Tucked away amongst the many bars and restaurants of Palermo is a slice of the old world. El Preferido is one of the 54 bars and restaurants notables of Buenos Aires and in my opinion it definitely deserves a place on the list. This family run business has charm, warmth and an extensive menu. Whether you’re looking for a quick bite to eat or a sit down meal, El Preferido will provide.

When I first heard about ‘Ladies Brunch’, I was reminded of a saying by the writer Henry Boye: “The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway”, that I had been told a couple of weeks before arriving in Argentina. And Ladies Brunch seems to be one of the easiest way to ease yourself into Buenos Aies life, meeting both Argentines and foreigners.

One can easily observe the stately air that helped distinguish Clásica y Moderna as one of Buenos Aires’ 54 ‘Bares Historicos y Notables’, but there’s a distinct element that sets this cafe apart from the crowd. The elegance provides a world beyond the standard coffee, tasty treats and hospitable atmosphere. It serves up an additional type of sustenance: books.

Confiteria Ideal is almost 100 years old and, over the years, has served as a meeting place for artists and was once a location for the film ‘Evita’. The Buenos Aires government has designated it one of their 54 ‘Bares Historicos y Notables’ and it does indeed house two floors of opulent furnishing that harks back to a decadent early twentieth century.

Going to Florida Garden, one of the Buenos Aires’ 54 Notable bars, is like going to the British Museum for the first time. There are so many amazing things to see that you don’t really know where to start. The stairs? The bar and its English style? The waiters and their white optical uniforms? Or perhaps, could you glance at the desserts and more especially, at the succulent tarts? Hum… Difficult to say.

Walking into Las Violetas feels a bit like getting on board a mini version of the Titanic. Like the famous cruise liner, the interior of this café is an impressive example of Art Nouveau décor, with gold curlicues on the ceiling, Italian marble columns and Tiffany-style stained glass windows.

Back in England the city of Brighton has a well-deserved reputation as the most ‘European’ city in the country, a place where you’re likely to find arty types sipping espressos in cute cafés. The style-conscious denizens of the south coast resort would therefore find themselves well at home in the Buenos Aires namesake ‘The New Brighton’, an immaculately preserved and decorated bar notable that blows you away just looking at it.

Nestled between the neighbourhoods of Barrio Norte and Palermo sits a beautiful, tree-lined crossroad, where avenidas Soler, Honduras, Coronel Díaz and Mario Bravo create five corners. Each street leading to bustling residential and commercial areas, the intersection is always a hub of activity, traversed by cars, buses and pedestrians whose journey seems loaded with purpose.

Any bar which testifies to being the inventor of the turkey sandwich has some seriously big ideas. But then that’s Cafe Margot all over, a bar notable in which throughout are etched on fileteado porteño claims to its “traditional and literary” status, names to have haunted the premises and apparently most importantly, its historic significance to the sandwich industry.

Bar Británico is an iconic bar in San Telmo, with a number of films like ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ and ‘Tetro’ (the latest Francis Ford Coppola film) having scenes shot in the bar in the quest of authenticity. The bar opened in 1928, and became home to many artists and journalists, with the likes of Borges being a regular. But have the years treated Bar Británico kindly?