SO you expect little, just a functional lunch, you roll up, and you chat and the food entertains you, even puts a smile on your face.
Las Iguanas did that last week.
I thought, oh dear, another bobbins Deansgate chain with food probably made in a warehouse off the M25 and shipped up in a lorry driven by one of those drivers Jeremy Clarkson upset.
This was a weird dish of lime chicken, green beans and a sauce which turned out to be crayfish and peanut. It was immensely enjoyable, a spicy delight with strong flavours and pungent, powerful sauce.
Still, I thought, Manchester Confidential can't be just about reviewing top end places for two reasons. One, that wouldn't be very reflective of the dining scene in the city, and two, we'd run out of places to go.
So it was a lunch time meeting in a restaurant that starts small scale and then goes vast behind the Deansgate entrance. They all seem to do that on that stretch of Deansgate as though there's some Tardis jiggery-pokery going on.
Inside Las Iguanas the chain marketeers have gone a bit mad with colour and decor to show how crazzzeee Mexican and Latino the place is. The extremes are represented by Virgin Marys with Sacred Hearts and pictures of carnival ladies with sumptuous chests - although it's possible some of the latter ladies aren't ladies.
Las Iguanas Sacred Hearts
Las Iguanas - impressive pair of wings
The menu tries to be crazzzeee as well with descriptions packed with exclamation marks and names such as 'Voom'. The staff on our visit weren't as loony, indeed were very attentive. The prices shown in this review are part of the lunchtime offer so cheaper than evening prices - the Blazing Bird was £1.90 more expensive in the evening.
We tried a quesadilla of spicy chicken, peppers, onion and cheese for £1.60 which was a moist, hot little number and quite excellent.
Quesadilla
Then my guest had the Blazing Bird, a half chicken, with fries, coleslaw, salad and the Voom sauce, described as 'seriously hot'. It was hot but seriously so and suffered from a mite too much sweetness. Still the impressive collation was wolfed down with lip-smacking vigour and declared 'very good'.
Las Iguanas - Blazing Bird
I was tucking into an ugly dish which tasted really good, the frijoles refritos (£1.90) a big slop of a thing made from black beans, soured cream and cheese. It put me in mind of the bonfire night black peas my mum used to prepare in a cauldron for hours before the event, study, filling, somehow healthy because of the uncultured ruggedness of the food.
Las Iguanas - bean fund
I also went Brazilian and had the extraordinary xinxam (£10.90). According to the menu 'Pele loves it'. I think they're talking about the dish and not something else.
This was a weird dish of lime chicken, green beans and a sauce which turned out to be crayfish and peanut. It was immensely enjoyable, a spicy delight with strong flavours and pungent, powerful sauce. The coriander in it was a real lift.
There was another oddity with it, a rice and green bean collation with coconut and plantain which I took a blurred photo of, so you'll have to take my word for it. Didn't get much from it either in terms of enjoyment although having plantain for the first time in a while was entertaining.
A shared pudding of creamy caramel cake (£4.90) was the most beige thing I've ever eaten. And so sickly that overweight Rennaissance Cardinals sat on silken cushions might have demurred. It was, despite that, sort of addictive.
Sort of repellantly attractive
Las Iguanas is sensible with the wine and the prices and knows its middle market well. Very few wines stray over the £20. An adequate Torrontes at £17.90, light and breezy worked for us and for the xinxam and the Blazing Bird.
So sated and full and mouths tingly from the spices, my guest and I salsa-ed out to Deansgate.
This was a decent and entertaining meal, food costing less than £15 per person. Chains can be depressing in their rigidity of food, service and ambience, Las Iguanas at lunch was enjoyably loose and joyful - it reminded me of Grinch bar on Chapel Walks a decade or so ago. Ok I'm not going to run back every day but there's nothing too much wrong with this city centre lizard.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield
ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Las Iguanas, 84 Deansgate, City. 0161 819 2606
Rating: 13/20 (please read the scoring system in the box below)
Food: 6.5/10
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 3/5
Las Iguanas
