REVIEW: Mendoza Square, Bedford Road, Clapham North

I don’t know what it is about restaurants these days, but there seems to these familiar themes popping up all across London. You’ve got your copper heavy, plush, dark wooden restaurants at one end of the spectrum, to the colourful, simple, yet playful restaurant such as the likes of Dub Jam in Covent Garden and Mendoza Square in Clapham. Personally I’m a little bored of both, especially the latter. Browse any of these casual restaurants websites and they all look a little similar too. Visit them and you’ll also get one same familiar feel – everywhere is starting to become very chain like. At the moment Mendoza Square isn’t the sort of place you want to spend a full evening drinking cocktails, having a three course meal and guzzling on a bottle of wine. This feels more like fast food dining, yet the food here is actually much better than that and begs for a warm and cosy dining room to match.

Mendoza Square is a relatively new addition to Clapham North, aiming to bring a little slice of the Latin American life to the area. Food wise it’s definitely been toned down and simplified for the British pallete (which people forget is surprisingly more adventurous nowadays) and while the food is actually not bad at all, I wouldn’t say it’s an authentic Latin American experience. We started our journey here with a Peruvian inspired calamari with smoked paprika and garlic mayo. I couldn’t actually fault this dish in the slightest. The batter was delicious, the calamari was very well cooked and with not an ounce of chewiness  – that sprinkle of paprika gave it a nice touch of sweetness. The garlic mayo on the other hand needed more garlic. Brazilian grilled chicken was also very good, smothered in a good marinade and the chicken both juicy and full of flavour. How authentically Brazilian these dishes were I’m not sure, but simply as dishes they were both very satisfying.

Before visiting Mendoza Square I’d trawled through online reviews, seeing what people thought of Mendoza Square – and they’re mixed. Mostly everyone seemed to come here and order the tacos or fajita wraps from what I could gage, but we wanted meat and resisting the sound of a full rack of ribs couldn’t be ignored. Two half racks of ribs arrived piled high on the plate, brushed and marinated with the house BBQ sauce. I assume they were going down the dry ribs route but still a little more sauce would have made them almost perfect, juicy beauties. The house BBQ sauce was really rather good – if they bottled the stuff I’d buy it. Special mention has to go out to their sweet potato fries. Glorious sticks of sweet potato, bursting with sweet earthy flavours, followed by a perfect crunch and wonderfully seasoned. I’ve had my fair share of these fries recently, but none as good as these.

We continued our meaty obsession and ordered the chorizo 8oz sirloin, topped with a traditional Argentine chimicurri sauce. As a piece of steak goes it wasn’t the best you’ll ever eat but that saying, it certainly wasn’t bad for £16, complete with more of those lovely sweet potato fries – and a flat field mushroom? I’ve no idea why there was a mushroom on the plate, that’s normally only reserved for British gastropubs these days. We decided a nice mini empanada in place of that mushroom wouldn’t have gone a miss. I really loved that chimicuri sauce, it’s what I think really makes this piece of steak worth ordering and actually does give you a true Latin American experience here at Mendoza Square.

Things were going well here at Mendoza, until sadly desserts arrived. Quite frankly they need to scrap the current offerings all together and drastically improve them, quickly – otherwise it could be the eventual failure of this restaurant. Chocolate fudge brownie was described on the menu as served warm and perfectly gooey-in-the-middle. Firstly it wasn’t very warm, it was only slightly moist in the middle and not at all gooey – plus the side of ice-cream was a little bland and commercial. Cuban crème brulee was a little better but the colour wasn’t very attractive, the top a little soft and it was very sweet (more than it should be) and in some areas grainy. I’ve no idea if Mendoza Square was having an off day, but even still in the current restaurant climate – who’s really bothered about a standard chocolate brownie?

If I hadn’t had room for dessert here at Mendoza Square and never tried them, then I’d have certainly upped my score on this place because despite the unimaginative deserts and slightly cold décor, the rest of the food was actually very nice – with some of those sauces and rubs very delicious. If Mendoza Square can up their game just a little in certain areas then I’ve no doubt it will have a very successful future. The steak is good, the ribs were finger-licking tasty and the sweet potato fries were to die for. Come here order these, settle in and drink a few too many cocktails then you can’t go wrong, just stay away from desserts.

6.5/10

I was invited to review