After my friend told me that there was an Argentinian restaurant now in El Paso my husband and I had to go immediately. I asked around to see about eating there, went as far as to calling the restaurant directly. The restaurant has a sister restaurant in Juarez; the owners are not from Argentina and neither is their chef. The restaurant itself was beautiful and the service was great. One look at the menu and I saw that they had empanadas and even Chimichurri- When ordering the waiter was going on about how their Chimichurri is delicious and it has 37 ingredients.... Well...they put in 30 more ingredients than what they needed. It was not Chimichurri. it was horrible!!! What a disappointment!!! I would say that the food is a fusion between Mexican and Argentinian food... but in no way is it AUTHENTIC as they claim.. The only thing authentic about the food at Garufa was the name of some of the foodson the menu. If you want something different other than Mexican food, then go to Garufa, but do not think it is Authentic Argentinian food in any way. We were very disappointed for such an overpriced meal. read more

Today was my first time at Garufa and I must say I was extremely impressed with the service/food. Steak was juicy and flavorful. Cooked exactly the way I liked. I recommend ordering their sautéed mushrooms to pair! It was compacted with so much flavor! I can't describe the taste. Empanadas were on point! And also, dessert to top it off. Chocolate cake was superb! Our waiter was excellent!!! read more

What an awesome experience!!!! This was our first time to Garufa, and I am so happy that we finally made it in! Being from a large city, I miss those establishments that serve truly delicious food in a classy environment (where people actually put some effort into themselves and (gasp!) dress up!...a real restaurant. This is it! From the lovely old-world decor, to the gorgeous bar and lovely two-floor open concept layout, this place it wonderful. Our waiter was Richard, and he was AMAZING! One of the most knowledgeable waiters we have ever had, anywhere, hands down. He recommended almost everything for us (per our request to try the best options they have). The wine list is awesome, very appropriately priced, and perfect for the foods they serve. We had a Tikal (malbec) and a Factor (shiraz) for wine, both upon recommendation as we do not much about Argentinean wines (now in the US, look out, LOL). Both far exceeded our expectations, and were some of the best wine we've had to date. We started with the appetizer special, which was essentially a caprese salad w/pesto, but they added grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. EPIC! Next were two empanadas, the Roquefort cheese and the shrimp. Again, spot on flavors, absolutely delicious. For main courses, we ordered two of the specials (21-day aged rib eye with a red wine demi-glaze sauce and the filet with prawns). Absolute heaven with both of these! We took my boss and he said the butterflied ribeye (which he orders every time) continues to be the best steak he has ever had! Desert just added to such a wonderful dining experience. We ordered the Alfajor and the Strudel. I would put the Strudel in the top deserts I have ever had in my life, and coupled with some of their fresh brewed, piping hot Illy coffee, it was sheer nirvana. I literally cannot wait to go back here...we will be requesting Richard again! read more

I would not give them any stars: I am chef I have been in the restaurant business my entire life and I have never encounter anything like this before. We regent to this place for a Christmas New year celebration whith our family. When we arrived at 4:40 and our reservation was at 4:45 and they where setting every thing up I waited for 15min I understood too what was going on (being the holly days they have a lot of parties) so that did not bother me I was happy for them and understood what it takes to set up this time of year. When we got sitted it took for about another 20 min to take our drinks ordered, I was like its ok again its the holidays they are getting ready for all those parties. We order our drinks and I had to repeat my order like 3 time to 3 different people like if they did not know's station was to who's. After 30 min we got our drinks and we just tried to enjoy our time we order some appetizers a Provoleta (it was a little cold) some empanadas cheese and corn (it was good) and a grown meet (not good to drive) then we ordered Rob eyes to share (they where good but not seassoned right) we ordered a wine bottle too it was a Malbec it was good too. Then we had a little gift exchanges (no dessert for us too full) My mother was opening her gift and the general manager stopped by to see how we where doing and me understanding what they where going threw I said "everything was good" then he told us "I want to invite you guys for a drink at the bar, I have a table of 4 in the bar very angry because we have no tables for them" it was 7:30 FIRST OF ALL WE WAISTED 1 HOUR WITH THEIR BAD SERVICE. We got keecked out by the General manager just because he just wanted to sale more. I HAVE NEVER FELT SO MAD AND SAD IN A RESTAURANT IF HE JUST WAITED 5 more minutes we where going to live. NEVER COMING BACK read more

My husband planned an evening with friends for our anniversary. He reserved the room upstairs which is more private . The restaurant is nice but seems a bit smaller then I expected . I understand the crowd was big but the service did not live up to my expectations. At some point they brought out an overlooked steak and then an almost raw one to replace it , even though it was asked to be made medium . They brought out the wrong plate to one of my friends and when she started eating it the waiter scolded Her because that wasn't her plate . Instead of apologizing they made her feel as if it's her fault .Well that's what they put in front of her so I don't see how that's her fault ( it was very similar to what she has ordered , the only difference was the size of the steak ) . My lamb plate was dry. I just feel that at $38 a plate , they should be getting everything on point. We still had an amazing time because of our company and the occasion but the food and service were disappointing . read more

Hey Yelpers! So I went here for a friends birthday, made a reservation online for 7:15pm. We arrived a bit before and when we were "greeted" by the host/bartender/waiter we told us that they kitchen closes at 745 and they would've have enough time to serve us or honor the reservation. Eventually we were sat and were able to order our food. The food is quite delicious. Post our initial greet everything went quite well. The waiter was nice and served us happily. We had the vacío or skirt steak and it was very delicious. The Spanish sausage as the appetizer was so good. Highly recommended. The decor was strange as was the music. But other than this. I'd return. Well priced for what you get. read more

Incredible steaks. They couldn't find the reservation I made through Yelp - but thanks to my trusty email confirmation we were seated regardless. Pricey, but well worth it! read more

Great service, beautiful atmosphere and yummy food. Perfect date night and live music! The tables downstairs can be alittle close to your neighbors. read more

Garufa was highly recommended to my husband and I for our anniversary dinner, unfortunately we were highly disappointed with the food. We started our night with the blue cheese empanadas- we must say these were the highlight of the night. They were warm, crispy and delicious. We also tried the bocadillos de espinaca- these were dry, in desperate need of some sauce and a play on texture. We shared a "Palta" salad which was basically chopped up celery (overwhelming amount), apples and nuts DRENCHED in thousand island dressing. The entire salad was quite unappetizing. Our steaks, oh goodness. I ordered a Lomo al vino tinto, medium. When it came to the table it was med-well. I must say it had good flavor even though it was overcooked, the sauce was especially tasty. My husband ordered the 21oz butterfly rib-eye, also medium. His was rare when it arrived to table & he had to send it back to be cooked longer, it also lacked salt. We asked for steak sauce to try to season cut a bit, we were told they ran out. We ordered mashed potatoes and creamed spinach as our sides. The potatoes were cold, the waitress took them back and brought us a fresh order (warm, not hot) which was under seasoned. Our creamed spinach were too salty- we also sent that back but didn't try a second. Overall, food got 1 star- justified only by the blue cheese empanada and the vino sauce on the tenderloin. The other star was for ambience as well as service from our waitress. She tried her best to make up the errors of the kitchen and even brought us a piece of chocolate cake at the end of our meal. The manager stopped by our table after dinner, before dessert to check up on us- my husband explained to him all the things that went wrong that evening- he simply said that he hoped we would enjoy the rest of our evening. No apology. This dinner was not worth the $150 (inc. gratuity) we paid- that's not including the dinner sides (waitress comped, she was so embarrassed). My recommendation, skip Garufa. read more

Excellent service, atmosphere, and delicious food! I took my wife on a dinner date here and was NOT disappointed. A very romantic setting with a beautiful interior design. The servers and sommelier gave great recommendations and the food was fantastic! We especially loved the Provoleta, Carne and Humita Empanadas, and the Tenderloin steaks! read more

dinner is pricier. the meats are great. the red sauce for the bread though still had the skins from the chile :( read more

Great atmosphere for a special date night, outstanding service and great food! Not the kind of place for an average night due to the price, but a definite must do for those special occasions read more

We had an incredible dinner! Our server, Marcos, was fantastic! The food was delicious, better than we expected. The ambiance of the dining room was very elegant. We had some wonderful wine and delicious steaks. We were just passing through El Paso but will definitely come back the next time we are here. read more

Amazing food, well worth the trip. Best steak i have had while here in el paso. Service was good at the table, but not at the bar.

Visited last night (09/12/16), and wish we had not. To a degree, our fault as none of us consume much meat and this is an Argentinian restaurant. Wife ordered pasta (spaghetti) in a red sauce. Came out not on a dinner plate but on a dessert plate. Of the three dishes this was the best! It was just okay for flavor, buy quantity was laughable (if it were not so sad). Son ordered an appetizer, a ground beef empanada, about the size of a half apple, and it was okay... probably should have been served with a sauce but it was not. He also ordered fetuccini with shrimp. This could have been good but at least this evening was over-salted, but edible. I ordered short ribs, and as our waiter later remined me it was the cheapest meat on the menu. When ordering this I was asked how I wanted it cooked. This confused me in that every short rib I've ever had (which is maybe 5 in my lifetime) was a slow cooked, fall of the bone, sauced recipe. I asked our waiter how most people oder this dish and was told either medium or medium-well. I tried medium, plus the ($5 extra) sauteed vegetables. The vegetables were a few onion slices and a roasted jalipeno. I thought, pretty cheesy, but as cheesy as the vegetables were they were the best things on my plate! Using the suppied heavily-serrated knife, I had difficulty even slicing the meat, never mind chewing it. Sorry, but I did not handle this well and I apologize for any discomfort I brought to the scene, but I asked the waiter to box the ribs to go and (here's where I failed) we would feed it to the dog. To the waiter's credit, he offered to bring something else but I was, at this point, just not up for waiting for anything else to be prepared. Also to their credit, they removed the $20 cost of the short ribs (but not the cheesy sauted vegetables) and presented the pasta bill of $35. The wait service was very good (ecept for our waiter not making clear that the short ribs would be inedible) and we could not fault that. But they do have process issues - we had trouble finding the waiter when wanting the bill, which I then paid with a $100 bill, but it took quite a while for the change - in fact the waiter let us know that they did not have change on hand and were working to come up with change. I then offered a credit card which he took and then returned with both the credit card payment slip and the $100, but in $20 bills. Since they had run the credit card (which I did not present in the first place because I was worried about using at this premise) I added the tip and took back my $100 in $20's. We did tip as though the bill was $50 as the wait staff made only minor mistakes and were otherwise good. I should have left the short ribs on the table so that the restaurant management could see just how bad the ribs were and, who knows, resolve any issues with their butcher, if that is the source of the problem. Short-ribs aside, we would not go back here based on the weakness of the two pasta dishes and the empenada. The decor, the white tablecloths and knapkins, the glassware and service were all well done. Only the food is disappointing. read more

I first went to Garufa Restaurant during a holiday meeting-meal for a local hospital. My initial impression was similar to the many positive remarks made by others here, generous portions of very tasty food. I have since been back six more times; each time the experience was less and less, to where I will never go back. The most recent visit was last Monday night, for my son's 24th birthday. When we made the reservations they asked if it was for a special event and they told us that a special chocolate cake would be served. This was my son's first time to the restaurant and he ordered the Camaron pasta with sun dried tomatoes and shrimp in a cream sauce and a side of asparagus. The sauce seemed old and reheated, like school glue with absolutely no taste. The small-to-medium shrimp numbered a total of three and there were very few asparagus. The large tenderloin that I ordered was very good, much better than the very tough large ribeye that I had had on my previous visit. The reason that I will never go back has to do with the very poor service that gets worse with each visit. They have a number of middle-aged-to-elderly waiters that seem to have suffered strokes, are deaf and/or with markedly limited mental capacity. I can't tell you how many times they would just grab a half finished plate or partially filled beverage glass from in front of you without asking if your done, yet they will leave an empty plate laying on the table for most of the meal. Their younger waiters are much better, but alas, there are very few of them and they only seem to work on weekends and then the elders are also bumbling around so it is hit or miss even then. On this latest visit, we had ordered drinks at the table and waited and waited for the waiter to come take our order. It was only after waving my arms furiously that he remembered that we were there and he came and took our order long after the drinks were finished. He never offered to refresh the drinks but I did order a bottle of wine from the very limited wine list that was promptly served. The waiter poured it into a filthy wine glass for me to taste, and I told him so. Rather than to apologize and get a new glass, he held it up to the light and squinted at it as though I was lying to him. After I assured him that I am not a liar, he went and got another wine glass that was filled with streaks and towel lint, but at least it did not have dark specks of filth like the prior glass. He then waved a quarter-filled bottle of sparkling water and asked if I wanted another bottle. I told him yes, after we finish the one he had in his hand. He then walked away with the partially-filled bottle to get another! The wine bottle sat empty shortly after the appetizers were delivered; the servers never knew this because they never served anything except the first glass. I had hoped to be able to get another bottle delivered in time for the steaks, but they had servers delivering the food and once again, the waiter was nowhere to be found. Finally, 30 minutes after the wine bottle was empty, I saw him across the room I waived him down and motioned that we need another bottle. Fifteen minutes later a gentleman came by to ask how things were, and I complained that we were still waiting on a bottle of wine and that my steak was nearly finished. My steak was finished off by the time the waiter came bumbling up with an arm full of wine bottles telling me that they did not have my wine, but that I could have any one of the lesser wines that he had in his arms for the same price as the one I ordered. By this time I asked for the manager and the gentleman that I had complained to approached the table wearing a nametag that said "supervisor" and started speaking Spanish to me rather than the English that we had previously conversed in. Since I don't speak Spanish, I asked him to speak English. He apologized for the poor wait service and comp'd the dessert that no one was in the mood to eat. During dessert I noted the supervisor laughing and joking with his elderly waiters, although I don't think it was about us, it seemed to be inappropriate to fraternize with waiters that should have been fired long ago. On the way out of the restaurant, some of the waiters partially blocked the doorway as they smoked their cigarettes. On a side note, besides having a very limited wine list and no one that is even close to being a sommelier, they charge four time the retail price for wines. This would fly in a nice restaurant in a large city, but seems excessive for a place with very poor quality service in a town like El Paso. BTW, the birthday cake was never served. read more

This evening we celebrated my daughter and son-in-law's birthdays. Our wonderful waiter, Brian, was very attentive and made our evening one to remember. The steaks were awesome along with everything else we ordered. read more

My hubby and I originally sampled Garufa at the Taste of El Paso back in November. The tiny little piece of ribeye we sampled was enough to raise our eyebrows and convince us to try the restaurant. We consider ourselves somewhat steak snobs since we have visited many fine dining steakhouses such as Morton's, Ruths Chris, and the like. Let's start with the ambiance. It was very nice, dim lighting, white linens, and great decor. Definitely a fine dining experience. Our server Sam was great and offered some suggestions on appetizers, etc. I had read in a previous YELP posting that if you checked in on yelp you would get a free drink. I asked our waiter and he said of course and suggested the cucumber martini, which was excellent!! We started off our meal with a couple of the empanada appetizers. We had the beef and another that had cheese, corn and bacon bits. WOW!! It was a great start to our meal. You must try!! We both ordered the aged ribeye and we were extremely pleased!! It was cooked perfectly and seasoned very well. We ordered the mashed potatoes to share and the asparagus. Mashed potatoes were nothing special, but the asparagus were excellent, cooked crisp just like I like them and seasoned with salt and pepper. We were so stuffed we didn't get to try dessert, but we will definitely be back!! TOTALLY recommend!! A great date night or if you are celebrating something. El Paso needs more restaurants like this!! TIP: Check in on YELP for a free drink!! read more

Nice ambiance; hostess very prompt and helpful. Waiter seemed very busy as she had tables upstairs and downstairs. Ordered the butterfly ribeye ($48 steak) to be cooked medium. An hour later it was delivered well done; order clearly must've been overlooked for some time. Waitress rarely checked on us. Wouldn't go back. read more

I have had the pleasure of dining at Garufa a couple of times during visits to El Paso. The food is amazing, the ambiance fabulous and the service impeccable. However, my most impressive experience just occurred all the way from North Carolina. My son lives in El Paso and loves Garufa. His birthday is approaching and I wanted to surprise him with a gift certificate. I contacted Garufa through their website, and much to my delight my email was answered not only on the same day, but within the hour! I worked with Fabiola and explained what I wanted to do. I've attempted "remote" gift certificates before, and have always met with frustration. Either it "couldn't" be done, or my request was never even answered. Not only did Garufa respond immediately, they actually processed my request AND hand delivered my son's gift certificate the SAME DAY! Needless to say, Garufa has won me over. I cannot say enough good things about them. They should train other restaurants on their stellar customer service. read more

While this place is elegant and has good service, I find the prices to be way too overpriced for what you get. I am not a huge fan of Argentinean food, so I am not to be trusted on how the taste is, but I feel like the prices are quite offsetting. I do not mind spending money on food, but the two times I have been here, it came out to be way more than I anticipated for ordering simple dishes. Look at the menu before you sit and order. read more

This place is amazing, if you are looking for a day with the perfect main event this is the place to go! The beef tenderloin in red wine is just out of this world, and the Bife angosto is breathtaking the moment it hits your mouth. The setting is so beautiful and The service was to good to be true! I gotta be honest, This restaurant made my prom night one of the best nights out i had ever had! read more

The only reason I give it a two star..is the food was ok. However, they get confused with a large table, and I say that lightly. Requested separate checks at the beginning, which they said they could handle that. Ran out of certain wines, beer. Lipstick smudges on glasses. Then when our checks came out they double charged, put more items that no one had ordered and duplicated items on other checks. Then it took about 1 1/2 hours to get this settled, which by that time the food and service experience was not a good one!! Will not be going back and if you choose too, be vigilant and pay close attention to your check!! read more

The restaurant is nicely decorated. The atmosphere is serene and comfortable. The table service, wine selection and FOOD are excellent. You must try the Spinach Fritter; we shall make this a routine dining event. read more

Very good. As the other review have stated the food and service is good. I really took to the Aged Ribeye in Red Wine sauce. I have dreams about the flavor. Skip the special occasion and date though, just get down there and order it up. It runs on the pricey side for El Paso but I fully believe its worth it. read more