Graciela West Village: Argentinian Restaurant From Don Julio

Anyone typing argentinian restaurant near me from a West Village sidewalk now has a name that did not exist a year ago. Graciela, at 81 Greenwich Avenue on the corner of Bank Street, opened in July 2026 as the first American restaurant from Pablo Rivero, the owner of Buenos Aires steakhouse Don Julio. Rivero named the room after his mother and pitches it as an Argentine tavern modelled on the neighbourhood bodegones of Buenos Aires, with every cut cooked on a wood-and-charcoal parrilla.

Time Out greeted the July opening with the line that one of the world's most acclaimed steakhouse teams had just landed in New York, and the hype is tied to Don Julio, the Palermo corner where Rivero built his reputation. For Graciela he brought in partners Adam and Alex Saper, culinary director Jason Pfeifer and chef Victoria DeGiorgio, who runs the kitchen day to day. Fine Dining Lovers profiled grill master Nicolás Stadnitchi, the person standing over the coals each night. The result is less a copy of Don Julio than a West Village tavern with the same obsession over beef, smoke and fresh chimichurri.

The room holds about 120 seats, and the design firm Home Studios arranged it so the fire is the main event. A custom parrilla and a Josper charcoal oven run more than ten feet along one side of the dining room, in full view of most tables. Overhead there are reclaimed-wood ceilings, the tables sit on stone and the chairs are mismatched vintage pieces. Big mirrors bounce the glow of the grill around the space, and hand-painted fileteado porteño panels, the swirling sign art of old Buenos Aires shops, frame the walls. Ask for a seat facing the parrilla if you want to watch the cuts rest before slicing.

The menu states that all cuts are grilled over white quebracho charcoal and arrive with two sauces, a fresh chimichurri and an aged one with a deeper, vinegary bite. The entraña, a 10-ounce skirt steak, is $58, and the asado de tira short rib, also 10 ounces, is $58 too. The Argentine-raised ojo de bife ribeye is 16 ounces for $96, the bife angosto New York strip weighs 14 ounces for $82, and the showpiece dry-aged bone-in ribeye runs 30 ounces for $180. Sharing one large cut between two diners and adding a skirt steak is a sensible way to taste the difference between grass-fed Argentine beef and the aged American rib.

Before the steaks, the snacks make the strongest case for Graciela as a tavern rather than a temple of beef. The ossobuco empanada and the humita empanada, filled with sweet corn, are $14 each. Chorizo off the grill is $23, and morcilla y huevo, blood sausage with an egg, is $28. Fainá, the chickpea flatbread Buenos Aires pizzerias serve on top of a slice, is $16, while gildas, the skewered anchovy, olive and pepper bites, are $12. Two milanesas carry the comfort-food flag: a New York strip milanesa at $68 and a milanesa napolitana at $78, the latter blanketed with tomato, ham and melted cheese the way porteños eat it at Sunday lunch.

Around 15 percent of the wine list is Argentine, according to Fine Dining Lovers, so Argentine bottles sit next to wines from France, Italy and California rather than dominating the page. The Argentine share leans red, which suits a menu where nearly every main course comes off the coals, and the floor staff can steer a table toward a bottle that matches one big cut or several smaller plates. Time Out's opening report singled out the house gelato, made in dulce de leche and pistachio flavours, which is the obvious last course after a plate of charred beef.

Graciela takes reservations through OpenTable, linked from its official site, and it is open Monday to Wednesday from 5pm to 10pm and Thursday to Saturday from 5pm to 11pm. Because it is new and connected to a famous Buenos Aires name, prime-time tables go quickly, so book as early as the system allows. The quietest windows are the first seating at 5pm on a Monday or Tuesday and the last hour on weeknights, when the grill crew is still working but the room has thinned out.

A good first visit for two is gildas and one empanada each, a plate of morcilla y huevo, the 16-ounce ojo de bife and the skirt steak, plus fainá to mop up the chimichurri. That covers smoke, fat, acid and bread without needing the 30-ounce dry-aged cut. Diners who prefer a single big moment can go straight to the bone-in ribeye and split it with sides. Leave room for gelato, because the dulce de leche version is the most Argentine thing on the dessert list. Groups of four can add the asado de tira and the New York strip milanesa, which turns the meal into something close to a Buenos Aires family lunch stretched into a Manhattan dinner.

Graciela sits in a part of the West Village built for wandering. Walk east along Greenwich Avenue to Jefferson Market Library, the Victorian Gothic former courthouse with its clock tower and garden, then loop back through the crooked side streets around Bank Street and West 11th Street, lined with brownstones and old stoops. Heading west instead brings you to Abingdon Square Park, a small leafy triangle with benches and iron railings that makes a calm spot to sit after a heavy steak dinner. Both are an easy stroll from the restaurant door.

Address: Graciela, 81 Greenwich Avenue, New York, NY 10014, at Bank Street in the West Village. Getting there: the 1, 2 and 3 trains stop at the 14th Street station on Seventh Avenue, roughly a two-minute walk, and the A, C, E and L trains stop at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 5pm to 10pm, Thursday to Saturday 5pm to 11pm, dinner only. Reservations are on OpenTable. Steaks run from $58 for skirt steak to $180 for the 30-ounce dry-aged ribeye, so a full dinner for two with wine is a special-occasion bill rather than a casual weeknight plate.