On first impressions Rakonto looks like it should be really good. They’ve ticked the modern interior box and the locations not shabby either, situated close by to The Larder and close to the Arena, the potential is good.
We were quickly led to our little table and from there it seemed to change. We decided to try the 3 course sizzling menu at £19.95pp. From the menu we began with a starter of Grilled Haloumi with Mediterranean veg and pesto. I actually really enjoyed this dish. It was cooked well and flavoursome. You can do great things with Haloumi. The presentation was also professional, in other words, it looked and tasted great.
There was a long wait for our main course, the Sizzler Mix Grill; a sharing platter for two. It was hard to identify what was on the plate, but the menu advised it consisted of Beef Steak, BBQ Pork ribs, Thai King Prawns, Chicken Tikka and Piri Piri Wings. I can only assume that the items had been over cooked. The prawns were ok, the chicken tikka was passable but didn’t taste like traditional chicken tikka. The Piri Piri Wings and BBQ Pork Ribs were questionable, whilst the Beef steak, which they advertise as ‘tender’, was tough and inedible. I tried but ended up leaving it along with a lot of the other items. It all felt a little like a barbecue that had gone wrong, which is weird because you can see the chefs cooking at the station.
I thought maybe we’d chosen badly with our main course so surely the dessert would redeem them. I opted for the Mango Cheese Cake. How wrong could you go with that? Clearly you can. It was bland and synthetic tasting, not dissimilar to something you’d pick up in supermarket. After sampling the main course my companion didn’t even have their dessert. They requested a coffee instead, which the waitress checked they could have, even that was slightly bitter. Maybe we should have stopped at the starter.
Rakonto apparently means story in Esperanto, sadly this one didn’t have a happy ending The restaurant has the potential to be great, but the overall impression we were left with was disappointing/average food for a good looking venue and location.
For Bookings contact: 9241742 or visit http://www.rakontobargrill.co.uk/
By Tanya Raybould
