I was invited to Las Iguanas, Nottingham last week week to try out their new menu. Now, I have to be honest, this is the first time I have been to a Las Iguanas, even though it is right next door to work. With this in mind I can’t comment on the changes to the menu as I have no idea what it was like before! I can tell you what I thought of our starters and mains though!

Las Iguanas is located within Chapel Quarter on Mount Street, Nottingham. The building is huge, with a lot of seating in a mix of low and high tables and booths. The redecoration has been going on for a while and everything was ripped out and replaced. It looks lovely inside with pale blue walls and brightly coloured drawings. There’s a large fully stocked bar, lots of space between the tables which I love, and the toilets are located up just a couple of steps! Great when you are drinking a lot of cocktails.

They offer 241 cocktails all day every day. Throughout the evening I opted for pear drop caipirinhas (deliciously alcoholic) and Huana Party (Gin, Rum liqueur, passion fruit, elderflower and apple). The Huana Party tasted like I imagine sunshine and summer tastes like but were definitely weaker in alcohol content than the caipirinhas. At nearly £10 a cocktail they would be expensive if you were just buying one but with the 241 deal they are decent value, and should get you tipsy after a few.

There’s a variety of dishes from many South American countries including Brazil and Peru and everything from tapas to curry is on offer. The choice is pretty good, far more than I anticipated and it made choosing what to eat pretty tough.

Eleanor and I went for the Havana club & Jerk BBQ glazed pork ribs and the lamb empanadas to start.

The ribs were hot with plenty of bbq sauce smothered over them. They had a little kick which was lovely but didn’t blow my head off as jerk is prone to doing. They actually tasted barbecued too rather than microwaved. I have no idea how they were cooked but they were a great starter!

The lamb empanadas were amazing. I’ve not experienced a massive amount of Mexican food so wanted to try something totally different. The crisp pastries were like molten lava when they arrived, they had obviously been brought out immediately after leaving the fryer. The lamb was braised in mint, chipotle and tomato and cake with a spicy cranberry salsa. I couldn’t feel any heat in this dish which was great for me, and actually they were delicious. I didn’t expect to like them as much as I did. I’ll definitely order these again.

For main I went for another dish I had never tried before, the Cuban Sandwich. The toasted bun was filled with roasted belly pork, pulled pork and ham with a sweet mustard sauce. I asked for it without the Emmental cheese and had it with sweet potato fries. Pulled pork is usually one of my favourite things but this was lacking taste. The mustard was delicious (a very American style accompaniment) but the meat lacked flavour. I’m not usually a mustard fan but I would have preferred much more to liven it up. The ham was also cold when it arrived and although pleasant, it cooled the rest of my food much quicker than it would usually.

Eleanor went for the Bahian Coconut chicken. This is a curry dish, fried in cumin, coriander and cayenne. It is cooked in a creamy coconut sauce with ginger, garlic, tomatoes and coriander. It’s served with rice and shredded greens. This was delicious, I really enjoyed the flavour. It was piquant and served in a gorgeous bowl kept warm over a candle. (The photo isn’t great but the taste really was).

The food was really good, however for the price it wouldn’t be somewhere I visited often.  I don’t think it would be a lunchtime treat, we waited over 35 minutes between starters and mains, maybe because of how many diners there were.

The starters were fantastic though and they offer 3 tapas style dishes for £15.95. I’ll definitely head back to try more of these. They all sounded delicious and I’m sure they would fill you up!

Las Iguanas offered me a complimentary meal in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.