Gaucho Electro Brunch 

Excellent news, I have finally made it to Gaucho’s legendary Electro Brunch – all you can drink and all you can eat. Yes, really. Gaucho has long been a favourite place of mine for steak: the meat is of such quality you won’t need a steak knife, the service is great and the wine is always excellent. So when I found out about Gaucho’s bottomless brunch I was eager to try it and see how the quality compared to their usual dining experience. Also, bottomless Aperol? Frankly it’s shameful how long it took me to get around to booking a table.

To kick off proceedings, our waitress Amanda brought over mini croissants with something that I can only describe as a game changer: peanut butter dulce de leche. Sweet caramel flavours mixed with the salty peanut: I honestly feel it changed my life a little bit. Amanda explained that she would wait for us all to be comfortably seated before bringing our first drinks over, and that the two hour bottomless time would start from then. We could order one dish at a time each and once that one was finished, order another. Simple.

Gaucho’s exemplary Bloody Mary’s have pulled me through on occasion before and sporting a slight headache from the night before’s escapades, so starting off with one of these was the best course of action. I actually would go so far as to say that Gaucho’s BMs are my favourite – though if you have any further recommendations, do let me know, as research in that area is a cross I’m willing to bear.

The food menu had everything from different Eggs Benedicts: salt beef, florentine, royale; bacon sandwiches, pancakes, french toast… I started with avocado on toasted sourdough with pancetta, which I wolfed down in record time, though the dishes you are served are small in order to allow you to fit more variety in, which is fine by me. The beans on toast with Spanish chorizo was another winner and the bacon sandwich on ciabatta was good too, though I feel bacon sandwiches are better on a softer bread with lashings of butter. Steak and eggs with chimchurri added on was as good as you would expect at a steak restaurant, and gives you a taste of their regular menu have you not eaten there before. A favourite was the fried Provoleta with caramelised onion chutney because what’s not to love about deep fried cheese, but I would go for that first next time as was quite rich after a few other dishes. The banana pancakes with Nutella went down well with my companions, whilst I grabbed the chance for more of the peanut butter dulce de leche on French toast with strawberries. Full disclosure: I did ask for extra dulce de leche as there wasn’t enough served with the dish, slash I truly have no shame, and laid it on as thick as possible. Washed down with their excellent Argentine sparkling wine it was the ultimate in brunching indulgence.

I’m all about an Aperol Spritz, especially in the summer months, so one of the big pulls for this brunch is the fact it’s the only one I’ve come across that offers Aperol as one of their bottomless drinks (along with their signature Bloody Mary, Domaine Chandon, Rubia Pilsener Lager and juice bar soft drinks). As we walked in we could see these big fish bowl wine glasses lined up on the back bar, gradually being filled with the good orange stuff. I was a little disappointed to find that the Aperols served did taste quite watered down, and whilst it’s to be expected on some level at a boozy brunch, I would hope the taste would stay the same! The only other slight gripe I had on an otherwise excellent brunch was the speed at which it took to get another drink and order the next dishes. There were times where we were waiting for a good 15 to 20 minutes for a refill, and when you have a time limit that does start to bother you. Other than that, the service was excellent and so friendly.

Gaucho is definitely one of the more grand bottomless brunches out there; great to take your parents to, or get dressed up a bit for – it feels special. That’s reflected in the price at £49.95 pp (£45 outside of London), but I do think it’s worth it. If you don’t fancy going for the brunch, the a la carte menu is fantastic and as previously mentioned, the steak is one of my favourite in London. Oh and the tuna ceviche to start is out of this world – if that found itself onto the brunch menu, that would truly be a fine thing. Though when you’ve got those Bloody Mary’s and that peanut butter dulce de leche you don’t really need any other excuse to visit Gaucho’s Electro Brunch.

 

Available every Saturday between 11am and 4pm at the following restaurants: Broadgate, Canary, Piccadilly, Sloane, Smithfield, Tower Bridge, Birmingham, Leeds & Manchester

£49.95 pp, or £45 in Birmingham, Leeds & Manchester
£10 deposit pp necessary on booking