Gaucho Tower Bridge

David Woodward reviews the Argentinean-themed restaurant Gaucho Grill near Tower Bridge. But are the steaks worth the 7,000 food miles they have travelled from their South American homeland?

How much damage to the environment can one plate of food really do? Does anybody care? Let's assume you do care. Let's assume, for argument's sake, that whenever you sit down to dinner your mind isn't really on the job. You're not thinking about the delicious aromas emanating from the plate, the different textures and flavours soon to introduce themselves to your palate. You're actually thinking about the plight of the polar bear, the wanton destruction of the rainforests, and whether or not the premium you paid on that riverside cottage might actually have been better spent on a few sandbags, a laminated map and a giant canoe.

In which case, did you fly to lunch in your Lear jet, or did you cycle? Where did the restaurant get those expensive linen napkins? And how many miles has the food travelled, from source to plate? According to City University boffins, 12 is the optimum distance. Admittedly, this doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre: if you're eating Romney Marsh lamb in central London, for example, you're already four times over the limit. Then again, they don't breed livestock in Knightsbridge. For one thing, Ken would never agree to it—sheep and cow emissions are a lot more damaging than car emissions. Each time a cow farts, it releases a dose of methane, the granddaddy of all deadly greenhouse gases, a substance 21 times more harmful to the planet than CO2.

So to sum up: eat local food; cycle to lunch; don't eat beef. I got the tube to Gaucho Grill Tower Bridge, the latest link in this hugely successful chain of Argentinean-themed restaurants. This one has a prime spot, right on the river, just in front of City Hall, with HMS Belfast to one side and spectacular views of Tower Bridge to the other. There were a few tourists about, but this is mainly City territory. Gaucho was buzzing. We did manage to secure a seat in the bar for pre-dinner cocktails, and very tasty they were too. It was while we sipped our drinks that our conscience was pricked for the first time: chiefly by the colossal amount of cow on show.

Whether it was the waiters, diving from table to table with huge trays of raw meat, or whether it was the fact that many of the punters were sitting on chairs made from cowhide, it's difficult to say. You don't really want to go there with the methane emissions. But let's at least discuss the food miles. All the meat, every scrap of it, comes from Argentina, approximately 7,000 miles away. That's about 600 times over the recommended limit. It's tragically un-PC: the environmental equivalent of using rocket fuel to heat a tin of soup, every bite bringing us closer to environmental meltdown. Maybe that's why the steaks taste so good: they're not only delicious, but they're dangerous, too. There is even a point, a couple of minutes after you've swished the last caramelised slivers of rib-eye around the plate in search of those remaining meat juices, where you consider ordering another one for dessert. Gaucho is that good.

There's no secret to it, this restaurant simply buys the best possible ingredients and then employs people who know how to cook them. Each cut of meat, whether it's rump, sirloin, fillet or rib eye, is grilled the same way: evenly and turned only once to maximise the caramelisation process. The more fat there is in your cut of choice, the longer the waiter will recommend the chefs cook it for, but the final decision is yours. I tend to order steak pretty rare but was gently coerced into a medium-cooked rib eye. It turned out to be the best decision of the evening. Those extra seconds on the grill gently expose the full flavour of the marbled fat, but without sacrificing the inherent softness of the meat. Put it this way: they don't bother with steak knives.

There are a few sauces to choose from, but realistically speaking these are better suited to dipping your chips into. When the flavour of the meat is so finely tuned it seems a shame to drown it in extras. If you like your steak burnt to a crisp, a side order of Chimichurri, a herby, garlicky, slightly punchy argentine condiment is worth a try. Of the more vital accompaniments, the fine-wine list offers up some interesting choices (this is City territory, after all). Failing that, the plebiscite list offers a good balance: our sommelier selected an excellent Argentinean Malbec, which softened considerably when paired with the meat: it was difficult not to guzzle. There are also a few interesting-looking, if slightly overpriced, starters on the menu—lobster tail, £17.50 anyone?—but who wants to pig out on crustaceans when more substantial bovine treats lie in wait?