Cross continental cuisine and contraband cows
After reading some positive comments about Lola and Simon in the Chiswick forum, we decided to head on over and try it for ourselves. Initial impressions were good: the restaurant is very stylishly kitted out with tables for eating, sofas for lounging and a highchair if anyone has a toddler that needs tethering.
Lola and Simon is run by a husband and wife team: he hails from Argentina and she from New Zealand and the food reflects dishes from both these countries. Eschewing New Zealand, we both had dishes from the new world to start. Mine was meat empanadas which were 2 little pasties which had been deep-fried and were beautifully crisp. My dining partner had the special of the day which was billed as a real Argentinean dish of chorizo and chimi churri sauce in bread. After a somewhat tactless squawk of 'It's a beefburger' when it arrived, he then tucked in and declared it delicious. The chorizo was not the paprika-red Spanish type but more reminscent of merguez sausage.
I then jumped continents and had lamb chops with mint hollandaise and parsnip and sweet potato chips. The lamb was pink in the middle and beautifully tender but I should have perhaps chosen a vegetable side to offset the rather rich dish. My companion went for the Argentinean lomo (fillet) of beef with garlic mash. This was a rather eye-watering £21.50 but after the manager explained that it was increasingly difficult to get Argentinean beef due to export embargos, high prices, etc, he rather felt he was lucky to get to pay it at all. This came cooked rare exactly as requested and even if the beef had had a stressy time sneaking out of the country, it hadn't affected its taste or tenderness.
For dessert we shared a ginger cake with ginger sauce. This was divine and as light as a feather, unlike us by this point.
With two such great wine producing countries to choose from the wine list consisted purely of New Zealand and Argentinean wines with one Chilean red bravely muscling in. We had an Argentinean Malbec which went down nicely.
Our bill came to £73.70 which included an optional 10% service which we opted to pay as the service had been very good.
Lola and Simon are evidently passionate about sourcing authentic ingredients and the attractive venue is a great addition to the restaurant row at the western end of King Street.
Caroline Villiers
22 June, 2008