Gaucho London Tower Bridge

If you consider yourself a steak connoisseur, Gaucho is the place to go, serving quality beef from the Pampas of Argentina and offering a wide selection of cocktails and Argentinian wines. But don’t worry – if your date’s not a steak fan, the menu is comprehensive and offers a wide selection of other glorious food options.

Gaucho has 12 restaurants in London and two more in Leeds and Manchester. They are all conveniently placed so you can’t miss out on the Gaucho experience; you could even make it your objective to eat in every single one of them (well, that’s my objective anyway).

Only a short walk from London Bridge station is the group’s Tower Bridge venue. It has magnificent views of Tower Bridge, and when lit up at night it is a sight to behold, so make sure you request a table on the first floor (book in advance, as it gets busy – even on a Wednesday night).

The restaurant is moderately lit, decorated with mirrors and upholstered with cowhide and leather. This provides a very relaxed and cosy ambience, and coupled with the restaurant’s location makes it a regular for suited-and-booted City types.

What makes Gaucho unique is the “steak board”. Before you order, your waiter will bring over and explain the four cuts of beef that Gaucho offers, these being cuadril (rump), chorizo (sirloin), ancho(rib-eye) and lomo (fillet) – all cut and marinated in different ways.

Your waiter will talk you though where each cut comes from on the animal, the sort of steak you like or might like, and how it would be best cooked. What makes this great is that if you know very little about steak or the sort of cut you may enjoy, your waiter will talk you through it all, so there’s no need to feel intimidated. This attention to detail coupled with the impeccable customer service all adds to the experience, making Gaucho more than just a steak house.

For an appetiser Gauchos will provide you with a selection of delicious breads, and to be honest this is worth going for just in itself. One of them is a cheese bread, shaped into balls; these are amazingly chewy and elastically textured pieces of heaven, and I can guarantee that you will eat every morsel of them. (If not put, them in an envelope and send them to me, care of the Soulmates Blog.)

You may think that the starters in a largely steak-focused restaurant wouldn’t be worth a look given the main-course options, but you’d be wrong. All the starters are very light and refreshing and designed to prepare you for the main course so you won’t suffer the dreaded meat fatigue later on.

The starters look like works of art and actually seem a little out of place, as you’d expect to see them in restaurants with Michelin stars attached. You’ll be spoilt for choice, but the masterpieces that we consumed were the pan-fried scallops served with watercress purée, smoked pancetta and confit red peppers, and the Ecuadorian ceviche shrimp with roasted tomato and pepper sauce, onion and coriander. These were delicious and set us up nicely for the main event.

Out of the four types of steak available, we chose the 300-gramchurrasco de cuadril, marinated in garlic, parsley and olive oil, and the 400-gram fillet. You can choose from basic steak cuts, spiral cuts that have been marinated for 48 hours, or the super-cuts that go all the way up to 800 grams for sharing – or if you dare try to eat one alone. Then there are even larger sampler dishes available for groups who want to try everything. With or without the amazing choices of sauce, the steaks taste of pure pleasure and any steak lover will savour every bite.

Despite being incredibly full, we just had to get some desserts; they looked too good to miss out on. Again we were presented with beautiful-looking dishes, opting for the salted dulce de leche cheesecake and an assortment of home-made Argentinian ice cream and sorbet – the Malbec flavour in particular was absolutely delightful.