Roux opened in 2014 in a corner building on Peña street, two blocks from the Recoleta cemetery and four blocks from the French embassy. Chef Martín Rebaudino. Who had previously run the kitchen at Oviedo for eighteen years. Opened Roux as his first restaurant under his own name, combining the French and Basque technique he had learned training under Martín Berasategui, Juan Mari Arzak, and Pedro Subijana, with the Argentine ingredients and Spanish-seafood vocabulary he had mastered at Oviedo.
The ground floor is a classical, light-filled dining room. Whitewashed wooden walls, large windows, white tablecloths, tables close enough to feel like a Parisian bistro, small pavement terraces on each side for alfresco dining when the Buenos Aires summer allows. But the room Roux is known for is the cellar. A narrow spiral staircase descends from the corner of the ground floor into a subterranean private dining room carved out of an old building vault. Exposed brick, vintage wine racks, candlelight, a single six-person table. Booking the cellar costs about 30% more than the main dining room; for a proposal, a fortieth-wedding anniversary, or any evening designed to be remembered, it is money trivially well spent.
The menu shows Rebaudino's French-Basque training in its bones but pulls from the Argentine pantry with confidence. Signature dishes include the scallops with black garlic and smoked butter, the confit Patagonian lamb shoulder with potato purée and jus, the risotto of Pampas corn with aged Reggianito, and a dessert chart that features a tarte Tatin most Paris bistros would be proud of. The wine list is half French and half Argentine, with a particularly strong commitment to Mendoza's Uco Valley and Burgundy's Côte de Beaune.
Roux is recognised annually by the Michelin Guide and has appeared consistently on 50 Best's Latin America discovery list. But its real distinction is in the room and the hospitality: Rebaudino is often on the floor, the service team has depth and memory, and the pace is unhurried in the European manner. For a restaurant in a city defined by its loud, convivial parrillas, Roux offers something rarer. Quiet, candle-lit, European-formal dining that still feels unmistakably Argentine.