First published Hampshire Chronicle 25th July 2006
Los Amigos, 72 St George’s Street, Winchester, 01962 869966
Two foodie friends have become a palatable pair – at Los Amigos restaurant, St George’s Street, Winchester.
City diners are used to the sight of a restaurant on the corner – until recently Lillos – and the two friends, Vincenzo and Carlos, are two former employees who decided to strike out on their own.
Los Amigos is Spanish for “friends”, and reflects Vincenzo and Carlos’ own relationship. Taking the best from their years in the business, they’ve created a unique Mediterranean menu which adopts the créme of both Spanish and Italian cuisine.
Vincenzo found us a table on opening night, when he was fully booked and barely prepared. Nevertheless, the personal attention was impressive. He delivered olives and garlic bread, freshly prepared and designed to tease the taste buds.We followed that with a shared starter, the mozzarella en carroza, pan-friend mozzarella cheese served with delicious marinara sauce and fresh salad.
My husband and I followed with sardinas a la plancha, an odd choice for both of us, as we are not really fish fans. But it was a real test of the food – if something you know you don’t like turns out good, the restaurant must have something going for it. Los Amigos passed the test. The beautifully cooked and tasty fish was veritably devoured.
As an American Italian by birth, my standards were too impossibly high to try one of the pasta dishes, but I sampled my husband’s Vitello de la Milanese and was pleasantly surprised. Main course for me was pato a la campera, duck breast, served with baked black cherries. I was especially impressed by the vegetables, full of flavour and cooked ‘al dente’ – a culinary technique so often missed in England.
From the perspective of a former New York waitress, I know that one can never judge a restaurant from a single experience. So a week later we returned to give Vincenzo and Carlos another run for their money.
On that occasion we ordered the calamari to start, which was a little salty, but still delicious when combined with the marinara dip from the fried mozzarella tapas. This was followed by Carlos' trademark seafood paella for me. My husband, being a little more conservative this time, tried the solomillo de lomo, pork steaks cooked with melted cheese and spinach. It tasted delicious.We washed this down with a bottle of Tempranillo from the inexpensive, but appealing, wine list.
The overall impression of Los Amigos is overwhelmingly good. Vincenzo and Carlos both put their hearts and souls into their restaurant, and the personal attention along with the delicious, inexpensive food, suggest that they are going to be here to stay, offering high standards of cooking without the gourmet price tag.
The friends are usually on hand, and invite suggestions to improve their menu. But my suggestion is to make your reservations now, before the restaurant becomes too popular.
–Tina Hulme
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