As we took a stroll down Kingston river one hot summer lunch we came across Cau, Gaucho’s sister restaurant. It looked very chic and modern and had the most stunning outdoor seating area over looking the beautiful of the river. A perfect place to people watch if your like that sort of thing.

Cau has a modern take on Buenos Aires cuisine, lighter and slicker which is a contrast from Gaucho’s large steaks and carb overload you are used to. The cocktail menu is unreal however, we stuck to the summer drink of Pimms through our visit.  Elena and I sat and discussed the bets we have placed on my ex’s horrid existence and wondered how the boat ride to Hampton Court flower show would be.

You would think we are crazy for not ordering steak, but Cau have a stunning salad selection. As it was such a hot day the salads were our preferred section from the extensive menu of fish, chicken, beef and steak dishes.

We had the the Hot Smoked Salmon Salad and the Roast Vegetable, Goats Cheese and Quinoa Salad.

The roasted veg salad had our all time fave veg, the aubergine. It was lovely and light. The pickles were like little pops of salty goodness. The cheese was cool and creamy, perfect for a hot day like today. It had these amazing fried onions which were sweet in taste and had a lovely crunchy yet chewy texture to them.

The Smoked Salmon salad was warm with chunks on salmon flakes in a kind of Mayo like sauce. There were bits of quinoa here and there but it didn’t really feel like there was a substantial amount.

Cau has a lot of potential and looks really cool and inviting. However, there is a lacking of quantity of food. We ordered the large options of salad but everything was lacking. There must have been only a table spoon of goats cheese in the veg salad and a few pieces of roasted vegetable. To show you how bad it was Elena and I were sharing the salads but I had to tell her what the vegetables I had eaten were as there was a slither of each type so you couldn’t get a good sense of what was in there. Moving onto the salmon, the flavours were nice but again what a disappointment. Two table spoons of salmon in a mountain of leaves. The salad names should have been ‘Mountain of Leave with a Hint of …..’, now this would be a accurate description of what you are getting.

On average we paid £10 per salad which is not worth it at all as you are basically paying over the odds for a bag of salad leaves with bits of other stuff.

The food was nice but value for money it definitely isn’t. Even the Pimms we were having was lacking, lots of lemonade and very little actual Pimms.

Lovely view though.

Cau
Riverside Walk, Kingston upon Thames, Greater London KT1 1QN
www.caurestaurants.com