This cheerful little Peruvian takeaway, squeezed into a tiny
gap behind a red-painted frontage on Grove Street, recently won the 2012 Bath
Good Food Award for Best Express/Takeaway, so I knew I had to give it a go as
soon as possible. Although there are two small tables shoehorned into the space
between the door and the counter, seating a maximum of five people, this is
really more of a (fabulous) takeaway, so I would recommend you make like me and
get your food to go, grabbing a bench by the weir, just 100ft away.
The Tambo Kitchen serves up a small but perfectly formed
regular menu of well-stuffed, mouth-watering sandwiches and Peruvian street
food, plus a daily special, which on the day I went was lomo saltado: stir-fried strips of beef, tomato, onion and spring
onion, in a deliciously savoury sauce with soy sauce and chilli, served with
rice and chips. If that sounds like a lot for lunch, it was, but it was a cold
day and I was in need of sustenance, so it was just right! The beef was
beautifully tender, the sauce rich and full of flavour, and the ‘spiciness’ of
the spring onions and the zinginess of the chilli really made the dish sing
(Microsoft Word is currently trying to tell me that ‘zinginess’ isn’t a word,
but stuff you and your opinions, Bill Gates).
As I said, the menu isn’t extensive, but every item on it
looks delicious, and despite the tiny space available, dishes are freshly
cooked and the service is fast and friendly. Just bear in mind that you can’t
pay by card, so unless you want to undertake a lightning dash to McColls for cashback
(like me), make sure you’ve got some cash in your wallet before you head down.
