Anyone who genuinely loves eating out realises that you can't compare all dining experiences on the same criteria. You go to the Dorchester for decadence, intricacy, silver service and a sense of lots of money well spent; you go to Le Mercury for atmosphere, simple French grub, and a sense of pleasure at getting change from £20.
El Rincon Quiteno is all of the following: authentic, tasty, friendly, unassuming, peculiar, institutional, (quite) cheap, distinctive, homely, addictive, changeable, disorganised. If I got these things in an hour at Nando's, I'd walk out. But it isn't Nando's, it isn't the Dorchester, it isn't even Le Mercury - it's in that category which is so rare you have to seek it out even in the English capital. It's small, independent, homespun, immediate, niche, immigrant cooking.
I used to live on Holloway Road so have to declare a bias toward El Rincon. But it typifies everything that makes that area what it is - there is the colourfully proud assertion of its South American (Ecuadorean) roots across every wall, punctuated only by Arsenal FC. There is a counter serving chicken and beef empanada alongside bacon sarnies. It's the north London immigrant experience writ small in iconography and in food.
Over five years of returning there regularly, with family, with friends, with large groups and occasionally just on my own, the menu has changed only a little. The food is principally Ecuadorean but there are Argentinian (parrillada) and Bolivian (pork fricassee) inclusions too and my better-travelled friends who know South America and South American food have always been charmed by the authenticity.
All the meat dishes are excellent, and tend to be vast, too. The parrillada is quite an undertaking even for two, but it's great quality meat. I've had bream done brilliantly there too, and a stock option which they do well are the varieties of arroz. For me, though, the most outrageous triumph at El Rincon is the array of soups. The fricassee in particular is the single most tasty dish I've ever eaten, and I really mean that. Being a small local restaurant that home-cooks, and with fricassee being a dish that takes a long time to prepare, they don't always have
it available so I implore you: if it's available, do yourself a favour and damned well order it immediately. It consists of a salty, paprika-laden broth with a big lump of pork in there and giant corn.
Some of the waiting staff can barely speak English. Which indicates that a sizeable portion of customers do not either - and what does that tell you? I'd guess that if the Spanish-speaking portion of north London patronise this place, it's the closest thing you'll get to the real thing. Not that everyone wants the real thing, or that the real thing is in and of itself the best way to eat - but for all the bleating about Wahaca's street food credentials, look around for Mexican customers and wonder what puts them off about it.
If you want South American food in London, you tend to get rodizio-style places, expensive steak-houses and little else. So you should celebrate El Rincon for being precisely the triumph that it is - earnest, welcoming, unique and, above all, just very very good food. It will be like no other meal you have this year, and you'll have change from your £20 again.
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