly in half.
That was the only full portion dish we ordered at NESS. Everything else came as a half-portion, which allowed us to work our way through more of the menu.
From our seats, just a few steps from the grill and wood-burning oven, we watched several of them being made. The cast-iron pans emerged from the fire puffed and golden before the cook carefully spooned their contents onto waiting plates. By the time ours arrived, we had already seen enough of the process to know that sharing it was the right decision.
It was also the beginning of one of the warmest and friendliest restaurant experiences I have had since moving to Argentina.
NESS Restaurant Buenos Aires: A Front-Row Seat to the Kitchen
The restaurant is inside a former industrial building that once served as the loading area of a sodería. It was created by chef Leo Lanussol, formerly of Proper, together with Esteban Cigliutti.
I loved Proper when it opened in my neighborhood of Palermo, and I missed it when it closed. Until now.
Its open kitchen allowed you to see the cooks at work, making dinner feel less like a performance hidden behind a curtain and more like something you were allowed to watch up close. Lanussol brought that openness back at NESS on a much larger scale, while still making the restaurant feel approachable despite its bigger size.
We were seated at what I heard someone call table one, at the end of a long communal table. The grill and wood-burning oven were only a few steps away. Directly across from us, one of the chefs was working the pass, calling out dishes, directing the cooks by the oven and coals, and finishing plates before they went out to the tables.
We could see virtually every plate being prepared and dressed before it left the kitchen or table since it was all in the same space.
For someone who enjoys watching how restaurants work, this was better than dinner theater. There was fire, smoke, choreography, and cast-iron pans.
The chef even answered a couple of our questions. We tried not to take advantage of the situation because she was clearly working, but being able to interact with the person assembling the food was the dulce de leche on the flan.
At the center of the triple-height dining room stands an olive tree brought from Mendoza. I have always loved restaurants that incorporate living trees into their design. It is not something you see very often, and here, surrounded by concrete, steel, fire, and soaring ceilings, it softened the entire room. It was a lovely touch.
Bread Straight from the Embers
We began with freshly baked sourdough bread grilled directly over the embers and drizzled with olive oil.
It arrived warm, with a lightly charred exterior and the aroma of the fire still clinging to it. Bread like this creates a particular problem. I knew more food was coming, but my hand kept wandering back to it as if acting independently. It didn't survive past the first dish. It's a miracle it lasted that long to begin with.
NESS cooks without gas in the downstairs kitchen. Fire is not simply used for grilling meat. Bread, vegetables, fish, and other elements move across the embers, planchas, grill, and wood-burning oven. The fire is part of the cooking, but it is also part of the room. You hear it crackle and watch the cooks manage it throughout dinner. And thanks to the excellent ventilation, you don’t end up wearing the smoke on your clothes at the end of the night either.
A Minimalist Menu
The menu at NESS is remarkably restrained. Dishes are presented with only a few words, but those short descriptions hide days of preparation.
Upstairs, stocks, sauces, purées, preserves, and fermented ingredients are prepared in a separate production kitchen. Jars filled with different ferments line the shelves, evidence that much of what eventually arrives on the plate began long before the restaurant opened for dinner.
That work is not announced on the minimalist menu. You may see three ingredients listed while tasting something far more layered.
The restaurant offers many dishes in full or half-portions. This was perfect for us because we wanted to try several things. We ordered half-portions of every savory dish except the fish soufflé.
Eggplant with Za’atar and Almonds
The eggplant arrived as a long cylinder, soft inside and deeply smoky from the fire. It was covered with za’atar and almonds, which added texture and kept the dish from becoming too soft or rich.
There was also a bright, almost citrusy flavor running through it. Za’atar commonly includes sumac, which can have a tart, lemony character, although I cannot place the exact ingredients in NESS’s blend. Whatever produced it, that acidity worked beautifully against the smoke and richness of the eggplant.
This was not eggplant pretending to be meat, which is one of those compliments that rarely does a vegetable any favors. It tasted like eggplant, only with more smoke, spice, and personality.
Grilled Oyster Mushrooms
We also ordered the gírgolas, known as oyster mushrooms in English. I use them sometimes for our AsadoAdventure asados, going back and forth between these and portobellos, so I’m familiar with them. I like how fleshy and substantial they are, especially when grilled.
They were served with a sauce made from yellow ají peppers and peanuts. Although people here usually use ají to refer to hot peppers, the dish was not spicy, unfortunately. But it was delicious—I'm not complaining.
The Fish Soufflé
Then came the fish soufflé with potato and mantecato.
This was the one dish we ordered as a full portion because of how it is prepared. The soufflé is cooked in a cast-iron pan inside the wood-burning oven. We had already watched several of them being made and scooped from their pans, so its arrival felt like the payoff to a process we had been following from our seats.
The mantecato is made by reducing fish broth until its collagen concentrates, then emulsifying it with olive oil. It begins melting over the soufflé as it cooks, adding richness without hiding the flavor of the fish.
I found it light and fluffy, obviously, but deeply savory, with the browned top giving way to a much softer interior. It looked simple when it reached the table, but nothing about making it appeared simple.
Argentine Wine Beyond Malbec
The wine list at NESS deserves its own attention. It was designed by Danish sommelier Bertil Tøttenborg and places considerable emphasis on small Argentine producers, native varieties, field blends, orange wines, and lighter reds.
I began with the 45 Rugientes Pinot Noir from Otronia in Patagonia. Fabi started with the Ancón Chardonnay from Château d’Ancón in Mendoza.
We then switched to the house wine, the NESS Field Blend Rosado made with Cara Sur in San Juan. It was a good match for a meal moving between smoke, vegetables, mushrooms, fish, spice, and fermentation.
The availability of wines by the glass and in smaller formats makes sense with the half-portion menu. Both encourage you to explore instead of committing your entire evening to one plate or one bottle.
A Very Creamy Flan and Banana Bread in Disguise
We finished with two desserts.
The first was the halva flan. Flan is common enough in Buenos Aires that it is easy to treat it as background noise, something ordered automatically after a parrilla meal. This one got my attention.
It was exceptionally creamy, with the smooth, almost velvety texture that several published reviews have singled out. The sesame gave it a nuttier, slightly more savory character than a traditional flan served with a dollop of dulce de leche and crema on the side. Meanwhile, the dark caramel supplied the bitterness needed to balance the sweetness.
The second dessert was a creamy baked-banana bread with sesame, miso, and a bourbon reduction. It resembled a thick piece of French toast, with a browned exterior and a soft center. The sesame and miso added savory and salty notes, while the bourbon reduction balanced everything with some sweetness.
The Unexpected Tour
The food alone would have made this a memorable dinner, but the service changed the experience completely.
Our server explained each dish and answered our questions about the restaurant. At one point, he offered to take us upstairs to see the production kitchen.
The restaurant was full, and we felt guilty about pulling him away from his tables, so we declined. We asked him to point us in the right direction and said we would explore on our own.
On the way upstairs, we passed through another room, separate from the main dining area, with its own DJ playing music. It felt like discovering another restaurant hidden inside the first one.
When we reached the upper floor, another employee saw us and proactively asked whether we would like to see the kitchen.
She showed us through the production area and the pantry, where many of the stocks, sauces, preserves, and ferments begin. From upstairs, we also had a bird’s-eye view of the dining room, the olive tree, the long tables, and the fire below.
None of this felt rehearsed or transactional. They did not know I planned to write about the restaurant. We were simply two customers who had shown an interest, and the staff responded with genuine enthusiasm.
That kind of openness is rare.
Why NESS Is My Favorite Restaurant Right Now
NESS is ambitious, but it does not feel stiff. The room is enormous, yet it manages to feel intimate. The cooking involves fermentation equipment, controlled drying, days-long reductions, and careful fire management, but the menu does not read like an instruction manual.
Most importantly, everyone working there seemed genuinely happy to show us what they were doing.
We watched the cooks manage the fire and saw nearly every plate being assembled. We asked questions and received real answers. When we wandered upstairs, we were invited into the production kitchen, where we stood among the fermentation jars and looked down over the dining room. We had gone up there out of curiosity, but no one made us feel as if we were intruding.
The food was excellent, but restaurants are more than collections of plates. They are rooms filled with people, movement, smells, sounds, and hundreds of small decisions that most diners never see.
At NESS, we were allowed to see them.
For the moment, it is my favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires.
NESS Grecia 3691, Núñez, Buenos Aires Restaurant reservations are required. The separate wine-bar area accepts walk-ins. We spent USD 106 plus tip for three wines (two glasses and one small bottle), one full portion, two half-portions, bread, and two desserts.
If you enjoy discovering Buenos Aires through its food, history, markets, and neighborhood restaurants, you can also explore the city with AsadoAdventure.
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