Saturday, June 03, 2017

Restaurant review: EL GAUCHO (South Kensington)


Not to be confused with the other Argentinian steak place, El Gaucho was an altogether more personable place, which I attended this Wednesday using a Groupon deal (what else?)


The waitresses kindly gave us a free helping of bruschetta on the house, which went down a treat, given steak Groupon deals don't usually incorporate a starter, and we were quite peckish by the time we'd gotten to the restaurant. The bruschetta kept us ticking over nicely whilst we decided what to eat and drink, so this Groupon deal definitely earns points for that.

Both me and my friend had the sirloin steak, and I daresay I enjoyed mine more than they enjoyed their's. I had the steak rare and he had his medium rare, and when they had a sliver of mine, he seemed to enjoy it more. So if you were to go to El Gaucho, I'd recommend you have it rare!

I attended a braai (a South African BBQ) in April, and something I learned from that was that if you have your steak nice, rare and bloody, then salt will suffice as a condiment. That's all that I added to the sirloin steak and it tasted ace! I never thought I could enjoy steak without a generous dollop of Hollandaise or béarnaise sauce, but the braai taught me otherwise, a piece of knowledge I exercised gladly at El Gaucho.

In terms of value for money, the steak at the Amba Hotel had cost £35, and we had a bottle of wine to share between us. The El Gaucho deal cost £39, and we were only entitled to a glass of wine each, or a beer. I plumped for the beer:


It tasted fine, but a full bottle of red between us would have been much more welcome. So in terms of value for money, the Amba Hotel Groupon deal was better than this one, even though our stay at El Gaucho was perfectly enjoyable. As far as Groupon deals involving steaks have gone, I'm yet to be disappointed.

Grade: B+

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I use a lot of Groupon deals to dine at restaurants in London. If you'd like for me to give your venue some coverage, email me at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

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