Rococo, Shrewsbury

My cousin booked for us to visit Rococo, in Shrewsbury, during a weekend visit to Shropshire.  It was once Owen's, a reliable and good quality option that I have frequented for many years, and so I was interested to see if it could be bettered.

We called on Tuesday for a Saturday reservation, which was no problem.  I was glad we did for, within half an hour of being seated at 7.30, the place was full.  It is a large room filled with dark wood furniture, large potted plants and mood lighting and is very attractive.  A long bar runs along the back.  

We chose a bottle of pinot grigio and a jug of tap water whilst we perused the menu and eventually decided upon a mezze platter to share for starter, a vegetarian option of linguine for my cousin (I'm afraid I forget the sauce but I know it came with wild mushrooms and was creamy) and for myself a special - the crab and cherry tomato risotto.

The platter was very good - lovely bread (although only one piece each), generous squares of feta, big juicy stuffed olives, homemade tzatziki and smooth garlicky houmous.  The main courses were good but not excellent.  Apparently the pasta dish was tasty but a little overfacing and Arabella couldn't finish - it looked a little bit greasy as well.  My risotto was a lovely texture and consistency but was just a bit bland - the crab was tasteless and the cherry tomatoes were cold and hard instead of soft and oozing into the rice as I imagined they would be.  It seemed that they had just been chopped on top of the dish straight from the fridge.

We were too full for puddings, although they looked appealing, and pressed on with two cocktails each from their attractive menu.  They were very fairly priced at £5-£6 each and really added to the fantastic atmosphere.  From 9pm a guy played guitar and sang a mixture of old classics and current chart hits which wasn't intrusive but made a lovely backdrop to the evening.

We stayed until gone midnight and were never made to feel like we should pay up or move on.

A great night and nice restaurant which could be made fantastic with a few tweaks.

Two courses, half a bottle of wine and two cocktails: £35 per head

Value: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Atmosphere: 8/10

Food: 6/10

SCORE: 29/40

Rococo, 18 Butcher Row, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1UW.  Tel: 01743 363633.