Las Iguanas - Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

Good but expensive food, not authentically Brazilian.

I enjoyed the "Gaucho Burger" – it is not inspired by Brazilian or "gaúcho" gastronomy, but it was big and tasty, something difficult to find in Cambridge; the fries were a little bit hard though. The burger and fried chicken were quite spicy, despite being labeled as "Brazilian" food (i.e., no spicy). I confess I might have overlooked the menu regarding this. Overall, despite these points, the food was plenty and good.

I found the caipirinha drink small, with a very small quantity of cachaça and without enough sugar... Considering the price, I was expecting more.

Chicken and sea food (including shrimps) are fried in the same oil, which means that sea food and shrimp allergy restriction may extend to the fried chicken as well. Unfortunately, we were only told about it after the chicken was delivered, and one of us couldn't enjoy the chicken because of this.

The ambiance was nice, especially near the window, and the view was really charming. We were first allocated to a table with low light (to the point where it wasn't comfortable to read the menu) and with a mold smell. We asked to change the table and the new place was enchanting.

Staff was gentle and efficient. One of the ladies was especially helpful and solicitous. There was a waiter robot (yes, a robot) that didn't convince me of its necessity. I liked that I was able to reserve a table on the website, but I didn't get why I couldn't reserve a table directly on Google Maps (earlier date was the next day) despite half the place being available all night.

We found the place pricey, especially considering all the concerns presented. The place and food overall is quite nice, but I think the price range sets higher expectations. Don't forget to claim your student discount...

Very noisy, and loud groups are not told to pipe down by the staff, making it very difficult to enjoy the strangely prepared meal. I do not recommend this venue for anything romantic. I thought there was a table a family and noisy children. It was a table of young adults and no kids. Once they left it was possible to speak. Not ♿ as toilets are up three flights of stairs and were in poor condition. One ⭐ extra as they nailed downtown Mexican authenticity with it's condition.

Now to the weird food prep. Enchiladas are not served dry. What's served is an oven burrito with a glazing of tomato sauce and (probably) Latin cheese. There was a lot of rice inside (90%) with a few vegetables with a small petri dish of sauce that you add to the cheese and tomato sauce covered fajita. Typically enchiladas are cooked in the sauce and it's more like Cannelloni. I get there's modern versions that are filled with rice, most of the time it is not but it would be cooked in the sauce.

I should have been alerted that they use Choula sauces not Valentina. The food could have been redeemed if they had other home made of acquired sauces like pineapple or mango.

They have WiFi but it's almost impossible to connect to. They have some order to the table yourself thing going on but the 4g connectivity is really bad (I had none).

The service is very quick and friendly.

Alcohol prices on the higher side.

Food and atmosphere it is not...

Unfortunately, I had a horrendous experience here today. I booked a table for 13.30 for my family as my husband was participating in the half marathon and we have 2 small children so wanted to ensure we could get a meal after he finished. Ordered our food and drinks at 13.45, the drinks arrived over 20 minutes later. The starter did not arrive until 14.15 which for a plate of nachos I thought was a bit much but was happy to let it go as they were obviously busy and short staffed. Over 2 hours later we had still not received our children's meals or our main courses and were told sorry it been busy. When I asked to speak to the manager he was busy in the kitchen and was not able to speak with us until later on. I felt so sorry for him and the staff as a number of other tables had complained as well but to wait 2 hours for children's meals for a table that had been booked in advance I thought was totally unacceptable. We were also not made aware of any wait when we were seated or when we ordered.

The restaurant and kitchen were clearly understaffed, the poor manager was obviously inexperienced and couldn't cope and the doors should have been shut and orders stopped to prevent more customers from putting an increasing demand on an already failing kitchen and service team. A horrible afternoon for...