Restaurant review: La Ruca

Wednesday 8th July 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of La Ruca. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.

Food and drink: 8 / 10.
Service: 8 / 10.
Atmosphere: 8 / 10.
Value for money: 9 / 10.

The hottest day of the year seemed an appropriate time to visit La Ruca, a shop and café run by Chilean cook Patricia Alvarez.

With temperatures nudging the 90s, Gloucester Road was as sticky and sultry as Santiago as I stepped inside the well-stocked health food shop downstairs.

Opened 12 years ago, La Ruca is very much part of the community in BS7 – a cosmopolitan local store to get your herbal teas, dried fruit and pulses or homeopathic remedies, vitamins and Ecover washing powder.

The shop also doubles up as a deli and there are plenty of delicious treats to be found, from glossy olives to falafels and tortillas.

Climb the stairs, past the South American rugs on the walls, and you find the diminutive café where a dozen small, round tables are tightly packed into the small room looking down on bustling Gloucester Road.

Only open during the day, it’s a simple, unpretentious little place with bare wooden boards, a few South American nick nacks on the walls and a CD player pumping out foot-tapping, hip-swaying Latin sounds.

Patricia and her husband Alfonso opened La Ruca in 1997, soon after they came to the UK from Chile, and they were immediately embraced by the Bohemian, Guardian-carrying locals.

The café serves food with a Chilean/Hispanic flavour. Much of it is vegan and vegetarian by default but meat also makes an appearance.

The short menu includes daily specials and favourites including the best-selling Chimichangas (tortilla wraps filled with beans, spinach and cheese or chicken, topped with guacamole, soured cream and salsa) and nachos (Mexican tortilla chips topped with melted cheese, homemade tomato salsa, guacamole, soured cream and olives).

There are also falafels, tortillas, salads, omelettes and tapas dishes and nothing on the menu costs more than £4.99, which this day and age seems a steal.

Although not licensed (a shame as Chilean wines are among the best in the world), there is a range of fruit juices and freshly-made milkshakes and smoothies, as well as a selection of teas and coffees.

When I visited for a mid-week lunch, the café was packed to the point that there was only one table free – this on a day when most larger cafés on Gloucester Road were empty due to the heat. It was if people wanted that complete South American experience by eating in a café run by Chileans during a heatwave.

I ordered the enchiladas (£4.99) – a substantial dish for the money. Inside the warm tortilla wrap was a melange of vegetables, spinach, cheese and beans. Courgettes, artichoke hearts, aubergine, yellow peppers, orange peppers – it was my 5-a-day in a handy wrap, topped with avocado, soured cream and a punchy tomato salsa, as well as some lettuce and plump olives.

Colourful, fresh and vibrant, it was a fabulously authentic taste of South America, cooked by somebody who clearly enjoys feeding people with the dishes of her homeland.

Desserts are limited to churros (the dangerously addictive Hispanic, doughnut-like pastry dunked into chocolate sauce) and homemade 
cakes (£1.80).

I couldn’t resist a slice of the cake of the day which was hiding under a plastic dome on the counter.

It turned out to be a great choice as it was a yoghurt-topped, pistachio-studded sponge flavoured with rosewater. Light as a feather and delicately scented, it was one of those fragrant cakes made famous by exceptional London restaurant Moro and I can think of no better inspiration than that.

If you’re going to borrow ideas from any old cookbooks, then why not nick them from the best?

During the hour I was there, Patricia frequently came out of the kitchen to greet customers like old friends, sometimes pulling up a chair to talk to them.  It was very clear that La Ruca is something of a community hub for the people of Gloucester Road, a place to meet over coffee and cakes, authentic South American food and music.

Great value, friendly and run by a family doing it for the love of it as much as anything else, La Ruca is a feel-good sort of café and the world would be a better place with more places like it. Gracias!

MARK TAYLOR

Prices: Toasties £3.99; breakfasts £4.99; main dishes from £4.50; cakes from £1.80

Wheelchair access: No

This is a Crackerjack review of La Ruca. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.