I called at Gaucho to make the most of the Eat Out Help Out Offer in which they are participating,…read morewhich gives 50% off food up to £10 per person during the month of August between Monday to Wednesday as part of a government scheme to aid recovery after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Generally, you can save 25% off food with Gourmet Society membership but this offer takes it further.
Inside, the decor is fantastic being set in an old Methodist Church just off Deansgate, accessed via a ramp with a very steep gradient or a large step. The inside area is a stunning old building, decorated with cow print.
The cocktail menu was rather expensive, they also didn't have anything basic and seemed to have weird, wacky cocktails which I really didn't fancy, standard spirits and mixers were also rather expensive too. I didn't end up going for a cocktail in the end - one of the best places in the city for a cocktail has to be the Hard Rock Cafe, a 70cl cocktail and a collectable glass for under £13 meant I'd head thereafter for some booze before heading home - the selection here didn't cut it for me.
Although known for their steak offerings, I opted for the Spatchcock Chicken. I did enjoy the flavours of the chicken although the leg piece didn't have a lot of meat on, I really enjoyed the breast part - I just wish it would have been more breast. The flavours, spices and sauces were good but I still think it didn't represent value for money at all, this dish alone was £18 without any sides!
For sides, I decided to opt for chips/fries, at £5 a portion I expected them to be good, but they just weren't. I found them to be poorly seasoned as well as a little overcooked and soggy, for such a price you'd expect them to be good, fresh chips when in all honestly I've pulled out better fries from my freezer at a fraction of the cost, this meant although I did enjoy a half of my chicken, it didn't cut it as nothing went with it. Considering they only have one lot of chips, there's nothing which would go with steak either, who wants steak and mash?
All the staff seemed friendly, with the exception of my waitress who seemed more like an angry mother, who seemed to treat me and my party like a child, for example forcing us to use the menu as a placemat for our food. I also found it a shame to see they were unable to adapt dishes, now this is fine dining, a high-end place with mains costing at least £18 and some items going up towards the £100 mark, a place like this being unable to adapt dishes is truly dissapointing especially for the price mark, they were unable to remove sauces etc as it came "pre-marinated" in many cases.
My server also seemed a little rude and easily confused, for example, she couldn't understand when my friend ordered a starter as a main course which was down to the fact he didn't want anything with spices on, as every dish came pre-marinated other than the steak. She did get there in the end, but even that was a struggle.
There was also a long wait for food, it at one point felt like I'd never get my food which was quite frustrating as well. They didn't seem overly busy and it didn't seem like anything the large open kitchen couldn't handle either.
They do have gluten-free labelled on the menu and do have a few choices, sadly their gluten-free bread is seeded bread which I hate (I wish everywhere didn't put seeds in bread as it ruins it!), also there were no gluten-free starters on the menu which again was dissapointing.
Do bear in mind also that this place has a rather high service-charge at 12.5% regardless of how many people are dining, this is also applied before any discounts so even though our group of 3 saved £10 per person, this amount was also subject to the service charge, so that alone worked out close to £9. Considering the long wait for food and the attitude of my server, I don't understand the justification behind that by any means.
A high-end place which doesn't live up to the price tag, some good flavours in the chicken and nice decor warrant an extra star but I won't be rushing back to this place. 2*
