Gaucho Hamsptead

wreeve

4th January 2009

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One of Hampstead's favourite places - always full - serving good meaty food, with good service at high prices.

chrisp

Grouchy Grill 13th August 2008

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I've said before that if you want a decent steak in London, the choices are pretty minimal. Some of the top hotels do a good, if often eye-wateringly expensive, steak frites and of course there is Hawksmoor which is by far and away your best option for the thickest and juiciest cuts of beef. I should hold my hands up at this point and say I've long held a deep prejudice against Gaucho Grills, partly thanks to word of mouth from fellow diners but mainly because the kind of activities I see inside the goldfish bowl that is the Broadgate Arena branch could be used to support a PhD thesis on the evils of capitalism. But a Saturday-evening trip to the Hampstead branch gave me the opportunity to largely validate my prejudices, thanks to an overpriced, shoddy and often downright bizarre meal.

First of all, the service. I would suggest to any restaurant that if you make a big deal out of the fact you would like the table back within an hour and a half, it should be incumbent upon you to attempt to serve the food pretty speedily. But the half hour we waited between ordering and the main courses arriving suggested that perhaps they weren't that keen to get the table back after all. Also, I ordered a glass of house red from one waitress, while a friend was told they "didn't do house wines" by another. After I pointed out that I had, in fact, just successfully ordered a house red from a different member of staff, she scurried off and we both got our drinks.

Second, the food. I tried lamb cutlets which were pointlessly breaded and deep-fried and tasted revolting - dripping with grease. They were also served without any kind of sauce to balance the fat so getting through them was a long, miserable slog. A house specialty martini with basil and grapefruit was only OK (quite warm), and the steaks served to my fellow diners ranged from tough and stringy to not bad. Desserts were hardly better, my two tiny pancakes being drowned under mounds of cheap half-melted vanilla ice-cream. Sides were expensive and boring, while those ordering steaks were forced to pay £1.50 per miniscule serving of peppercorn or bernaise sauces. A total ripoff.

We thanked our lucky stars we were seated in the quieter tented section towards the back, as the noise in the main restaurant area was unbelievable, and the lighting bafflingly low. We felt our way through the cacophony back onto the wet Hampstead streets and wandered off to find a pub to drown our sorrows. It wasn't even cheap - £50 a head on average and not even close to being worth it. London does need more good steak restaurants - you can't expect people to either pay a fortune or travel to Shoreditch whenever they fancy a decent bit of meat. But I'm afraid I can't recommend Gaucho any more than I could the Angus Steakhouse in Leicester Square. And clearly, that's no recommendation.

lenalouise

For meat lovers like me 24th July 2007

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There's a few of these around London. I went to the Chancery Lane one which is quite up-market and trendy. As expected, the staff are really efficient and friendly. The cow skins that are hung/draped on things around the room makes it a bit more special aswell.

I shared a steak platter where you get 150g each of rump, sirloin, rib-eye and fillet. We had them nice and bloody. The fillet steak was by far the best although the rump was also pretty yummy.

The sides and sauces were pretty decent but I thought the portions were a bit small for my liking. The kitchen was an open kitchen so you can see, smell and hear the steaks being cooked on the grill! The smell was absolutely divine :D The cocktails are pretty good aswell.

supergirl

Gaucho Grill - The heaven for steak lovers 23rd July 2007

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The best steak place by far...!
I could never imagine myself eating from a plate where every piece of meat I'd cut would be still bleeding. I had been strongly suggested to try it though so I did risk it and got a medium rare beef-something (cannot remember..so many types of steaks coming from different parts of the animal's body) and I absolutely loved it. Best of quality argentinian origin steaks get introduced to you by the waitresses before they get cooked so that you can actually select the piece you think would be more of your like!
Tasteful veggies and other stuff to order for side dishes and delicious sauces to have with your main, all get the best of ratings.
Not to mention the stylish bohemian decoration inside the restaurant, the posh cows skin style chairs, the cool chandeliers ...All make up an exceptional place to take someone special for a great meal!
(not sure about the prices, as it was someone's else's treat :-) but i can sort of imagine, as in London whatever exceptional we have to pay considerably for...it's worth it though!no doubt!)