I love trying as many different cuisines as possible so I was pleased that Las Iguanas opened up in Glasgow with its Latin American offerings. The restaurant is nicely decorated - lots of orange and bright colours, with display shelves of condiments you can buy to take home. If I was being brutally honest (which I am) I would describe it as "fancy Nandos." Whether that is your thing or not is up to you, of course.
They have a separate menu for gluten free, as well as vegetarian and vegan so it's nice to see a chain catering to people with allergies and dietary requirements. I grabbed a GF menu as well as the main menu and the waitress double checked which dish I wanted when taking my order, as the GF menu has the same dishes on it as the mains but with small alterations.
If you visit between Sunday - Wednesday you'll find £5 cocktails on the menu which is a pretty good price in Glasgow. I opted for the Dark & Stormy (normally £7.50) and it was served in a large pitcher glass which made it good value.
We tried: Totopos (£2.95) - spice-dusted corn chips with our home-made tomato salsa. These were great, the corn chips were a little different from usual and there was the perfect amount of salsa for the amount of chips.
Calamares (£5.40) - whole baby calamari, sliced & coated in crisp crumb cassava. With creamy aioli. I didn't have any strong feelings about this dish and after trying one piece, didn't go back for any more. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't memorable.
Class Chaminones (£4.95) - thick-sliced mushrooms in a creamy smoked chilli sauce,
served with warmed soft wheat tortillas. Add a posh topping of truffle salsa, crumbly cheese & slices of roasted red pepper for 90p. Firstly, this dish was REALLY big for an entree. I would say it was too big, if that is possible. I opted for the posh topping and thought that was a great addition to the dish. The flavour was lovely and smokey, rich and creamy. I'd definitely get this again - it would be a good starter to share between two.
Then, we were onto mains. Yes, I was already struggling at this point and we'd been recommended to order a side with our mains - unless you can eat a huge amount of food, I wouldn't recommend it.
The extraordinary xinxim (£12.95) - lime chicken in a crayfish & peanut sauce with spring onion & garlic rice & fine green beans. Toasted coconut farofa to sprinkle, sweet plantains for fun. This dish arrives in two parts. This is very important, because if the waitress doesn't mention it (which she didn't) you will think you've been seriously ripped off. When the chicken does arrive, you'll be overwhelmed - this is a lot of food. I loved the flavour of the peanut sauce, it was like a satay sauce but more intense. There were a lot of crayfish in the dish (tiny baby ones) and everything on the plate was generous.
Churrasco Fiasco (£14.50) - Marinated & flame-grilled, with honey peri-peri sauce, salad & cassava fries. Choose from: Honey-glazed rump steak, red onion peppers in a paprika & cumin marinade (£14.50) or honey-chilli chicken, red onion & peppers (£13.95). They asked Graeme how he wanted his cooked but when it arrived there was no hint of pink. I only tried a small bit of the meat and to me, it was too char grilled but some people like that.
Patatas Bravas in bits (£3.95) - Chunky twice-fried spicy spuds on sticks. Dunk 'n' plunge
into smoky chipotle sauce & creamy aioli. Due to extreme over-eating and over-ordering, we barely touched these.
We both had a couple of drinks with our meals (Graeme was on a diet coke bender) and at £3.20 a pop for a pint of soft drink, you might want to go with water instead. Or a cocktail. Our bill was just over the £60 mark which I found pretty steep - yes, the portions are generous but the prices are just as generous. I would definitely not order as much food next time, one starter to share and one main each. I really enjoyed the food though so that's why it still comes in at 4 stars. It all tasted really fresh, interesting and quite different from usual offerings in Glasgow.
Service was really good as well, we have a very friendly waitress (Mariann) who was very attentive all night and paid great attention to things that other servers would miss - for example, making sure I didn't want a GF meal just because I was looking at the GF menu. read more