On that huge grill, strip steaks and tenderloins — two of the most popular cuts — are cooked to an internal temperature of 113 degrees, a tad more rare than the usual Argentine bien jugoso (juicy medium-rare and wall-to-wall pink). By way of prep, the meat gets nothing more than salt on both sides a minute before it’s cooked. Any fat that weeps out runs down channeled grating rather than dripping on the fire.

Having written four books on home grilling, I was puzzled by this. A virtue of the grill, I had been taught, is that the dripping fat infuses the meat with appealing smokiness.

“I want only the pure taste of beef, no smoke,” said Pablo Rivero , the owner of Don Julio , who shepherded the restaurant from its early days as a mom-and-pop establishment to its current renown as the go-to parrilla (a word that connotes both a grill and a steakhouse) in beef-besotted Buenos Aires.

Mr. Rivero , 40, is a leading figure in the rebirth of the city’s steakhouses, along with such chefs as Santiago Garat at Corte Comedor and Leo Lanussol at Proper. For years, classic Buenos Aires cuisine was largely defined by old-fashioned parrillas , and local joints — known as bodegones — that serve milanesas, empanadas and heavy red-sauce Italian fare. Now it’s easy to find good bread, unapologetically pungent Patagonian cheeses and housemade pickled vegetables in addition to superb meat.