Buenos Aires - how cheap is cheap?

If you listen to my classmates from the US, Buenos Aires is cheap, dirt cheap. If you listen to my friend from Belgium who lives here, Buenos Aires is not cheap.

So what is cheap? Eating out in Buenos Aires is cheap compared to USA and Europe. On average we spend 40-80 pesos each ($13- $30) per dining experience in a nice restaurant, which would include an appetizer, a good sized steak, and a bottle of wine.

To be more specific, filet mignon (bife de lomo in Spanish) costs from 27 pesos (La Plata in San Telmo) to 50 pesos (fancy Las Cabreras in Palermo), which is cheaper than the price is dollars in some comparable restaurants in New York. [dollar to peso = 1 to 3]

The cheapest (but decent) bottle of wine in the restaurant starts at 20 pesos, which is again cheaper than the price in dollars in New York. So on average eating out in BA is at least 3 times cheaper than in New York.

It gets pricey for me if I would have decided to eat out daily. To spend $30 on a nice meal is not a lot by New York standards, but by backpacker’s it is. It adds up, but it is cheap.