Chile - El Vergel

Restaurant:  El Vergel

Location:  132 Webber Street, London SE1 0QL

Date of visit:  30 January 2016

Time of visit:  2.15pm

Without going back and checking all the previous reviews, I think this was the first visit that took place at lunch time. Every previous restaurant visit for the blog was a dinner visit. The reason for the early visit this time is that El Vergel is the only permanent establishment in London which serves Chilean food, and the latest the restaurant opens is 4pm. And that is on Saturday only.

A Chilean lunch it was. El Vergel is hidden away in a myriad of small streets between Southwark and Borough stations. The restaurant itself makes up part of the ground floor of what looks like a fairly new residential development. From the outside, the restaurant is easy to miss. There is no real signage. It also doesn't look particularly big.

But once you get inside you find yourself in a large, spacious high ceiling room with many long rows of tables, and a fair bit of hustle and bustle. The restaurant was surprisingly busy this Saturday afternoon, with many families (complete with screaming kids) and a large number of staff. Only a few tables were free.

We made our own way to a table, clocking the attention of a waitress on the way so she knew we would need serving. And this she did right away, with two Saturday brunch menus and - surprisingly at 2.15pm - the breakfast menu.

All menus are scanned and available on their website, so we had a good idea of what to expect and what we wanted to order in advance. We chose from the Saturday brunch menu, which was a collection of meat and vegetarian appetizers, traditional Chilean steak sandwiches, tostadas, tacos and a great selection of salads. The back of the menu offered a selection of soft, hot and alcoholic drinks, and fruit juices and smoothies.

Not too long after we received the menus the waitress came back to take our order. Elle and I went for identical options - an empanada de carne to start, followed by a traditional Chilean churrasco queso. And a glass of Chilean Sauvignon blanc. The waitress also offered salsa and chilli with the order, which we accepted.

Looking around the restuarant, the interior was quite impressive. Spacious, rather rustic in appearance - lots of unfinished-looking surfaces, written graffiti on pillars, stone floor. The restaurant was clearly family friendly, judging by the cluster of parents and children at one side of the restaurant, the provision of beanbags and the likes. The decor was vibrant and colourful. The kitchen was open and busy.

We didn't have to wait long for the wine, which came in small glass tumblers (the likes you used to get at school).

Shortly after this, the empanadas came. And as expected, they appeared as most meat pasties would. The pastry was nice and soft, with a good filling of great tasting meat and onion. It seemed quite fresh, but clearly heated up. We topped the empanadas with the contents of a small dish of chilli salsa, which added a nice kick. The one downside with the empanandas was the addition of olives, which Elle picked out (and I ate).

The restaurant was well staffed. They were attentive, but not in your face. Our waitress came back after the starter to ask if we had received our steak sandwiches yet. Which we hadn't.

Five minutes later, they came. Not massive in size, but what was inside looked fantastic. The bread itself was billed as "home made village bread" - a round, thin but doughy sliced roll. Firm on the outside, lovely and soft on the inside.

The beef was thin, lean and beautifully cooked. It was surround by generously thick wads of soft, melted cheese sprinked with fried onions, topped with fresh sliced tomatoes. There was a thin spread of chilli paste inside the bread, which gave the sandwich a serious kick.

The sandwich was hugely satisfying - lovely flavours, and just the right size. One of the best steak and cheese sandwiches I've ever had.

A fantastic two course meal with glass of wine each for less than £14 each. Definitely worth revisiting if we are in the area.