El Gaucho, Walmgate, York

GOING for an evening meal at a steakhouse is probably not the best idea if you're vegetarian.

It was okay for me, being happily carnivorous, but not necessarily brilliant for Louise, a veggie of many years' munching. So I was a little economical with the truth when I told her we had the chance to review El Gaucho, which has opened on Walmgate just down from the Evening Press offices.

"What kind of restaurant is it?" she asked.

"Er, it's a new one," I replied.

"Yes but what kind?"

"Erm, it's quite small, with lovely decor. It used to be that tapas place I think, but it's changed."

"Yes but what kind of food does it do?"

"Er, nice food."

It wasn't long before I was rumbled.

Thankfully, I had foreseen there might be a bit of a problem and, going against my natural aversion for planning ahead, I had checked out the menu in the window to see if they had anything for vegetarians. Pretty smart, eh?

Unsurprisingly, there wasn't much (that's not a criticism; what do you expect from a steakhouse?) There were a few starters and a few salads, but the main dishes section was limited to spinach canneloni, roasted vegetables or salmon steak.

Bingo, I thought. Louise's brand of vegetarianism does not outlaw fish.

But I still wasn't entirely sure if the lack of choice would be a problem. As it turned out, the salmon sounded good.

It's probably best I now point out this is no ordinary steakhouse, it's an Argentinian steakhouse. (Insert your own Falklands War/Hand Of God/etc gag here.)

Inside, South American music is playing and pictures of rural Argentina hang on the walls, showing the plains, presumably, from where the quality beef, on which El Gaucho prides itself, comes.

We arrived at 7.30pm on a Wednesday, so were not surprised to get a table straight away (about half of the ten tables were occupied while we were there).

The eager-to-please waitresses immediately brought us complimentary bread, which came warm with a marvellous home-made garlic butter, and we ordered a bottle of Argentinian red Malbec (£13.50), one of the nicest wines I'd had for a while, with its fruit and oak mix.

For starters Louise had the nachos (£3.95), which were less spicy but just as nice as Mexican nachos. They would have been enough for two, but I wanted my fix of meat early so went for the red pepper stuffed with a deliciously fresh mince, melted cheese and herbs (£4.95).

I'm not really a steak connoisseur - having a vegetarian girlfriend kind of put paid to that, while the cost of a restaurant sirloin has been reasonably prohibitive over the years - but I could find no fault with the texture or flavour of my main dish, a 11oz chuleton steak (£12.50).

It was medium cooked and a perfect mix of juiciness and easy-to-chewiness.

My only grumble was the additional black peppercorn sauce I ordered was more muted than I had hoped for.

Lou was more than happy with her salmon con creme de limon (£11.50) and its value for money. The lemon sauce was flavoursome and the steak, or rather steaks, were decent in size.

Her fish came with baked potato and salad, while I ordered the less healthy option of chunky chips - more like potato wedges - and lovely, roasted vegetables.

The ample main courses left us pretty full, so we shared a dessert. There were about five cakes, plus ice-cream or sorbet to choose from. We had the Argentinian pancakes (£3.50), thick crepes which had a nutty chocolate filling topped with cream, rich chocolate and toffee sauce.

All good stuff, and the complimentary sweet liqueur to finish was an added bonus.

Our bill totalled £51.40 - not cheap, but worth it for quality and quantity.

El Gaucho, Walmgate, York. Tel: 01904 674848.

Peter visited on March 9, 2005

Updated: 08:43 Saturday, March 19, 2005