Santa Fe, Gunwharf Quay (From This is Hampshire)

Santa Fe, Gunwharf Quay

4:33pm Friday 19th May 2006 in Restaurant Reviews By Dave King

Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth is rapidly becoming the "in" place to dine out.

With over 20 bars and restaurants offering dishes from around the world - Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Singaporean, Indian, Italian, Spanish and American - you are spoilt for you choice.

Santa Fe offers a Mexican variation to tantalise the taste buds, and provides a magnificent view overlooking Portsmouth Harbour.

On a summer's evening, sat at one of the outside tables and watching the world go by, it is a wonderful place to dine out.

Executive chef Rocky Durham has come up with an adventurous and varied menu which has escaped being so one dimensional which you often find at other Mexican restaurants. It's contemporary cuisine from New Mexico and the American south.

Chicken flautas, shrimp and corn batidos, guacamole and pico de gallo, or smoked wild mushroom crostini provide a varied selection of starters.

However, with a fierce hunger ravaging, the entrees were ditched in favour of digging straight into the main courses.

Now an 8oz fillet steak doesn't seem terribly Mexican, but at Santa Fe it comes beautifully marinated, served with green chilli mashed potato with a creamy poblano and cracked pepper sauce. You are served with a veritable mountain of mash which possesses a bit of a kick with the chilli. Gorgeous.

My friend was on a health kick and was tempted by the red snapper, which was sadly not available that evening. Instead, the choice was grill fired tuna steak.

This was a marinated piece of tuna, served with rice and doused with a warm sweet red pepper, tomato and jalapeno salsa sauce.

Large portion of rice, a bit tiddly on the tuna front, yet a pretty cracking dish all the same.

A house salad of mixed lettuce leaf, plum tomatoes, red onions and cucumber in a fresh citrus dressing provided a nice accompaniment - and a cooling for the mash!

So on to dessert for the chocoholics convention. Here we had a fantastic choice of desserts for the sweet-toothed brigade. Chocolate fudge and ice cream was my selection - again not very Mexican, but delightful, and it barely hit the sides.

For my friend, the choice was bitter chocolate ice cream which went down with no complaints and a two-foot exclusion zone for anyone wanting a sample!

The service was pretty good, the food scored highly, the view was great - Santa Fe is well worth a visit.

Santa Fe, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. Telephone: 023 9289 0070.