Argentinian Restaurant in Van Nuys: Mercado Buenos Aires

In the San Fernando Valley, the honest answer to argentinian restaurant near me is often a place that is three businesses at once. Mercado Buenos Aires, at 7540 Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys, has been a restaurant, a bakery and an Argentine grocery since 1989. You can eat a skirt steak off a tabletop grill, pick up a dozen empanadas to go, and leave with a jar of dulce de leche and a bag of yerba mate, all without leaving the building.

The restaurant's own story, signed by Paul Rodriguez, describes more than three decades of feeding the Valley with grass-fed Angus beef, Argentine wines and the kind of everyday food Buenos Aires families eat at home. His name is on the menu too, on Paul's Lomito and the Parrilla Paul, which tells you this is still a family-run business rather than a concept restaurant. A second branch now operates on Devonshire Street in Granada Hills.

The market side matters as much as the dining room. Shelves carry chimichurri sauce, Argentine groceries and wines that are sold only in the physical stores, not online, which makes the trip worthwhile for anyone cooking Argentine food at home. If you are cooking an asado at home, this is the place to find Argentine-style chorizo and the condiments you will not see in a regular supermarket.

Mercado Buenos Aires opens at 7:30am, earlier than almost any other Argentine restaurant in Los Angeles, and breakfast is served until 11:30am. Facturas, the traditional Argentine pastries, are $2.50 each, and the Desayuno Express pairs three facturas with a café latte for $13. Warm medialunas filled with ham and cheese are $10 for two, and the Papa Francisco, two toasted ham-and-cheese tostaditos topped with fried eggs, is $15.

Coffee is taken seriously. A cortado is $4, and the dulce de leche latte, the house specialty, is $6.50. For something sweeter, the choco-latte alfajor is an alfajor cookie cup filled with latte cream at $9. Steak and eggs, a 6-ounce grilled skirt steak with two eggs and breakfast potatoes, costs $18 for anyone who wants beef before noon.

The empanadas are one of the best deals in the city: $3.50 each at the table or $2.80 to go, baked or fried. Flavors include beef, chicken, spinach, chorizo, humita corn, tuna, cheese and onion, and ham and cheese. Special empanadas filled with asado or grilled entraña are $4, and there are plant-based versions for vegans. Add chimichurri and bread for $2.

For lunch, the choripán Argentino, a grilled house-made Argentine sausage in bread with chimichurri, lettuce and tomato, is $13.50. The lomito sandwiches are the heavier option: Paul's Lomito layers grilled filet mignon with ham, cheese, two fried eggs and light mayonnaise on a toasted baguette for $19.50. Grilled provoleta and house chorizo are $9 each as starters, and mollejas provenzal with garlic and parsley are $10.

Dinner is about the parrilla brought to the table on its own little grill. The Parrilla Buenos Aires, 37 ounces for two, piles Certified Angus Choice skirt steak, bone-in short rib, chorizo, morcilla, sweetbreads and chinchulines onto the coals for $54. Solo diners can order the 19-ounce Parrilla Chica for $28, and the Parrilla Manolo for two adds a 16-ounce asado ancho for $68, with a 25-minute grill time.

Individual steaks come with French fries. A 14-ounce entraña is $35 and the 7-ounce version is $19, and the 14-ounce bife ancho rib eye is $30. Milanesas come with mashed potatoes: the classic breaded milanesa de carne is $18.50 and the Napolitana, topped with ham, cheese and tomato sauce, is $24.50. Argentine pizzas like the onion-heavy fugazza are $32 for a large.

Fish and pasta keep the menu flexible for groups. Grilled merluza marinated in citrus chimichurri is $20, and the sorrentinos jamón y queso, large round pasta filled with mozzarella and ham in a pink pomodoro cream sauce, are $24. Spaghetti con estofado, pasta with a slow beef stew in tomato sauce, is $23 and is the kind of dish Argentine grandmothers make on Sundays.

Finish with a flan with dulce de leche for $6.50, panqueques Argentinos filled with dulce de leche for $9, or a slice of chajá, the Uruguayan sponge cake of meringue, cream, milk caramel and peaches, for $5.50. The bakery case also sells pastries to take home, so it is worth saving a few dollars for the drive back.

Mercado Buenos Aires is open Sunday to Thursday from 7:30am to 9pm, and Friday and Saturday from 7:30am to 10pm. Call (818) 786-0522, or order online for pickup through the restaurant's ordering page. There is no booking fuss here: walk in, take a table, and order at your own pace.

This stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard is built for cars rather than strolling, so plan to drive for anything beyond the parking lot. A short drive southwest, the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area is the Valley's big green space, with Lake Balboa, a lakeside walking loop, cycling paths and cherry trees that flower each spring.

Inside the basin, the Japanese Garden, also called SuihoEn, is a six-acre garden built next to the Tillman water reclamation plant, with a teahouse, waterfalls and a lake, and it is a calm way to spend an hour before a big parrilla lunch. Afterward, swing back to the market shelves to pick up chimichurri, alfajores and a bottle of Malbec for later.

Address: 7540 Sepulveda Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91405. Phone: (818) 786-0522. Second branch: Devonshire Street, Granada Hills. Best value: $2.80 empanadas to go or the $28 Parrilla Chica for one. Best time: weekday breakfast before 11:30am for facturas and a dulce de leche latte. Good to know: groceries and wines are sold only in store, and big parrilla orders need about 25 minutes on the grill. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for more San Fernando Valley food ideas.