| Ambiance: |  (3 / 5) |
| Service: | (2.5 / 5) |
| Value for money: | (3 / 5) |
| Toilets: | (3.5 / 5) |
I’d arranged to meet Gareth, another Vodafone ex-colleague in Angel with the intention of me finding the restaurant. However, I let us down and arrived with no recommendation about where to eat, so after perusing the area for a short while, we settled on Desperados, largely because of its bargainous 2 course menu for £7.95.
From the outside, it looked very Mexican with its bright colours and less elegant design. Inside proved even crazier, with decorations hanging from every nook and cranny, there was always something new to look at. It also had a VW camper van lodged into the middle of the venue which confused me slightly. We were sat at the window, overlooking Upper Street. Our waiter could hardly speak a word of English which caused momentous difficulties when I tried to change my order. It resulted in me not bothering and just saying ‘don’t worry’.
The two course set menu, presented on a huge plastic coated A3 card, had a mammoth amount of Mexican classics on it, ranging from the standard chilli beef nachos to chicken wings and calamari, I started to become a bit wary of the quality when I saw ribs and sirloin beef on the main course options. Pushing doubts aside, we agreed to share everything and ordered Cajun chicken nachos and calamari to start, and chicken fajhitas and chilli (made with Sol beer) for our main. Drinks wise, we played it safe and cheap with tap water.
The food arrived within ten minutes, and although didn’t look overly appetising on the eye turned out to be surprisingly nice, and perfectly sized portions. The chicken nachos had great flavour and had the perfect ratio of crisp to topping. It’s so often that you go places, order nachos and end up with a pile of dry crisps. The calamari was also very tasty, it wasn’t chewy or flavourless but soft and very easy to eat.
We were beginning to get incredibly smug with our apparently incredible cheap find, until the main courses came. Considering that the menu had put so much emphasis on the home-made chilli, I was under the belief that it’d be the star of Desperado’s show but sadly it tasted very similar to something you’d get out of a supermarket can. It was served with child-like crisps sporadically dipped in the chilli and the rice was dry and tasteless. The fajhitas weren’t much better, they could have benefitted from a lot of seasoning and potentially some salsa to accompany it.
Although the main courses let us down, you can’t really complain for a 2 course meal costing under £8. I’d like to go back, but only for drinks as apparently Desperados gets packed in the evening, and with its 45 different cocktails to choose from, I can see why.
Recommendation
Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend Desperados to get a decent meal, a cheap meal – definitely but if you’d like quality and to leave wowed, don’t go to Desperados. If you’re not fussy and just need feeding, the 2 courses for £7.95 is pretty decent.
Extra Information:
Address: 127 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QP
Website: http://www.desperadosrestaurants.com/
NTK: Make sure you speak slowly and don’t change your mind half way through ordering as it could get quite confusing!
