Opening a conservative institution like a steak house in the maverick East Village sounds like a brave experiment. Buenos Aires, though, is a steak house in the Argentine tradition, and that seems to make the difference. Open just a couple of months, it’s full every night, pleasing local crowds with affordable beef and a friendly, informal atmosphere.

The servers are amiable, but they don’t waste time; they know their most important job is to put meat on the tables. And so they do: The restaurant grills six kinds of steak, and other meats as well. These aren’t the top-dollar cuts of Midtown, although the beef is free-range and high quality. Prices start at $14.95 for a vacio steak, cut from the cow’s underbelly, which the menu translates as “flap steak” but which I’d call a flank steak. It’s thick, tooth-resistant, and laced with fat, decidedly not a luxury steak but a generous, savory repast for someone with an appetite.

Steak’s eternal dualism is the conflict between flavor and tenderness, two properties whose distribution in the cow tend to be mutually exclusive. So a steak restaurant’s task is either to tenderize a flavorful cut, or to add flavor to a tender but bland steak. The restaurant’s traditional Argentine grill doesn’t have much ability to tenderize, but it’s a master at imparting flavor, so a steak like filet mignon (the priciest of the pack at $21), which is typically as delicate as steaks get but notoriously bland, becomes a superstar here. The flame gives the meat tremendous savor, which the tenderness delivers deftly to the palate.

The rest of the grill offerings run a wide flavor-texture gamut, with chewy, juicy short ribs ($14.50) at one end and milky-tender veal breast ($13.95) at the other. In between are a terrific ribeye ($19.95) with a salty crust and a savory skirt steak ($15.95), thin and full of bite. Organ-lovers will appreciate the mixed grill ($19.95), a heaping platter that includes skirt steak and ribs in addition to veal sweetbreads, veal kidneys, and two kinds of sausage. (All of these are available separately as well.) The kidneys are particularly excellent, with a lemony tang and deep organ flavor; the sweetbreads, crisped on the surface and creamy inside, also excel. But the house-made blood sausage (morcilla) seemed a little challenging when I ordered it. It’d be great fried, or spread on toast (I confirmed this at home with leftovers), but, with its soft, darkly spicy, and mysteriously gristly contents – unlike Germany’s firmer, barley-filled version – it’s hard to eat the whole link one mushy forkful at a time. A smaller version of the mixed grill can be ordered as a shared appetizer for $16.95.

Vegetarians may have a rough time at Buenos Aires, but the beef-averse non-vegetarian will find grilled salmon ($12.50), grilled chicken ($11), and a very good salad of supple grilled calamari rings over baby arugula ($7). The non-grilled fare is surprisingly successful as well. Much of it takes cues from Argentina’s Italian heritage, such as pastas – baked penne with tomato sauce and hunks of Serrano ham ($10) is simple and gratifying – and a variety of beef milanesas for people who like their meat breaded. These cutlets (all $12.95) come topped with a choice of a cheesy onion morass, a tangy tomato sauce, or a fried egg. Empanada starters ($4 for a pair) deserve mention too: They’re in a phyllo-like shell rather than the more familiar doughy one, and among the filling options are an excellent fresh corn mixture as well as spinach-and-cheese, ham-and-cheese, and, of course, beef.

Another of the restaurant’s draws is its very affordable Argentine wine list. The irony is a little painful for those of us who loved Secretes, the previous restaurant to occupy this address; it closed last year in part because of difficulties getting a wine license. But Buenos Aires effectively complements its meats with a sturdy parade of affordable malbecs. The list offers a few bottles from each of several bodegas: Zuccardi, Elsa Bianchi, Torino. The lauded Lurton reserve ($7/$26) has good steak-worthy structure but a splash too much of sweet fruit. El Portillo’s rich malbec offers better balance for the same price.

It’s hard to face dessert after a big steak, but diners who need that sort of closure will find choices ranging from a dense bread pudding ($6) doused in syrup, to an interesting pair of rolled crepes ($6) that are filled with dulce de leche and then toasted on the grill, to a selection of layered ice cream concoctions.

With a brand-new churrascaria just down the street from Buenos Aires, South American meat seems to be an Alphabet City trend. If the crowds are any indication, affordable grilled protein – lots of it at a sitting – is just what the neighborhood has been waiting for.

Buenos Aires, 513 E. 6th St., between avenues A and B, 212-228-2775.