The reason for my visit to Latino had less to do with the restaurant’s birthday (we didn’t actually know it was the night of its first anniversary until we arrived) and more to do with my dining companion. Visiting Doha for the first time, my sister had spent a year living in South America and I wasn’t going to miss the chance of taking someone with first-hand knowledge of the region’s cuisine to check out Latino.

Fighting through a sea of birthday balloons, we found the venue to be spacious and cool, all dark wood, adobe-coloured walls, and bright flashes of Latin art. And yummy smells – let’s not forget the smells.

To celebrate the restaurant’s birthday, the chef had prepared a selection of complimentary canapés – Brazilian-style croquettes and spicy shredded beef sandwiches, which we happily munched through as we perused the menu.

Before we even got to the food, however, we had to try a quintessential South American drink: a pisco sour. Alas, it was not on the menu, but we made a nuisance of ourselves and ask the bartender anyway. It arrived lacking the iconic foam on the top, but my sister, with ample pisco-sour drinking experience, deemed it to be ‘just like in Lima’. Score one for the attentive bartender’s willingness to improvise.

But we weren’t there for the drinks. My sister had been craving an empanada all day, but opted for the broccoli soup after I promised to order the beef empanada and let her try a bite. Both dishes arrived quickly, and I was instantly pleased with my choice. Wrapped in tender pastry, the beef and vegetable filling was hearty with a zippy, spicy tomato sauce on the side. Essentially a fried-meat pie, this one was surprisingly light and didn’t feel greasy. After enviously coveting her bite of my empanada, my sister turned back to her soup. Although it was lacking in presentation (it was greenish sludge in a bowl), it tasted amazing. With a sharp tang of vegetables, it’s lighter than expected and it was creamy without making her feel as if she was slurping up whole milk.

Impressed we moved on to mains. Here is where we tested my sister’s authentic chops: she ordered the picante de polo, a spicy chicken dish served with a chunky, almost stew-like sauce on a bed of rice. This is what she’d eat almost every day while living in the wilds of Ecuador. When it arrived, it’s a far bigger portion, triple the size of what she was used to, but after a few bites she proclaimed that it’s faultlessly authentic. Tender chicken mixed with spicy tomatoes and vegetables are tempered by the bed of rice, and she tucks in, attempting to make her way through what looked like (from my end of the table, at least) half a chicken on her plate.

But what Latino really prides itself on is its steaks (and with an Argentinean chef in the kitchen, there’s good reason). I ordered the tenderloin, which is marinated in spices before it’s grilled. For sides, I opted for the creamed spinach and the steak fries. When it arrived, the sides were presented in two cups: cute, but I’d never seen that much creamed spinach in one place before. Topped with melted cheese, it’s yummy, but I had no hope of ever reaching the bottom of the dish. The fries, thankfully, were equally plentiful and exactly what a French fry should be: thick, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The steak also comes with three different spicy sauces, at different levels of heat, but after a few bites I realised I didn’t even need them – the meat was juicy and perfectly flavoured, the marinade gave it a savoury bite, and so tender the steak knife seems like overkill – I could have cut it with a butter knife. Our table became very quiet, save for the occasional moan of delight and the soft ‘whap’ of the back of my fork on my sister’s hand when she tried to steal a bite from my plate. Despite ourselves, we couldn’y finish: the portions were just too generous. We asked for it to be packaged to go, and looked forward to lunch the next day (spoiler: the steak was just as good the day after).

But we weren’t done, and the lure of dessert beckoned. We went for the Argentinean bread pudding, made from croissants and topped with dulce du leche, and the chocolate mousse. The bread pudding was a surprise: the compressed sweet pastries gave it a cheesecake-like texture, and it was sweet without being cloying; the sauce a rich delight. But the real star was the chocolate mousse. Rich and creamy and served in a massive glass, it had a hidden, spicy chilli powder kick. Chocolate and chilli: together at last. Although not what you’d expect, it was awesome and so good that we asked for the remainder to be packed to go as well.

Latino, tucked downstairs in the Sheraton, may not have received as much attention in its first years as other new restaurants in Qatar, and for that we should all be deeply ashamed of ourselves. The service is good, the atmosphere convivial, and the food is like a yummy trip to South America without the long-haul flight.

The bill (for two)
1x Beef empanadas QR48
1x Broccolli soup QR28
1x Tenderloin QR170
1x Picante de pollo QR85
1x Chocolate mousse QR34
1x Bread pudding QR30
1x Large water QR20
Total (including charges) QR415