My Experience at Rick’s Café Americain..........26-04-2011

I wasn’t going to blog about Rick’s Cafe as I have been there a million times so I figured I would be bias and I would not have much to say. Much to my disappointment, I was wrong.

I convinced my friends that we should go to Rick’s Café for dinner, seeing as it is one of my favourite restaurants. I wanted to book for 19:30 but they could only accommodate us at 20:00 seeing as they would be double booking us on a table that was reserved for 17:30. I was fine with that seeing as I was a waitress myself for many years so I know how it goes. When we arrived at 20:00 some of our friends were already waiting for us at the bar. We didn’t have too many drinks as we were expecting to be shown to our table at any minute. Turns out the people who had the booking for 17:30 arrived late and hence now they weren’t done by 20:00. We eventually got seated at 20:40, which I wasn’t too happy about but what can you do. It was, after all, not Rick’s fault that the initial booking had arrived late.

My favourite meal on their menu is the Marrakech Chicken Tajine and the Chilly Poppers while my boyfriend loves their Cheese Burger. We had their Tapas Platter and some extra Chilly Poppers for starters. The Chilly Poppers were great as usual! I wasn’t too impressed with the grilled calamari on the platter. It was so small and shriveled up and didn’t taste like much either.

For mains I thought I’d try something else for a change so I went with the Lamb Tajine Royale. It was nice but the flavour was extremely rich. So much so, that I actually felt quite sick for the remainder of the evening. Three of the other people at the table had the BMB Burger and all of them were disappointed by it. My boyfriend usually raves about Rick’s burgers but this time he was not happy at all. The patties were very raw. More than it should have been and the same sauce that was used as a dip for the chilly poppers were put on the burger. This definitely didn’t complement the taste of the burger. The rolls were also quite oily.

After all of this I felt like quite a fool having been the one to convince them to come here and it having been such a disaster.

On our way out I saw the Specials board. There was never a mention of the specials at the table. The only vague hint made at the specials was when I asked the waiter if the Lamb Tajine Royale was fatty and he said it wasn’t and then mumbled something about a lamb shank. I of course had no idea what he was talking about as I know there is no lamb shank on the menu, but he didn’t elaborate.

I have been to ricks many a times and like I have mentioned before I always loved it. Therefore I am sure this was a once off bad night as I know they were quite busy as well. Although I know I will definitely not be going there anytime soon again.

Yours in fun & food,

Elly D

2 Park Road

Cape Town

(021)4241100

info@rickscafe.co.za
www.rickscafe.co.za