Tango show in the Avenida de Mayo café
One hour with dancers, singers and musicians in the historic café. Dates are few, so try the calendar before you plan around it. Sold as wheelchair accessible; a drink or meal is not promised.
The answer, then the detail
Is the tango show at Café Tortoni worth it, and can you actually get a date?
Worth it, if a date opens and an hour of tango in an old coffeehouse is what you are after. The score is excellent from a few dozen reviewers, and the room does half the work. The real obstacle is the calendar: this show is usually unavailable, so look before you build a night around it. If nothing opens within your stay, book a different tango evening and visit the café for a coffee instead.
What it is
One hour of tango classics played, sung and danced by professionals inside a coffeehouse that has served Buenos Aires since the nineteenth century. It is close, short and a good first taste of the art form, and you can eat wherever you like afterwards.
What it isn't
A dinner show, a late night, a class or a dance you join. Nothing on the booking page promises a drink or a meal, and the running order is not yours to choose. If you want a three-course evening with a big cast, this is the wrong ticket.
What you are listening to
The band, the voice and the embrace
Tango is built from a few recognisable parts, and knowing them makes an hour go further. These are the parts of the tradition as English Wikipedia describes them, not a promise of who or what plays on your night.
- Bellows
The bandoneón
A concertina worked between the hands, it pushes and pulls air across metal reeds, and each button gives one note on the push and another on the pull. It probably reached Argentina around 1870 in the baggage of German and Italian emigrants and sailors, although nobody documented exactly how. The left hand sounds nasal and muted, the right bright and sharp.
- Strings
The violins
Early players carried flute, guitar and violin trios from place to place, and the fiddle stayed when the bands grew. Vicente Greco is credited with fixing the sextet of two violins, two bandoneóns, piano and double bass.
- Ground
Piano and double bass
These two keep the floor steady. In the 1920s, bandleaders such as Roberto Firpo and Francisco Canaro dropped the flute from the line-up and brought in the double bass. A full orquesta típica sets a string section and three or more bandoneóns on top of this rhythm pair.
- Voice
The singer
A tango may be purely instrumental or carry a vocalist. Carlos Gardel helped shape tango canción during the 1920s, and the lyric tradition leans towards nostalgia, sadness and lost love. You do not need Spanish to catch the mood of it.
- Frame
The embrace
Dancers call their hold the abrazo. It flexes from chest-to-chest closeness to a V shape to an open frame. Stage dancers tend to open it up, because the extra space lets them add lifts, kicks and drops that a crowded social floor would never allow. That difference explains why a show looks unlike a dance hall.
- Quick
The milonga
Older than tango and counted among its ancestors, milonga has been called an excited habanera. Danced, it is a quicker, more playful walking step with fewer pauses and a rustic humour. Confusingly, the same word names the social dance event where people go to dance all three forms.
- In three
The vals
The tango waltz is the third member of the family, and a social dance event's music is mainly tango, vals and milonga. It is easy to spot by ear, because the pulse rolls in three instead of the two or four of a tango.
Sources: English Wikipedia articles on the bandoneon, tango music, orquesta típica, Argentine tango, tango, Carlos Gardel, milonga (music), milonga (dance) and milonga (dance event). The people on stage and the pieces they play are their own choice.
Read before you pay
Six things this ticket asks you to accept
Dates are few
This show is usually unavailable. Say it plainly to whoever you are travelling with, check the calendar first, and do not build a one-night stay around it. If a date opens that suits you, take it, because cancelling costs nothing until 24 hours ahead.
Have a fallback
Buenos Aires has plenty of other tango evenings, from small rooms to large dinner shows, and many run far more often than this one. If nothing opens during your stay, book one of those and call at the café by day.
More than one slot
An evening can have two sittings of the same show. Choose carefully when booking and read the voucher, since one past guest was confused about which slot the ticket covered. The confirmation shows the time.
No drink or dinner promised
The inclusions are not spelled out, so plan to pay for anything you order and to eat before or after. Treat this as a ticket to a show, not a night out with everything thrown in.
A private-group label
The option carries a private-group label without saying what that changes in the room. Read the option text on the booking screen and, if it matters to you, ask before you pay.
A programme you cannot choose
You will hear tango classics, with dancers, singers and musicians. Which pieces, and who performs them, is up to the people staging the show on the night.
The café, in dates
From 1858 to the present room
The show's selling point is the building's long memory. Each date here comes from the English Wikipedia articles named underneath.
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1858
A French immigrant opens the doors
A Frenchman surnamed Touan opens a coffeehouse and names it after a Parisian café on the Boulevard des Italiens. The first address is on the corner of Rivadavia and Esmeralda.
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1880
It moves to this block
The café takes up its present site, but its entrance faces Rivadavia, on the other side of the block. The grand avenue out front has not yet been cut through.
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1894
The avenue is inaugurated
Avenida de Mayo opens after nine years of work, driven through existing city blocks from the Plaza de Mayo towards the Congress on Mayor Torcuato de Alvear's initiative.
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1898
A door on the avenue
An entrance opens on Avenida de Mayo and the architect Alejandro Christophersen redesigns the façade.
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1926
La Peña meets downstairs
An arts circle sets up in the basement and lasts until 1943. Its visitors include the poet Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges, the pianist Arthur Rubinstein and the painter Benito Quinquela Martín.
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2009
UNESCO lists tango
UNESCO approves a joint proposal by Argentina and Uruguay to add tango to its Intangible Cultural Heritage lists, recognising the dance of the Río de la Plata.
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Today
Stage, library, billiards
The basement now hosts jazz and tango artists and book and poetry contests. The café keeps the decoration of its early years, along with a library and, at the back, billiards, dominoes and dice.
Sources: English Wikipedia's articles on the café, Avenida de Mayo and tango. The show's sellers bill it as the oldest café in Buenos Aires; that superlative is theirs.
From calendar to curtain
Five steps to a seat
Most of the work on this ticket happens before the night, because the difficult part is the date.
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Today
Look at the calendar
Enter your dates in the booking calendar first. This show is usually unavailable, so a blank result is normal, and it is worth trying the days on either side.
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If it opens
Pick your slot
More than one slot can run in an evening. Choose the one you want when you book and read your voucher afterwards, since mixing up the two is the one confusion that has come up.
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After booking
Hold it, then pay
Reserving now and paying later is allowed, and cancelling costs nothing until 24 hours ahead. That makes it safe to grab a rare date and sort the rest of your trip around it.
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On the night
Take the Subte or a taxi
Piedras, on Line A, sits under Avenida de Mayo and one of its entrances is next to the café. Your confirmation shows the time, and it is the place to check where to go once inside.
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Afterwards
Make your own plan to eat
Dinner is not promised, and the show lasts an hour. Book a table somewhere nearby or stay for a coffee at a marble table if the room is open to you.
Inside this ticket
What your hour includes, and what to leave out of your plans
What is firm about this ticket, and which parts stay vague.
- The venue
- Café Tortoni, the coffeehouse on Avenida de Mayo, is the room you book. This guide has no connection with it.
- The show
- One hour of tango classics by professional dancers, musicians and singers.
- Dates
- Few. The show is usually unavailable, so plan around what the calendar offers, not the other way round.
- Slots
- An evening can carry more than one. You choose yours when you book, and your voucher shows it.
- Group label
- The option is sold as a private group. What that means in the room is not spelled out, so read the option text and do not assume the room is yours alone.
- Food and drink
- Inclusions are not spelled out, so count on neither a drink nor dinner. Anything poured for you is a bonus.
- Queue
- The ticket is sold as skipping the ticket queue.
- Access
- Sold as wheelchair accessible. With an old building, it is sensible to mention any access need when you book.
- Cancelling
- No charge until 24 hours before the show. Payment can wait until later too.
Two ways to spend a Buenos Aires hour or two
A café tango hour or a La Boca walk?
Café tango hour
La Boca walk
Length
1 hour
2 hours
What you get
Live music, song and dance
A guide, a barrio and its history
Language
Music and movement carry it
Guided in English
Finding a date
Hard: dates are few
Far easier
Reviews so far
A few dozen
Well over a thousand
Tango content
Performed in front of you
Told as history, on the streets
Cost
The dearer of the two by far
The cheaper of the two by far
Wheelchairs
Sold as accessible
Sold as accessible
Cancel free
Up to 24 hours ahead
Yes, check the window on booking
Around the marble tables
The café, the avenue and the tango around them
The long room and its glass, a real milonga across town, and the two barrio and cemetery plans that pair well with a night of tango.
The café hour, and three plans for your daylight
A café show, a port barrio, a city of vaults and a long lunch
The show comes first. Beside it sit the La Boca walk it is weighed against further down, a guided morning among the Recoleta vaults, and a long tasting walk through Palermo.
La Boca guided walk
Two hours on foot in English through the old port barrio, its artists and its immigrant history, with a local guide. Sold as wheelchair accessible. This is the walk weighed against the show below.
Recoleta Cemetery guided tour
Two hours in English among the carved vaults of the city's first public cemetery, with famous mausoleums such as Eva Perón's on the route. A daytime plan that sits easily beside a night of tango.
Palermo tasting walk
A small-group tour of three and a half hours through Palermo, tasting Argentine food and wine with a guide, including a stop at a traditional bodegón. The filling option, if the show leaves dinner to you.
Other bookable Buenos Aires plans
Before you commit an evening
Six guides to the show, the music and the avenue
- Start here Tortoni tango: worth it? Whether the Café Tortoni tango show earns its evening: what the hour holds, why dates are few, how slots work, what it leaves out, and a fallback. Read this one first →
- The comparison Café tango or La Boca walk? A one-hour tango show in a historic café or a two-hour guided walk in La Boca: how they differ on dates, cost, content and which traveller each one suits. Read this one first →
- Booking Getting a date for the show Why this café tango show is so often unavailable, how to check the calendar well, how the slots work, and what to book instead when nothing opens up. Read this one first →
- The music The bandoneón and its band The instruments behind a tango night: the bandoneón's odd keyboard, the violins, piano and bass, the singer, and how the sextet grew into an orquesta típica. Read this one first →
- The café The café and its regulars How a French immigrant's coffeehouse of 1858 moved onto Avenida de Mayo, hosted writers and artists in its basement, and kept its early decoration. Read this one first →
- Getting there Avenida de Mayo by Subte Reaching the café by Line A to Piedras, plus a short history of the avenue above it: the 1894 opening, its height rules, and what lies at either end. Read this one first →
FAQ
What people ask before they try for a date
Is the tango show at Café Tortoni worth it, and can you actually get a date?
It is worth it if a date opens and you want a short show in an old room. Getting a date is the hard part: this show is usually unavailable, so open the calendar before you plan anything else.
What should I do if the calendar shows nothing?
Try the days on either side, then move on. Buenos Aires has many other tango evenings, large and small, that run more often. Book one of those for the music and visit the café by day for a coffee.
Is a drink or dinner included?
Do not count on either. The inclusions are not spelled out on the booking page, so plan to pay for anything you order and to eat before or after the hour.
How long is it, and what time does it begin?
It lasts one hour. An evening can carry more than one slot, so you pick yours when you book. Your confirmation shows the time.
What does private group mean here?
The option carries that label, but what it changes in the room is not spelled out. Read the option text before paying, do not assume the room is yours alone, and ask if it matters to your plans.
Is it the oldest café in Buenos Aires?
The show's sellers bill it that way. English Wikipedia records that it first opened in 1858 and moved to its present block in 1880, so the claim is theirs and the dates are the firmer ground.
Do I need to speak Spanish?
No. Dance and instrumental pieces need no translation, and a sung tango's mood comes across without the words. If you want to follow the lyrics, a little reading beforehand helps.
Is it suitable for wheelchair users?
It is sold as wheelchair accessible. The building is old, so raise any access need at booking and wait for a reply before relying on it.
How do I get there by Subte?
Take Line A to Piedras. The station lies under Avenida de Mayo, and one of its entrances is next to the café.
What if my plans change?
Yes. There is no charge until 24 hours before the show, and payment can wait, which helps when dates are this scarce.
Is this show like a tango dinner show?
No. It is one hour in a coffeehouse, with no dinner promised. Dinner shows take most of an evening and bundle a meal with a bigger production. Choose by whether you want the room or the full night.
Is this the café's own website?
No. This independent guide stands apart from the café and the show's producers: it is neither party's website and is not affiliated with them. Reservations started on these pages finish on GetYourGuide.