The heat is on for the South American cattle farmers as the campaign to promote British meat steps up a gear.

TV chef Jamie Oliver wants to save British pork; his friend Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wants to save British chickens – and according to those Morrisons adverts, Top Gear's Richard Hammond wants "100 per cent British beef, 100 per cent of the time".

So clearly, the oxygen of publicity is not on the side of Argentinian steak-houses such as River Plate.

But then, with a prime location on The Calls, maybe the only publicity River Plate needs is word of mouth.

In which case, it needs to shout much louder to keep up with the competition.

That said, in a strange way, one of the best things about this restaurant is the fact that it doesn't scream "Latino".

The decor reflects the South American theme, with wooden floorboards, samba music and a few Argentinian signposts – but it doesn't come across as desperately as some of the other South American venues in Leeds.

A pool table and a fish tank sit in one corner, which gives the restaurant a relaxed vibe, and when you walk inside, it feels like you're on holiday. You could be relaxing near a beach somewhere with your troubles far behind you.

But unfortunately, the vacation stopped there, with a string of culinary nightmares and a host of dishes off the menu.

The first hitch came when we were ordering the starters. I chose three empanadas (£5.95), two in ham and cheese and one in beef, olive and egg for my dining partner, who wanted the queso provolone a la pamilla (also £5.95).

However, they didn't have the chargrilled provolone cheese and he had to settle for baked brie on a bed of salad.

On the menu, the empanadas are described as "small parcels wrapped in authentic pastry", which are then served with a choice of fillings, depending on the recipe. However, I can describe the River Plate empanada in just two words – Cornish pasty.

Except unlike cornish pasties, the pastry was tough instead of flakey; the filling was bland instead of rich; and instead of being spread evenly throughout the pasty (sorry, empanada), the insides were squashed into a weird-looking sausage shape.

It didn't taste horrible, but I expected better – and it was about as Argentinian as a Big Mac.

As the steak is the restaurant's speciality, we were hoping for better from the much-anticipated main course.

My indecisive dining partner didn't know which steak to have and he waiter didn't know the weights of the steak in pounds and ounces, while my dining partner didn't understand the weights in grams, and couldn't decide whether to have the 225g or the 300g rib-eye steak.

The waiter offered to bring the slabs of meat to the table so my dining partner could personally choose his dish - but luckily, a swift kick under the table brought him (my dining partner, not the waiter) to his senses.

He eventually ordered the larger rib-eye steak (Bife de Ancho, £16.95) and a portion of "meat's best friend", the Chimichurri sauce (£1.50), containing a blend of parsley, basil, oregano, garlic, wine vinegar, lemon, paprika, black pepper and olive oil.

I went for the 225g Bife de Chorizo sirloin steak (£15.95) with the Salsa de las Pampas sauce (£1.50) – a blend of Roquefort cheese, white wine, cream and fresh herbs – while we shared homemade fries (£2.30), mange tout (£3) and some ali-oli sauce (£1.50).

When the waiter brought the dishes over, he confidently placed them in front of us as though he knew who had ordered which.

But my dining partner and I weren't sure. His certainly looked bigger, but mine was a lot rarer – he had asked for rare, while I ordered medium to well-done. We kept our dishes but, to this day, we're not sure if they were the right way round.

As a result, I didn't find the main dish that appetising. But I can appreciate good steak and, if I was a lover of rare meat, I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more. The texture was perfect and you could tell it was good quality – if only it wasn't so pink.

My dining partner certainly thought his was delicious and it's a good job, considering the amount of time he spent choosing it.

The homemade fries and the mange tout were also pretty decent, as were the dips – although again, I struggled to tell which was which. Neither tasted particularly like garlic or blue cheese; but both went well with the chips and the steak.

Onto the desserts and once again, the restaurant had run out of my dining partner's choice, the Alfajores Patagonicos (flavoured biscuit with dulce de leche filling covered with chocolate). He and the waiter really weren't getting on well by the end of the meal.

But luckily, River Plate had more desserts on the specials menu than the actual menu, which meant I went for the chocolate fudge cake, while my dining partner reluctantly chose the waffle with vanilla ice cream and syrup (£4.95 each).

The cake was actually my favourite part of the meal – it was gooey, soft and sweet, while the ice cream was delicious.

The food certainly got better as the meal progressed, from the disastrous Cornish pasty to the divine chocolate cake, but the restaurant's speciality steak was pretty mediocre.

All in all, I've certainly had worse – but River Plate will have to do a lot better to keep up with its top-class neighbours.

River Plate, 36 - 38 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7EW

Opening hours: Mon to Sat: 5-11pm.

Tel. 0113 391 2792

Website: click here

Star rating
FOOD: 2/5
VALUE: 2/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5
SERVICE: 2/5