Review: Cuatro's Grill

4x4's
 Pro Value for money.
 Con A little off the beaten track. Which might be a pro, in fact.

Pay

Per Person €16-20. Two starters, shared main and dessert. Several beers. Gratis: limoncello chupito. El tenedor offers may be available.

Find
Website https://cuatros-grill.eatbu.com/?lang=es
Access Step free entry.


In Short
Hopes. How authentic a Venezuelan lunch can we get?
Reality. It's not fine dining, but it's damn fine eating.
First Impressions. Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Freddie is ready on a Spotify playlist.
USP? Some surprises under familiar names.
The offer in three words. Very Very Venezuela.
Service! They offered to put the cricket final on the TV for us. Win! We said not to worry...
Friend friendly? It's mainly meaty.
Rating for dating. Hmmmm. For a really informal down-to-earth get together, yes.
Tip? Yep.
Change one thing? More sauces!
Revisitability. Good.

Compare & Contrast
Dog & Fox Urban Kitchen has a similar offer. La Maleta Restobar is on a similar wavelength too.

In Pictures
On Google Images.

What's the story?
It's a hearty lunch on the way at Cuatro's. There are burgers, sandwiches and so on. But we wanted the USP. So, to the specialities!

Tequeño Duo
Cuatro’s Grill
Here's a tequeño twist. Used to the unquestionably tasty pre-frozen cheesy stick ones, these came as a surprise. For one, they look and feel homemade. For a second, the fillings are on the unexpected side. Chistorra and cheese is a welcome step on from the conventional. But SPOILER ALERT! How about chocolate?!?? Not really what we'd expected! And in a starter! It took my befuddled brain several seconds to work out what was going on. "This isn't like any morcilla I've had before" wandered slowly through my mind before the synapses pulled themselves together, shook themselves down and eventually connected like neuron duplo. The SPOILER! filling combines better than you might expect with the cilantro creamy sauce, but, look, your instinct serves you well if you're thinking what we thought. A wacky idea, it would be great with some vanilla ice cream as a dessert idea two courses later.

Empanadas
Cuatro’s Grill
Three empanadas, we think made with cornflower, which make for a decent offer. These aren't snack-sized, neither. Cheese, chicken and a carne mechada-type filling make the filling trio. That green coriander sauce was a terrific addition, but we'd have loved a couple more sauces to zhuzh these pasties up further.

Pabellon Venezolano
Cuatro’s Grill
A generous sharing platter that's easily enough for two, there's grilled garlicky chicken, some nice thin beef and, excellent, some paneer-style cheese on offer, all of which are delicious. More of the distinctive sausage would be very welcome as it was great too. Some spot-on pre-cut fries and plenty of - undressed - salad plus some deep fried yucca make up the garnish.

Freshly prepared, this is unarguably a simple dish, but that means you've got to get it just right. And it's excellent fun with plenty of beer and that sauce, which we were getting through fairly fast. Happily, the server was taking this in his stride; "I've got five litres of it out there!" The only thing to add is this pile of tastiness? It deserves two or three extra sauces - a red chilli and a garlic one maybe. They'd make this unbeatable, even more fun to eat and we'd probably have needed even more beer.

Cheesecake
With only one dessert on offer - cheesecake - we confess we weren't over confident. But. It was wrong to prejudge things. But then, when is it not?

If this is the last course of your lunch, best cancel dinner. CG's cheesecake won't leave you hungry. Even between two. you'll only get halfway in to one serving before you need to call for tupperware, volunteers or someone to wheel you home.
Cuatro’s Grill
Ignore that splodgette of white cream on the side if you wish. This thing is big. And dense. Try to think of a powerful, hefty, immensely dense thick thing. Ideas? Yes, very possibly. Look, this is a very palatable option, even if the biscuity base does have a slightly orangish colour to it, which reminds me of at least one other very thick dense thing. Topped with oreo crumb, a chocolatey ganache and a rich, creamy cheesy layer, it's splendid and you should try it. With a friend or two.

So €40-odd euro gets two of you four dishes, well prepared, generously proportioned and served in a warm, relaxed atmosphere. Bottom line? Cuatro's Grill is worth a visit for a decently priced, really enjoyable laid back meal. Just give us more sauces!