Gaucho Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

TLDR - steaks are good. Everything else is not. Steak is the only reason I'm 3 starring it, otherwise its a 1/2.

Purpose of visit: xmas party

Came here on a works party, and I have to say, it's really not for me, and I don't get the fuss. I learned after that we paid £80 a head, which is crazy. I would rate the experience at £40 a head max.

Atmosphere - The decor is so garish, everything is black, white and chrome, it's so tacky. For all the pretence of the decor, the toilets were horrible and filthy. They had music on so loud you have to shout to talk, I want a conversation with my meal without shouting, please. Later on they had live music, nice but again too loud

Arrival/leaving - on arrival, we had to surrender our coats. We all handed them over to 1 person and were given no receipt or number to identify them with. When we left we had to describe what our coat looked like and play guess who with coats. They had lost multiple coats from our party, so it took around 15 minutes to get all our coats back. They also appeared to be storing the coats in several places around the building. If only there was a tried and tested system for storing and retrieving coats at venues, ay?

Service- service once seated was pretty good, our waiter was very attentive and always on hand topping up drinks.

Drinks choice - no idea on range as there were no drinks menus. We were just asked what we wanted. You ask for a beer, a bottle of beer is brought, that as tailored as you get it seems. Our table had a mix of soda, beer, wine, and non alcohol which were all fine.

Menu - we were at a party, so believe we had a limited menu. There were 4-5 options for each course, so choice was pretty good. Obviously not the place for you if you are veg/vegan. Those in our party that were veg/vegan actuated arranged to go somewhere else.

Appetisers - bowls of olives with spring onion on the table, very nice. Bread and butter with chimichuri. The bread was stale, and the chimichuri bland.

Starter - I had sea bass, and it has to be the worst starter I've ever had. What came out was a deep-fried semi circle of bread crumb coated sea bass that was about 5mm thick. It tasted of nothing, I couldn't actually see any fish in it. It was accompanied with a salsa-esc side salad, which was equally tasteless.

Main - ribeye steak, roast veg, and sprouts with chestnuts. I actually didnt get my veg, so had to steal some of my colleagues. The ribeye was excellently good and was delicious. It's the only thing keeping my rating at a 3. Came with peppercorn sauce, which was meh, but you didn't need it. The roast veg was overcooked and pretty bland. Sprouts were slightly undercooked but OK.

Dessert - I asked for apple toffee pudding, but the manager rolled over and dumped a brownie in front of me. Before I could tell him I didn't order it, he was gone. I gave up and just ate it. Super dry brownie and nothing special.

Accessibility- everything is on multiple levels with no accesible...

Aug 2024 Went again for my mums birthday but this time, it wasnt as good as previous times. We ordered the platter (1.2kg) and I didnt notice they no longer had the green vegetables now, they changed it to salad so when I ordered green vegetables, the waiter never told me its a salad so what turned up was a salad (literally just lettuce and some rocket). We notified the waiter and he said its a salad now so we had to order another side of brocolli. The steak platter was ok, not the best. the sirloin had quite a few tendons that couldnt be eaten. We noticed that other tables that had a birthday, all received a small cake with a candle, but we never got any. No one voluntarily refilled out glasses of water, each time we had to ask someone. I asked the waiter whether the passionfruit/mango flan had actual coconut bits in and he said yes but in reality, there wasn't any.

2023 Visited with my mum for her birthday. Lovely interior and feels very fancy. When ordering steaks and telling your waiter how you'd like it cooked , they would always recommend what's best for the chosen steak cut. The waiter was saying that the medium was basically just pink meat and no blood or red, but I had a good mind to say, "Yes, ideally but it really depends on how good the chef is". I ordered a sirloin medium well and the steak was decebt, but it was a bit too well done for medium well done i would say. the whole steak was literally well done completely. My mum ordered the ribeye and she enjoyed it a lot as it was very flavoursome from being marinated. Surprisingly, I found the chips really nice and it had this subtle sweet taste to it. Portion sizes appeared small but since we got 3 courses, it was more than enough. For starters, we got the sausage platter and it was definitely not what I expected but in a good way. The sausages were very juicy and flavourful and was just delicious - better than the steak in my opinion. For dessert, I ordered the dulce flan (?) and my mum ordered a chocolate volcano. Dulce flan was not sweet and very heavy, kind of like eating an extremely thick unsweet toffee custard, wasnt a fan and it came with dessicated coconuta. The chocolate volcano was nicer and more "as you would expect".

After we finished the desserts, the waiter came over with another plate of dessert with Happy Birthday on it for my mum. This dessert was probably the best out of the 3 - it was like a light caramel cheesecake. On the day we went, there were at least 3 other people celebrating their birthdays who sat near us and all had a birthday dessert.

Overall - lovely place for celebrations or a date night thats slightly more fancy. Steaks are decent and they have a wide variety. They also have a cloakroom for those who might want to know.

Warning: dont get the mocktail with mint in. My mum got it, and it was tasteless....

Very underwhelming. I requested a booth when I booked for a quick lunch on Sunday, when we arrived despite all the booths being available, we weren't allowed to sit at one, instead ushered to a table by the staircase instead. Apparently 'all booked'? How do you book a booth then? It cant be down to the size of our party as a couple walked in with a dog 10mins later and got a booth immediately. Ordered fillet steak salad with watercress and herb salad. Rocket came out. Waited nearly 20mins for a salad to be served which would have possibly been quicker if the chef wasn't texting midway through service (as I noted when I went to the bathroom). Service was clunky and awkward, we had 3 different waiters and although one lady came up to apologise for the delay in our lunch, she then went back to check the ticket and correct me for the length of time we apparently have been waiting (7mins difference - was it worth it?). No mention of the first waiter forgetting how we wanted to cook our steaks then? We were also informed that the chef 'has to sign everything off when theres an allergen' - this contradicts the waiver given when ordering that there could be cross contamination and could you seriously imagine that really happening on a busy Friday/Saturday night, no, just poor customer service. Plates took another 10-15mins to be cleared despite staff walking back n forth (by the way only 6 covers in between 12.20 & 1:30 when we were in). No offer to look at the dessert menu which was a shame as a Gaucho member I was going to use my free dessert code, but perhaps it was best we just go. The bill eventually came however, this was incorrect so had to be sent back to be amended. All in all really disappointing, what should have been a nice lunch at a restaurant chain we have enjoyed for many years in London turned into a rather farcical nightmare. Next time we will stick with Hawksmoor down the road. Those booths I mentioned at the start of my review? Oh yes, bar one - all were as empty and unused as when we first arrived, what a poor way to...