Chiquitos Review & Gluten-Free menu (Not what I was expecting)

For the review please skip a good few paragraphs (the first bit is a rant about not having clothes).

I was having a bit of ‘a day’ on Sunday.

Me and the Mr. decided to go for a jog, even with my stone bruise and worn out trainers. My legs were exhausted from my Saturday workout and I only lasted 30mins of walking-jogging-walking. I haven’t worked out in weeks and my legs were having non of this new ‘inspired‘ Amy.

After having a mini-melt down with Air France on twitter (all will be revealed on Thursday) I came to the conclusion that now is the time to buy-back my clothing. No longer shall I wear the same bra for three days straight, I shall defend my need for new shoes and be a better person. Alas, my dreams came tumbling down as I got into River Island and no money was on my card – devastated. I was told £340 would be put in weeks ago and was desperate to get some clothes back into my wardrobe. I ended up in Primark in the reduced section for bras and pants – I was desperate.

So to cheer me up Tom took me to Chiquitos.

I’m not one for eating out as I try to be as health conscious as possible but they released a new menu in June and Tom has been pestering me. You probably all know what they offer, a Mexican-inspired experience complete with Sombrero- of course!

Chiquitos have had a Gluten-Free menu since June so I was excited to see what was available. I am not gluten intolerant but I do suffer from IBS and Gluten free helps those symptoms.

I spent a good 10 minutes looking at the GF menu- I couldn’t find anything that sounded good. It seemed as though it was the classic menu but with the bread removed. Only ‘naked’ foods or vegetables, No alternatives or creative foods, just generic “fajita on it’s own” or “Naked burgers”. Not even gluten free buns?!?

In the time it took to not find anything, the waiter had come over twice and in the end we ordered drinks so we didn’t feel bad. I ordered a ‘passion fruit mojito’ and Tom had a JD in a Jam-Jar, both exotic sounding. We waited only 5-6 minutes and they were freshly made from the bar across the room. So I was all excited for my classic fajitas when Tom asked if the drink was ok “Of course, it’s booze – it’s great”. I hadn’t even realised I was drinking the wrong drink, It was an original mojito – disappointed.

Tom paid £7.75 for his drink, which wasn’t bad. Except for the fact that it was just juice – Honestly I really didn’t taste any alcohol in it at all and I’m very sensitive to alcohol as I rarely drink! I didn’t want to pester the waiter again as we already had him come back to the table several times for the menu’s ordering and then him coming back to re-ask us if we wanted starters,food,drinks etc.

I’m really wishing I had just spoken up now but alas, I understand how hard the job is and didn’t want to cause any more trouble. So I drank it and it was lovely – no complaints on the flavour, except for the fact it had a whole lime and a tonne of ice in it, there wasn’t much space for the actual drink!

As they arrived we decided to order, I gave in and had the classic fajitas. They were full and looked amazing in the photos. My thought was, they have a full menu to fajitas it must be the best thing on the menu, surely.

We had only been waiting 15 minutes from ordering and food had already arrived – Pretty snappy and very pretty looking. We had a hot plate and a tray of toppings, which makes it look like a tonne of food, exactly the problem though. After the first wrap we noticed there was almost no chicken left, we had one breast- I don’t know about you but one breast is never enough!

To share the breast between three wraps and no salad or things to ‘bulk’ the wraps out was like doing a brain teaser. If I put two pieces of chicken on it and bulk it with sloppy salsa, maybe that would work? But all I could taste were the tomatoes, perhaps the guacamole would fare better? No go. 

In the end I tried to fill up on Tom’s sides of sweet potato fries and corn, both of which were lovely. The fries were crisp and perfectly done, I have been to some places where they drip oil but these were perfect as were the mini-corn on the cobs, but overpriced. I somewhat filled up on sides and left one wrap over and stuffed the guacamole wrap with as much as I could. Ie, very little.

The waiter came over to ask about the food and I couldn’t bare it, I’m normally so polite about things but he said “how is your food? Everything ok?” – It slipped out.

I said “yeah, it’s ok. It’s not great, it’s ok”. I’m not too sure he heard me though as Tom has spoken over me (thank god). I felt awful, and still hungry.

I’m not complaining about the quality, it was sublime! From the plain chicken I had taken out of the wrap, I could taste the flavours and they were incredible. Everything was freshly prepared and each item tasted great. My biggest issues were quantity and price. I am not a big person by any means, I eat few meals a day and probably eat a little bit more than the average ‘fit’ woman – I enjoy my food. However, one chicken breast does not a meal make.

The bill couldn’t come quick enough for me and all in all it came to £56, Tom was happy to pay it but I was not. I couldn’t even look at the waiter on his next journey round, £11.56 for a bit of chicken and some toppings? I’m just so surprised that it’s such a popular food chain when they couldn’t string together a decent meal for a hungry woman. I hate to be negative about food, especially Mexican but this really missed the mark for me.

I don’t often go out for food and it felt a bit like I’d missed an opportunity, perhaps it was just a bad day for them or maybe I’m just greedy? Either way I would definitely return to Chiquito for something else on the menu if the opportunity arises but perhaps not the one that I visited.

Have you had Chiquitos before, what was your experience?