After starting with Italian, it was time to move on to Latin American. Not the most obvious choice when it comes to a 'traditional Christmas' but once inside the buzzy Las Ignuanas in Spitalfields Market, you can see why a Christmas party would be a whole lot of fun here. There’s choice of Christmas lunch (until 4pm) or dinner menu (any time), a happy ‘hour’ from 12.30 to 7pm and all day Sunday to Wednesday with two-for-one cocktails and pitchers. There’s a laid-back atmosphere that still manages to be incredibly cool, fun helpful staff and floor-to-ceiling window views out to twinkling Christmas lights and festive market bustle.

And the menu keeps up the fun festive feeling indoors, some Christmas fan obviously had a great time writing it. How about Top-Of-The-Tree Totopos – tortilla chips and salsa – or the Deck The Halls Halloumi Salad for starters? It being nippy outside, we went for Fabulous Crab & Crayfish Gratin – lovely creamy smoky sauce housing tasty morsels of shellfish – and Truffled Champinones – mushrooms in smoked chilli sauce with truffle salsa - which were very tasty and the chef turned up to talk about the special smoked chillis he’d used to make them.

For mains it was the rather spectacular looking Christmas Calabaza Cracker – an entire half baked butternut squash packed with veggie goodies, spinach, mushrooms, cheese, cream – and Camarao Yule Caruru, which was the hit of the lunch – a traditional Brazilian dish of prawns in thick sauce of spinach, okra, pepper, habanero chillies, coconut milk and butternut squash.

A Guava Cheesecake Greeting combined a big slap of creamy cheesecake with a sticky sweet guava sauce and the slice of Angelic Brazil Nut Tart was a fantastic take on a mince pie, with crunchy Brazil nuts in a treacle and mincemeat tart, served with spiced custard.

The Christmas menu should be booked in advance and Las Iguanas will donate £5 to local charities for each Christmas party booking of 10 or more. Las Igunas has branches all over the UK and this year has also teamed up with UK toy retailer The Entertainer who will match each donation and supply toys to children’s hospices, hospitals and women’s refuges.

I strongly recommend adding a Latin American slant to your Christmas dining experience this year.

Las Iguanas Spitalfields is located at 1 Horner Square, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6AA, phone 020 7426 0876 or email spitalfields@iguanas.co.uk to book. Find your nearest Las Iguanas here

What will you do after dinner? Well - you could catch a carol concert around the country, do a bit of shopping at a Christmas market, take in a festive panto or go ice skating. Enjoy the festive season!