Since November 2014 ‘Las Iguanas‘ has been situated at Norwich Riverside, right near The Odeon cinema, and yet I had never visited the restaurant until now! I had walked past lots of times and always thought it looked lovely but had never eaten in there because whenever I went past to go to the cinema I had already eaten before going to see a movie.

I approached the Las Iguanas PR team to see if they would consider me reviewing their restaurant on my blog and they ever so kindly agreed and gifted me and my friend a meal/drinks in the restaurant – to the value of £50.

My friend and I were delighted that we were going to go and try out the food at Las Iguanas and we booked to go on a Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm.  We had the meal as a late lunch because we were off to Bingo afterwards as a girly night out. 🙂

Photo Source :- http://www.edp24.co.uk

Las Iguanas is a Latin American themed restaurant and their menu is quite different to anything I have ever seen before.  They have such an intriguing mix of meals to choose from!

My friend and I perused the menu online before we went to our reservation – just so we could get an idea of what we might pick when we got there. Even though I had taken ages looking at the menu online I had no prior idea about what I was going to have as a main but I was certain that I would want a non-alcoholic cocktail, sweet potato fries and Churros for dessert! (Yum! Last time I had Churros was about 15 years ago on a school exchange trip to Spain).

I don’t think my friend was certain what she would have to eat either but we both felt happy knowing that we could check out the menu from home. You can view all the menus online by clicking this link. It’s great they have all their menus online as it means that you can take time to decide what you think would appeal to you but also it is very handy for those of you that have special dietary requirements as you are able to see what you can and can’t eat from the menu. As an example, if you follow a Gluten Free diet there is a whole Gluten Free Menu to choose from. I will definitely be tweeting out about the Gluten Free Menu as although it is not something I personally require I know a lot of you do so I would like to spread the word so that people find out that Las Iguanas offers it.

So now to our arrival at the restaurant.  🙂

We parked the car at the Riverside Multi-Storey car park  (charges apply) and then it was just a couple of minutes walk through the Riverside Complex to get to the Las Iguanas restaurant. We were greeted at the door by a really friendly and helpful member of staff who I believe was called Tim and he showed us to our table. There were not too many people around but that is to be expected at the unusual time of 3.30 that I’d chosen to dine!  I like it that way though as it means I am able to get photos of the restaurant – if it is too busy I can’t really get many photos to show you as I don’t want to go publishing people’s pictures on my blog without their permission.

We were given the menus and then allowed some time to choose what we’d like to order. As it was a Sunday Afternoon it was Happy Hour which means ‘241 on a set selection of HAPPY HOUR COCKTAILS & COOLERS, All day SUNDAY- WEDNESDAY & 12-7PM, 10PM-LATE THURSDAY–SATURDAY. Buy One Glass or Pitcher (Look for the Jug Symbol on the menu), get the Same One Free. Perfect for sharing!’. (Details taken from their drinks menu. You can check if this still valid when you go by calling your local Las Iguanas)

We chose to have the non-alcoholic Tropical Cooler as our first ‘buy one get one free’ drink for the night and then later on we had the Raspberry Cooler. Here are the descriptions of each drink :-

The drinks were delicious! My personal favourite was the Tropical Cooler as I love Pineapple drinks but the raspberry one was equally as lovely!  There was a real mix of flavours in them and they had the added extra of being presented beautifully (as you can see in the photo above).  These coolers are £3.30 each but as we got them on offer they worked out at just £1.65 each! Bargain! 😀  I would definitely say to plan to dine at their restaurants when it is Happy Hour as you could really save quite a bit of money on your drinks bill!

We didn’t have starters or Tapas as we wanted to have room for a main and a dessert. Although if we had of done I would have been tempted by the following :-

ALBONDIGAS – Patagonian-style lamb meatballs with apple, mint, parmesan & a pinch
of nutmeg. Braised in a rich tomato, mint & mild chilli sauce.

PATO TAQUITO – Rich shreds of roast duck & caramelised onion rolled in a flour tortilla
& char-grilled, with a spicy cranberry salsa

BREAD & OLIVES – Wholemeal & ciabatta breads, Peruvian olives & dunking olive oil & balsamic.

Here is what we chose as our Main Meals :-

My friend went for XINXIM  (see photo above) – Chicken & crayfish in a creamy lime & peanut sauce with spring onion rice, fine green beans, coconut farofa & sweet plantain. £13.50 and I went for FAJITAS – (see photo below)  Marinated  strip-steak. Fresh cooked to order in a Las Iguanas special mix of coriander, lime, paprika, cumin, onions & peppers. Dished up sizzling, with guacamole, soured cream, jalapeños, tomato salsa & soft wheat tortillas.  £15.95

Oh my word……. my Fajitas were amazing! The steak was cooked to perfection It was tender not at all chewy and most importantly – there was a very generous helping! It arrived on a cast iron sizzle plate on a wooden tray and all the accompaniments  (sour cream, cheese, jalapeños, tomato salsa and guacamole) came in little dishes on a special platter. They didn’t skimp on the accompaniments and there was plenty of grated cheese… so it was exactly my kind of meal! 😀  The steak, onion, pepper mix really was divine and it is most definitely worth the price tag of £15.95 as you get about 4 or 5 tortillas (which came in a separate presentation pot with a lid on) , loads of meat and a plethora or accompaniments to have in your Fajitas.  The only problem is that sitting here looking at the pictures of my meal is making me hungry again!

My friend had XinXim and she was very impressed with her dish. It was the first time she had ever tried this particular meal and she was happy she chose it.  Chicken and Crayfish are not two things you would normally see together in a dish but my friend said it worked and she enjoyed the taste of the meal.  The main part of the meal was presented in a stoneware bowl which sat upon a tealight burner to keep the dish warm (it looked so pretty!) and then on her plate there was the spring onion rice, the fine green beans, the fried sweet plantain and a bowl of coconut farofa (I would explain what this is but I’m not really sure! It’s kind of a coconutty topping which you sprinkle on to your meal). My friend was leased to have tried an unusual dish and she would recommend it to you. She enjoyed the plantain and the meal was a generous size.  The price of £13.50 was about the same as you see in other restaurants and she would choose to eat it again.

The side order of Sweet Potato Fries were fantastic! I am a huge fab of these chips and the ones from Las Iguanas were great. You can just see them in the top of the photo in the picture below. You must try these!

Now pudding time! To be honest we were both full up after eating our main meals , especially me as my dish was so filling, But did that stop us from ordering from the dessert menu? What do you think??!

I went for Churros as planned but as we had enough budget I chose the 6 piece portion with accompanying dips of Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Ganache which was £6.95. I could have had the 3 piece portion for £3.95 but I got the bigger one so my friend could also try some of the churros. The churros came in a stripey paper bag on a wooden platter with the dips in little ceramic dishes.  Again – generous portion sizes of the dips and the churros were delicious! This dessert was really nice and I’m so pleased I picked it! The dips were out of this world! 😀

My friend was tempted by the Aztec Chcocolate Fudge Cake. Now I probably wouldn’t have gone for this personally as it says ‘spiced’ and I am not a huge fan of spiced cake but I would be making a huge mistake overlooking this dessert. It was outstanding! My friend loved her cake and she let me try a bit and I was very impressed with it too. It was not too sweet (unlike some Chocolate fudge cakes that are extremely sweet) and the chocolate orange pudding tasted really different….different in a good way! The spice added an extra dimension to the dessert and really made it stand out as being not your usual kind of pudding. We both recommend this pudding to you! The warm cake was served with vanilla ice cream – which was friend said was lovely. This dessert was £5.40 which is a very fair price for the portion size.

Once we had finished our meal we didn’t actually have any balance to pay as we had been gifted our food by the Las Iguanas PR company but It should have been around £50 (although if we’d gone when it wasn’t happy Hour it would have been about £57.00). The staff were all lovely, it was very evident that the people who were dining at the restaurant were all enjoying their meals (more people had arrived whilst we were dining) and it was a lovely happy atmosphere. There is music playing in the restaurant which adds to the ambiance and the setting is ideal as you are so close to the cinema – so ideally situated for dining there after you have seen a movie at Odeon.  When we went for this meal my daughter didn’t come with us but if she had have come along her meal would have only been £5.90 for a Kid’s meal (main, dessert and drink)…I think that is a great price! Plus they offer free organic baby food for the little kids and they offer to reheat baby bottles if needed.

I do not hesitate to recommend Las Iguanas – Norwich to you. The staff are ever so friendly and the food is unforgettable! You can book a table at Norwich by clicking this link —> www.iguanas.co.uk/book-now/norwich

Don’t forget to have a look through their Party Menu and their Christmas Menu as well.

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Hope you enjoy your meal at Las Iguanas!