El Vaquero Whetstone, South American Meat Fest.

The El Vaquero brand is well established, and there have been several reviews on the web
http://www.elvaquero.co.uk/index.php/whetstone/

This branch is based in Whetstone in what used to be Bejam/Iceland, and has had several incarnations as bars and restaurants with varying longevity. This one has been here a few years and we went there for family birthday Sunday lunch. Not your usual Sunday lunch, and this restaurant is unusual, in that the price is the same every day of the week lunch or dinner and is a set price of £22.95 for as much as you can eat. There are fish and vegetarian options, but they get a very poor deal.The restaurant is in what looks like a conservatory, but it works, and the table layout is aimed at families and parties. Not the sort of place to go for an intimate meal. The idea is that for the meat eaters, you take a plate and get as little or as much salad as you want from a salad bar, and waiters come round with freshly cooked different meats on skewer and you are served and hold what is being carved off the skewers with a forceps like device.

Bowls of somewhat overcooked french fries are offered as complimentary. So the resultant is a sequence of offering of small pieces of many kinds of meat that range from chicken legs and wings, sausages, sirloin beef, south African sausage, leg of lamb, chicken teriyaki and whatever they have coming. It is freshly cooked, and depending on how long the waiter gets to you, it varies in hotness from very hot at a 9 on the CHOF scale to about a 7.

Depending on how fast you eat, and how frequently the waiters, who are all wearing the leather hats as shown in the video clip, come and visit your table, you can end up with a strange mixture:

At one point I ended up with a mixture of roast pineapple and chicken teriyaki which went together surprisingly well. Note the absence of salad, as I regarded this as filler, and went for the main attractions.

We were served well, and initially there was a constant stream of tidbits of meat. Later, as the place became fuller, we had to grab the attention of the servers, but there was no bad grace about it. Probably best to go early on in the session, as it does get full.

We did not bother with deserts, as we were pretty full at the end. Our party did not drink wine, and I noted that the was nothing cheaper than £17/bottle on the menu. The first language of the serving staff appears to be Spanish, and I was told that staff came from Venezuela, Columbia and Spain. I suppose this could have accounted for the surprise when I came to pay by credit card:

and it was just as well I checked before pressing the accept button, or that could have been painful. Service is included.

So, an unusual meal with some really hot food sometimes. I would say that the quality of the meat was good to excellent, and the various spiced offerings such as chicken with paprika worked well. Plenty of salads, carbohydrate, and a Brazilian stew.

Service can be a bit hit and miss because of the nature of the operation, but in general, I found the staff helpful and responsive to requests. The main thing was that it was enjoyed by people who like a good meal of meat, and if that is your thing, forget the pasta and pizza, forget the bread, naan, and rice, and just go for the protein. I have read elsewhere that it would be a good option for anyone on the Cambridge diet (qualitatively if not quantitatively)