About Us

We live for food, and to bring food alive – with an irresistible bolt of Latin American energy. We rise at the crack of dawn to unload boxes of top-quality, fresh British produce. Then our chefs add carefully sourced ingredients from around the world, to conjure delicious, authentic South American food, made with passion, love and lots of Latin magic. Our food pulses with its exotic 16th Century roots – a mouth-watering fusion of native Latin American Indian, Spanish, Portuguese and African influences. Las Iguanas is an adventure. You’ll discover new tastes, and fall in love with new favourites – and feel the warmth and welcome of South America.


OUR HISTORY

“We wanted to create something special, something alive, that made people feel good about themselves and feel good about life in general.” – Eren, Las Iguanas Founder. We started small in a quiet Bristol street in 1991 and became something of a local institution. Bringing a tasty blend of the traditional and the new to the city, with fresh ingredients, mouth-watering regional food and drink, and service from passionate people. We added intoxicating Latin rhythms and the rich colour palette of the southern hemisphere to the mix and our diners seemed to enjoy every Latin minute and every Latin mouthful. We may now be across the whole of the UK and spreading internationally, but we’re still independent-spirited, with familiar faces still running the show because we love what we do. And we could be bringing more of that Latin love to a town near you soon!


LOOKING LATIN

Open our doors, and you open yourself to the colour, chaos and charm of Latin America. Every restaurant is unique. Because each is filled with different treasures from our many visits to our favourite continent, from a piece of artisan furniture to a special dish on the menu. We can’t promise the hazy sun of Copacabana beach – but you’ll find the iconic swirls of the black and white pavement in one restaurant, and the Ipanema pavement in another. And some life-sized Latinos in some others, if you know where to look.


THE TREASURES AND TASTES OF OUR TRAVELS

We love South America. And living the Latin life for real. Learning native recipes and authentic cooking techniques, absorbing design inspiration. Our travels have taken us to some of the most exciting kitchens and markets in South America to see delicious dishes cooked at the table from the freshest ingredients and that’s what we endeavour to bring back with us to the UK. At Las Iguanas we insist on using fresh ingredients in our kitchens. We make over 30 salsas and sauces by hand each day and our chefs create your food with love and care just like the cooks we’ve met on our travels.


ETHOS

Our ethos is refreshingly simple. We want to bring authentic South America to every table, every day – in a place that lives and breathes Latin. We use the freshest food, and the highest quality ingredients. We source from the best possible places – and try to be GM free. We’ve been with some of our suppliers for many years, and proudly support native South American businesses, like our coffee supplier, Daterra (who are Rainforest Alliance certified), and our cachaça partners, Magnifica, who grow our very own organic sugar cane – mixed only with local spring water during distillation.

Of course we take the same care of our people – our most important ingredient. Our outstanding training and development is way above the industry standard and backed up by our Investors in People Gold Award.

We work hard to ensure our menu is fully inclusive with a choice of halal and non-halal dishes, gluten free dishes and a separate vegetarian and vegan menu. Our chicken, lamb, goat & duck are halal in all of our branches, other meats are not halal including beef and chorizo. All halal poultry and meat is pre-stunned in line with EU guidelines and our commitment to animal welfare.

We are working on a plan to ensure that the work done to date and our future commitments are clearly communicated to our customers. As part of this, we hope to work with the Marine Stewardship Council to better understand what needs to be done to ensure we can use the MSC label in our communications in a proper and accurate way. We are committed to ensuring that information about how and where our fish is sourced from is readily available through menus, websites and through our restaurant teams. We are always pleased to answer any queries you may have about the menu.

Las Iguanas Gibraltar