Chino Latino's Great Value Day of the Dead Tasting Menu

Where:  Park Plaza Riverbank, 18 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TJ

Cost: The special Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) menu for Friday 2nd November 2018 is a four course tasting menu with a Mexican theme, and is priced at £45 per person, for a minimum of 2 people. 

About: Describing itself as a modern pan-Asian cuisine and Latin bar, Chino Latino London is set on the first floor of the Park Plaza Hotel on the South Bank at Waterloo, with a gorgeous view of the Houses of Parliament across the river.

With live jazz from 8pm, a cocktail bar with a strong Latin theme, this is not your typical Asian restaurant. The menu has a range of Japanese-Nikkei dishes from Peru and Brazil, as well as Chinese, Thai and Malaysian specials.

I have been here a couple of times before, you can read my reviews here and here. This latest trip, however, was to try the one-off Mexican-themed dinner for the Day of the Dead.

What We Ate: The Dia De Los Muertos menu kicks off with Jalapeno Maki Rolls. Topped with a "Mexican hat" made from sliced tomato, green Jalapeno chilli and an orange creamy spicy sauce, the maki was filled with avocado, carrot and truffle aioli, and the rice mixed with quinoa. The chilli was not overpowering, but gave a gentle heat to the maki.

The  Lobster Taquitos with aji amarillo, avocado and lime were creamy, crunchy and lightly spicy.

The Ceviche Mixto, with ultra-tender calamari, shrimps, seabass and avocado was creamy and generous, with red onion, radish and cancha corn, but for me lacked acidity and zinginess from much needed chilli and lime. I mentioned this in my last review, it is a pity that their ceviche is rather toned down.

Next came empanadas of red snapper, with mango, Gruyere cheese, and a refreshing tomato and onion salsa. These were very good, especially with the accompanying salsa, although I could not detect the Gruyere.

The bacon-wrapped dates with linguica (Portuguese for sausage) and mustard mayonnaise were one of the highlights of the meal - rich, very soft, with sweet and savoury nicely balanced.

The main course was another highlight - an exceptional Latin BBQ - Churrasco Grande, with beef skewers, chorizo, spicy chicken and sirloin steak. Served on a bed of smoulderingly hot rocks, the meats were nicely chargrilled but tender, the beef medium rare, and the accompanying sauces were well judged.

To accompany the meat, we were served a tamale. This was creamy, intensely flavoured with sweetcorn and artichoke, and topped with a delicious Huancaina sauce, a classic Peruvian sauce made from evaporated milk, fresh white cheese, aji amarillo and powdered cheese crackers.

The dessert was Passionfruit Flavoured Relic - a creamy mousse "skull" set over crumble and edible flowers. This was a beautifully presented dessert - light, and with a refreshing acidity from the passionfruit.

What We Drank: Served as part of the Dia De Los Muertos menu, a "Waking the Dead" shot of Mezcal infused with lime, coriander and chilli was refreshing and left the palate tingling with refreshing citrus, spice and heat - an excellent palate cleanser and teaser for the dishes that followed. 

Likes: Highlights for me were the bacon-wrapped dates, the tamales and the churrasco main course. The live music was well judged - not intrusive but definitely adding to the experience. 

Dislikes: I could have done with a 2nd tamale to accompany the main course as there were two of us. 

Verdict: For one night only (2nd November 2018), the Dia De Los Muertos menu at Chino Latino is a delicious blend of Japanese, Mexican and Peruvian flavours, which at £45 per person is excellent value. Highly recommended.   

Is There Such a Thing as a Good Pan-Asian Restaurant? Chino Latino May Be Your Answer.

Name: Chino Latino

Where: 18 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TJ, http://www.chinolatino.eu/

Cost: Average cost per person is £45 not including drinks or service. The restaurant has three set menus, priced from £37 to £55 per person, offering a range of sushi, sashimi and main dishes.

About: With restaurants in Leeds, Nottingham and Cologne, the London branch of Chino Latino is situated in the beautiful riverside Park Plaza Hotel on the Albert Embankment. 

The London Foodie visited Chino Latino a few years ago, reviewed here, but the restaurant has since then been thoroughly refurbished and moved to the first floor of the hotel, with full length plate glass windows opening to great views of the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament. 

The restaurant group’s kitchens are headed by South African Executive Chef Werner Seebach formerly of Roka, Zuma and Kyashi restaurants, and offers a comprehensive modern 'Pan-Asian' cuisine.

The menu has a range of Japanese-Nikkei dishes from Peru and Brazil, and a smattering of other Asian dishes including Thai, Chinese and Malaysian. The restaurant has a long bar opened to non-residents and offers a range of great cocktails as well as live Jazz music every evening. 

What We Ate: The a la carte menu is divided into small dishes, main courses, sides and desserts, and it is recommended to order a minimum of three small dishes per person. 

We ordered a number of dishes from the a la carte menu, starting with a delectable beef salad (£11.50) with coriander, mint, chilli, shallots, cucumber and red onion – well seasoned and with many textures, this was excellent.

The seabass tiradito (£10.50) came with coriander tiger's milk, jalapeño chillies, borage flowers and chia seeds. With a gorgeous presentation, this packed quite a whack of chilli heat, which I felt somewhat overwhelmed the coriander cream – for me, the coriander’s tigers milk lacked acidity and depth of flavour.

Next up were the Taquitos Three-Ways (£20) – these were served on a dinky chrome frame, and combined crispy taquito cones filled with rare Wagyu beef and aji panca sauce, lobster with an aji amarillo sauce, and the third filled with a lovely vegetable brunoise - carrot, green bean and mushroom, with a topping of finely shredded lettuce and radish. 

The anticucho of wagyu (£14), normally a skewer of slices of beef heart, was deliciously soft wagyu flank beef served with aji panca sauce (Peruvian dried red chilli) that added a layer of smokiness and flavour.

We loved the tempura - red chilli stuffed with cream cheese, and soft shell crab tempura (£10 for 2 pieces) – it was gorgeously presented on a slice of raw daikon, and served with a refreshing ponzu dressing and green chilli aioli. 

From the sushi menu, we chose the surf and turf dragon roll (£20 for 8 pieces), filled with lobster, avocado and cucumber and topped with thin slices of lightly seared sirloin beef, spicy cream and chive. The sushi was well-made, specially the rice and the presentation, although I felt there were too many competing flavours in this roll.

From the main course menu, we chose one of Chino Latino’s signature dishes – their English sirloin steak served on hot black rocks (300g for (£29), with soy, garlic and mirin sauce. Beautifully presented, the steak was medium rare and soft and well flavoured. 

The monkfish tail was served on the bone with yuzu kosho dressing and yuzu jelly (£32.50). I loved their use of yuzu kosho in this dish, this is a wonderful condiment from Kyushu island in Japan made from yuzu rind, chillies and salt, so it is spicy, salty and citrusy all at once. I is a great accompaniment to grilled fish and meats and worked quite well in this dish. 

We had three side dishes. I love making miso aubergine with Parmesan cheese (£4.50), and this was what I ordered, though there was an excessive amount of Parmesan in my opinion. Better was the Peruvian corn sauteed in butter (£4.50) with a lovely sweet tartness from the addition of sugar and lime to heighten the flavours. And finally the cassava chips (£4) – these were fresh and crispy on the outside, they were served with a refreshing aji amarillo dipping sauce. 

Desserts are all priced at £8.50, and include options like salted caramel banana mousse, yuzu cream sugar bulb, and chocolate brownie and peanut butter parfait with blackcurrant sponge. Tempting as they were, we could not try them as we had eaten far too much by then, I will return for those one day soon!

What We Drank: Pre-dinner, we shared the Chilli and Ginger Caipirinha (£9) – this blended Sagatiba Pura cachaça with ginger wine, red chillies, fresh ginger and lime. This was thoroughly refreshing and I loved the way the chilli heat came long after swallowing. 

The Perrier-Jouet Blason Rose Champagne (£12.50) had a lovely strawberry nose and refreshing acidity. 

There is small but well thought out wine list, with 7 white and 6 red wines offered by the glass. The entry level wines are a white Nederberg Chenin Blanc from South Africa and a red Granfort Merlot from France, both priced at £27. But as we chose a variety of fish and meat dishes, we preferred to share two half bottles. We chose the Sancerre Les Collinettes, Joseph Mellot, France, and the Don Jacobo Rioja Crianza Tinto, Boedgas Corral, Spain, both priced at £17.50 per half bottle. These were both excellent, with a great depth of flavour, concentration and complexity. 

Likes: Anticuchos, tempura and taquitos were sensational. Great service and gorgeous restaurant.

Dislikes: the coriander tigers milk lacked acidity and depth of flavour, and there was far too much Parmesan in the miso aubergine. These were minor problems in a overall very good meal.

Verdict: For good quality Pan-Asian cooking, Chino Latino is my ‘go-to’ restaurant. If you are looking for great food, cocktails and a stunning setting overlooking the river Thames, I highly recommend Chino Latino.

Chino Latino - The Cure for the New Year’s Eve Set Menu Blues

Words & Photography by Greg Klerkx and Luiz Hara

Name: Chino Latino 

Where: Park Plaza Riverbank London, 18 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TJ, http://www.chinolatino.eu/london

Cost: £79 per person for 10 courses (service and drinks not included). 

About: A preview of Chino Latino's New Year's Eve 

Dining out on New Year’s Eve can be a dicey affair: too often, one is stuck with an overhyped prix fixe that invariably underwhelms, not the greatest beginning to anyone’s new year. If you’ve had this disheartening experience, this New Year’s Eve take your festive self to Chino Latino at the Park Plaza Riverbank London for a wonderful exception to this dismal rule: a marvellous NYE menu that is astounding value in terms of price and quality.

As its name implies, Chino Latino specialises in Pan-Asian food with hints of Latin verve. There are multiple locations in the UK and elsewhere, many ensconced in modern hotels like the Park Plaza Riverbank, which is located on the Albert Embankment near Vauxhall Station and within eyeshot of the Houses of Parliament and nearby landmarks. Inside the hotel, Chino Latino inhabits a sleek, gently lit space adjacent to the lively main lounge.

To celebrate 10 years of Chino Latino, Head Chef Werner Seebach has created a 10-course NYE tasting menu (£79 per person) offering a retrospective of the restaurant’s favourite dishes and new plates inspired by Peruvian, Mexican and Japanese cuisine. The menu, served sharing-style, is arranged in four themes: Small Dishes, Next Course, Main Dishes, and Dessert.

The New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu is available for booking between 5:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Once you’ve enjoyed the food, you can slip over to the mod-chic lounge for a DJ-driven celebration that promises to last until well into the wee hours of New Year’s Day.

What We Ate: We began with the Small Dishes, two-thirds of which were delightful. A trio of mouthful-sized beetroot stacks with yuzu cream cheese and a port reduction were light, refreshing and immaculately presented.

The Tenkasu roll – tuna, salmon, sea bass and avocado – was sublime, elevated by the addition of crunchy tempura crumbs and just the right amount of spicy miso chilli dressing. 

Alas, the Kampachi sashimi, though beautifully served on a translucent Himalayan salt block with sprigs of samphire and crispy discs of garlic, fell victim to a bit too much ‘Latino’. Kampachi, harvested from deep off the coast of Hawaii, has a very delicate, almost floral flavour but here it was quite swamped by the muscular red pepper rocoto dressing. Individually, the sashimi and dressing were lovely examples of their respective forms; they just didn’t quite work when put together.

The trio of Next Course dishes began with marinated blowtorched salmon, which was smoky and smooth, and the next two dishes were even better.

Grilled scallops were perfectly cooked, the natural sweetness of the scallop heightened by a sprinkling of crushed wasabi peas and a dollop of yuzu aioli (yuzu is an Asian citrus fruit, like a slightly sour mandarin orange: it’s a key ingredient in yuzu-pon).

The Wagyu beef taquitos brought a smile to our faces even before we’d tasted them: the taquitos were presented in a kind of filigreed trellis and served like so many tiny ice cream cones. They tasted as good as they looked: each cone was a savoury blast of succulent beef, jalapeno, red onion and aji panca, a smokey and almost fruity Peruvian pepper.

The Main Dishes continued the wonderful form. This was our first taste of chipotle miso – chipotle with white miso, mirin, sake, and sugar – and it was a revelation, particularly as paired here with a gorgeous, moist filet of Chilean sea bass.

A plateful of succulent lamb cutlets, marinated in Korean hot pepper paste and served with wasabi cream, disappeared in moments.

As we polished off the final morsels of lamb cutlet we were distracted by a wonderful aroma, emanating from a dish served several tables away. This turned out to be English sirloin steak on hot rocks, soya, mirin, garlic, 180g/300g £18.00/£29.00. Though not on the NYE menu, a plate was ordered and proved to be a real highlight: thinly sliced sirloin cooked teppanyaki style but on hot rocks, both clever and creative, not to mention absolutely delicious.

What We Drank: Chino Latino New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu does not have suggested wine pairings but the restaurant’s modest but effective wine list provided plenty of choice. With the Small Dishes and Next Courses, we stayed happily with the Sancerre La Fuzelle, Adrien Marechal (£35 bottle/£8.50 glass), lively with citrus and gooseberry and very sympathetic to both Asian and Latin American flavours. Just ahead of the beef taquitos we moved to a Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon (USA, £29.50 bottle/£8.00 glass), smooth, rich with dark berries and chewy liquorice. This stood us in good stead until the cutlets and sirloin, at which point we switched to the earthier Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 37 Pinot Noir (Chile, £24.50 bottle/£8.00 glass).

Likes: On the NYE menu, the scallops and seabass were divine; but come another time for the hot-rock English sirloin from the main menu (or order it on NYE if you’re ferociously hungry)

Dislikes: The desserts on the tasting menu – passion fruit cheesecake and moshi ice cream – were a bit misjudged, and a disappointment after what was otherwise a fabulous meal.

Verdict: The 10-course New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu is marvellous value for money; lovely food in a relaxed atmosphere, with attentive and knowledgeable service. Highly recommended.