CAU Wilmslow

Cau is quite a small chain of Argentine restaurants and Steakhouses, with 18 branches, including a branch in Amsterdam, the rest remain in the UK. I stumbled across this place while in Wilmslow, wanting to charge argentine cuisine for the first time, after so many great Manchester City players coming from Argentina and even a famous chant «Our Argentinian blues are coming after you», I felt the need to try it, thanks to City’s own Sergio Aguero, Willy Caballero, Nicolas Otemendi and Pablo Zabaleta.
The menu had quite a good selection, including steak, chicken and triple cooked chips and they had gluten free on the menu, and seemed to be one of the better places for gluten free in Wilmslow, having previously struggled to get some food.
The waiter who served me was really nice, friendly and patient and knew the menu perfectly, and explained each one of the 5 classic types of steak to me, and didn’t try to push the more expensive «Speciality» steaks on me, which were priced really high including something called Asada De Chorizo, which although sounds very nice was quite expensive at £29.95 for 400g, or £34.95 for 500g, they even had a feast plate of different varieties for £84.95.
I decided to choose the Medallions steak in Medium Rare, after also being talked to about Rump, Tapa De Cuadril, Rib-​Eye and Stirloin steaks also on the menu, and found it to be well priced at £14.95 with some triple cooked chips, which was on par with previous steaks I have had in the past at a similar small chain in Manchester and Birmingham, The Cosy Club.
Cau does have a high-​end, nice feel to it and is quite a nice place to eat, and it doesn’t feel part of a chain at all due to levels of food and service. They had free wi-​fi as well with no password required, but it was a little faulty as you need to keep entering the password as even though it is correct, it appears that way for the first few times. The password for record is 1 111 111 111 (Yes, it is just the number «1» 10 times!)
Now, talking about the quality of my meal, it taken just over 20 minutes and it did seem a little long, and I did expect it to be a little quicker, but still it was a nice place to sit and wait, you could see the chefs prepare your meal and they was a cool spiral staircase in the middle of the place, similar to the one at Pizza Express on King Street West in Manchester.
My steak was cooked very nicely, I liked how it was in the juices of where the steak was cooked, and for me it was the perfect combination of pink, yet there was no blood inside it, and it was cooked very nicely. All together my meal did look quite nice, although the picture and presentation didn’t seem to do it any justice, as the chips, sauce and steak were all presented separate, which could be one of the few flaws with Cau, the Presentation.
I still did get 2 good size steaks and they were of course cooked very well, a good quality, juicy steak, and did warrant the pricetag.
The chips also tasted quite nice and fresh as well, and some of them were really big, and they also were generous on this portion size.
After a recommendation by my server, I went for the Chimmichurri sauce which was £1.25, albeit for a small pot it was enough, I was told about its’ popularity in Argentina and it sounded quite nice too as it included herbs, oil, red pepper and vinegar, and it also went nice with the steak and complimented the steak beautifully.
I did get a Orange Juice to go with my meal, which was £2.50 or so as I recall, this wasn’t as nice and didn’t taste fresh or a great quality, just mediocre and your standard watered down Orange Juce you would get from Tesco.
Other flaws with Cau include other staff not being as helpful, as my main server who had to chip in when I asked someone else a question, as they didn’t seem to know how to respond, and seemed a little undertrained but there was no notice to say anything about them being a trainee, or shadowing another member of staff.
Cau also deliver with Deliveroo, who are rising in Manchester which is pretty cool, although I’m not sure how they can maintain their standards as a takeaway.
Overall, Cau is quite a nice place and definitely one of the better places to eat in Wilmslow and a perfect place to try Argentine cuisine for the first time, my server seemed really friendly, helpful and patient especially since I didn’t know what most of the things were, and sat down explaining it to me, I also liked how they had gluten free labelled on the menu, making it probably one of the only decent competitions to Wilmslow to Pizza Express, which is great for those wanting to go to a smaller chain and avoid pizza at high prices, without a Tastecard. I still feel it does not warrant a 5 star rating yet, and will have to settle for a well-​deserved 4 due to some issues discussed here, including the menu being a little confusing, issues with wifi, the quality of drinks and the pricing of some items, as well as a few other minor issues.