Argentinian Restaurant Lunch in Miami Beach: Baires Grill

If you are on the sand around 21st Street and want an Argentinian restaurant near me without getting back in the car, Baires Grill is a block inland. Baires Grill, at 2200 Collins Ave in Miami Beach, is the beach outpost of a Miami-born Argentine steakhouse group that dates to 1999. It is a practical place: milanesas, empanadas and grilled skirt steak at weekday lunch, and a long Malbec list when dinner runs late into the evening.

Baires takes its name from the way porteños shorten Buenos Aires. In 1999, Gustavo Abudiab, Martín Koenig and their partners opened the first Baires Grill in Miami with the idea of importing not only Argentine food but the ritual around it: long meals, shared wine and a table that nobody hurries. More than 25 years later, the group runs nine restaurants across Florida and New York with a team of over 400 people.

The menu now counts more than 70 dishes, centered on premium beef, and the wine program lists over 150 labels, led by Argentine Malbec. The company says it is preparing to open in Buenos Aires itself, a reverse migration for a brand built by expats. In Miami-Dade you will also find Baires in Brickell, Coral Gables, Doral and Sunny Isles, but the Collins Avenue room is the one closest to the ocean.

The restaurant sits where Collins Avenue meets 22nd Street, in the Collins Park area at the northern edge of South Beach. The beach access at 21st Street is a two-minute walk east, and the Miami Beach Beachwalk runs along the dunes from there. Buses on Collins Avenue stop nearby, and if you are driving, the municipal garages around the convention center and Collins Park are the easiest options on busy weekends.

Lunch is the best value at this branch. It is served Monday to Friday from noon until 4pm, and most plates sit in the low twenties. The milanesa, beef or chicken, breaded thin and fried or grilled, costs $22 with salad, fries or rice; as a sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayo it is $19. The house skirt steak, certified Black Angus with fries, costs $35, and you can switch to rib eye for $12 more.

Start the table with empanadas at $6 each, fried or grilled, in beef, chicken, ham and cheese, spinach, onion and cheese, or corn. Sausage and blood sausage are $6 apiece, the grilled provoleta is $18, and the beef carpaccio with arugula and parmesan is $18. If you want something lighter after a morning in the sun, the steak salad with caramelized onions is $27 and the beef bowl with barley and a soft egg is $24.

The milanesa deserves its place at the top of the order. Italian immigrants brought the breaded cutlet to Buenos Aires, and it became the everyday lunch of the city, eaten at home, in office cafeterias and in neighborhood bodegones. Baires lets you have it fried, the classic way, or grilled for something lighter, and the chicken version is a safe pick for children. Squeeze the lemon over it and pair it with fries, the way most Argentines would.

The lunch card mixes Argentine standards with the kind of food beachgoers actually want at 1pm. Steak and eggs, a petite skirt steak with organic eggs and roasted potatoes, is $28, and the chicken version is $24. The Baires Burger, topped with Swiss cheese, bacon and a fried egg, is $22, as is the steak wrap with rice and avocado. A cheese ravioli with marinara and a penne with pesto cream are $21 each.

From 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday, every drink at the bar is half price, and that includes premium and super-premium spirits, wine and beer. It is one of the better-value happy hours on this stretch of Collins, and it lines up neatly with the end of the beach day. On Mondays, every bottle of wine is 50 percent off, holidays excluded, which makes it the night to order a serious Malbec with a steak. The bar keeps its own cocktail menu, and desserts and the dinner card are available all day, so a late-afternoon drink can roll straight into an early steak dinner at the same table.

Baires Grill Miami Beach opens at noon every day. It closes at 10:30pm from Sunday to Thursday and at 11:30pm on Friday and Saturday. Reservations go through the restaurant's online booking page, and the direct line is (305) 763-8342. Weekend dinner after 8pm is the busiest window, while a weekday lunch at noon almost always gets you a patio table without waiting.

One house rule matters for the bill. An 18 percent service charge is added automatically for parties of up to five guests, and a 20 percent charge for parties of six or more; the restaurant says it supports staff wages and operating costs. Factor that in before you add a separate tip. Any substitution may carry an extra charge, and there is a kids menu for families coming straight from the beach.

Collins Park is the cultural pocket of this part of Miami Beach, so it is easy to pair a meal with something to see. The Bass, the city's contemporary art museum, is a short walk away at the edge of the park, and the Miami Beach Regional Library sits beside the lawn. After lunch, walk east to the Beachwalk and head north along the dunes toward the Mid-Beach hotels, or south toward Lincoln Road for shopping and people-watching.

Address: Baires Grill, 2200 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139, at 22nd Street. Phone: (305) 763-8342. Schedule: Sunday to Thursday noon to 10:30pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 11:30pm; weekday lunch menu until 4pm. Typical prices: empanadas $6, milanesa $22, skirt steak $35, provoleta $18. Half-price drinks at the bar from 4pm to 7pm Monday to Friday, and half-price wine bottles on Mondays. An automatic 18 to 20 percent service charge applies.