132 Southwark Bridge road London SE1 0DG
South of the border, the Thames border that is, there’s a place where the menu is as wide open as the pampas.
New restaurant Chimmis in Borough does that, oh yes it does that alright. Walk into the modern space, a short stroll from Borough tube station and chef and co-owner Nico is right up in your grill as he mans the grill by the front door.
It’s actually called a’parilla’. A grill raised or lowered over the charcoal on suspension chains. Nico Modad, originally from Argentina and ex Head Chef at Brindisa, is a cheerful presence his head gleaming in the heat being thrown off by this simple and traditional device. He greets people coming in with infectious good humour. They do more than grill here, though. Co-owner Federico
Fugazza is from Italy and the menu reflects it with things you’d perhaps not expect to see in an’Argentinian’.
All too often pastry heavily outweighs the filling with these things but here the balance is right. The pastry is flaky and buttery, the beef moist, juicy and subtly spicy. The spinach and feta are perfect pals. We nod at each other happily as we share the pies and splash on spicy sauce.
Which is how we have it here, served with olive oil and dried oregano in a red-hot griddle pan with lots of toasted bread to scoop up the chewy, twirly, deliciousness. You have to be quick, rather like mozzarella it loses its charm as it cools.
No problem with that, we’re dragging strings of cheese across the table in a kind of frenzy, creating a cat’s cradle of melted goo.
In Argentina’chorizo’ is actually the name for any coarse meat sausage, and what we usually call chorizo here the Argentinians call “chorizo español”. This chorizo is neither hot nor spicy, just excellently light textured and porky. Both bangers have been cooked on the parilla for a smoky flavour.
So much on the menu here is appealing, I see sweetbreads, I see grilled cod with mashed potato and spinach with a caper sauce, but I want steak. I rarely eat steak outside of home, but this opportunity is too good to miss. Ojo de bife with guarnición, a rib eye with sauces.
Cooked rare to medium, perfect as far as I am concerned, it really is a prime example of Argentinian beef, as well as the classic cooking method used. The knife slides through it with ease, the outside is well-caramelised. It doesn’t melt in the mouth like boring fillet, it needs light chewing to release the flavours. I love the small grains of rock salt adhering to it here and there.
I try some and it’s just excellent, the flesh is butter soft and the grill has created little pockets of smokiness and charring. Polenta, never my favourite food, actually tastes better than usual thanks to the juices and the salsa criolla. P happily slices away at tentacles like something out of a Harry Harryhausen movie.
Walnut pudding with dulce de leche foam is more fun, dulce de leche is a bit heavy usually but this is pleasantly light and the walnuts give it a healthy feel in theory, if not in actual practice.
Staff are willing and cheerful, wearing the restaurant’s own T-Shirts. It’s all nicely informal without any grating mateyness and chef Nico seems in his element and calmly in control.
If you want more than just meat at your Argentinian, a side order of creativity and surprise delivered in a way that melds South America, Spain and Italy all together.All images sourced from restaurant.