The second instalment of our quest to try every bottomless brunch in Newcastle and the surrounding area saw us at Las Iguanas. Being a chain restaurant I wondered whether that would be a positive or a negative. Chains have the money and the turnover to price more reasonably since they have the benefit of being a reliable place, particularly in a city like Newcastle which is so stag do and hen do friendly. Or they can be greedy and price things ridiculously high for what you get. So which side of the fence did the Las Iguanas bottomless brunch fall?
The deal is 2 hours all your can drink cocktails for a smaller list than the regular menu, wine, prosecco or lager and a ‘small plate’ from their, again, smaller than regular menu for £34.95. So that’s already a fiver more expensive than Twenty Twenty. For less food.
I’ll start on the positives, which was our server was really friendly and attentive. He started with a cocktail each and I was impressed how quickly they arrived. There’s sometimes a worry with cocktails that they take so long to make, you’re not going to get your moneys worth, but the bar staff were hot on it. I also like that when you’re both having prosecco, they just leave the bottle for you, so you can take your time with it and control your own distribution.
I didn’t like the small food menu or the fact that any sides were extra. Some of the food we saw coming out were extremely small portions, the chilli bowl in particular looked very meagre. We ordered a burger each as it looked like the most substantial option and a portion of chips each as if I’m drinking bottomless drinks I like to have plenty in my stomach. Whilst our burger and chips were tasty enough, the food options really just feel like large starters which, when you compare to the amount of pizza we got in Twenty Twenty makes it quite poor value.
I know when you look at the price of cocktails on their regular menu (about £12 on average but are always on 241), plus how much a bottle of prosecco costs (£28 is the cheapest option on the Newcastle menu) then in isolation it looks like a canny deal but compared to what other places in the city offer, where you can get lots more for lots less, it doesn’t hold up well.
We had a nice time at Las Iguanas and it’s certainly a good place that caters well for large groups, but I don’t think I’d be rushing back for the bottomless brunch.
