Rio Review

April 28, 2015 by Our Resident Foodie Rich

Rio Review

I am getting concerned; Louisa appears to have an obsession with Tripadvisor. It’s almost become her new hobby. I often find her sitting up late at night scouring through the endless reviews looking for the new ‘big player’ in the Tripadvisor community. I must admit, I too spend a little time browsing the reviews, and it does get quite addictive, but I find myself reading more of the ‘Poor’ or worse still ‘Terrible’ reviews, than the ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, just to satisfy my curiosity really. Its just human nature right? Come on admit it, don’t we all do the same?

I do have one slight problem with Tripadvisor though. I think they need to look at their categorisation. How can a fish and chip shop be rated higher than a fine dining establishment? Don’t get me wrong, I love both, and I am sure regardless of the cuisine, any eatery highly rated will be good, but they are not comparing eggs for eggs. To demonstrate my point, when you are next trawling through Tripadvisor take a look at the restaurants of Rochford. I could not believe it, a Kebab wagon is rated higher (number 2 no less) than some of the towns somewhat finer restaurant’s! I love a kebab; yep there we go I have admitted it! You can’t beat its greasy goodness after a few cold drinks, but, a kebab wagon is hardly a restaurant, and this is exactly my point. I’m not saying the reviews should be restricted to restaurants of a certain calibre, but come on, a kebab wagon? So Tripadvisor if you are reading this, I think we need to have a chat!

Anyway, after one of Lou’s recent ‘virtual’ Tripadvisor jaunts around Leigh, Rio appeared to be receiving a number of excellent reviews. Currently sitting in 17th position with no less than 36 excellent reviews. I needed to take a look, she was right, it looked promising, I think we need to give this place a go. So last Sunday we headed along the Broadway to Rio.

Now, Rio is a pretty cool place, by day it’s a laid back bar and restaurant, serving breakfast, brunch, lunch etc. Later in the evening the music is cranked up, the DJ’s arrive and the place is transformed to a funky late night bar. It’s also recently undergone a make over, before the colour scheme was a little dark and heavy. The new look is fresh, light and modern with an airy feel, far better than the previous look.

So, we arrived on Sunday lunchtime and were immediately impressed with the look of the place. Fresh flowers on the bar and every table, their scent filled the entire place! We decided to sit by the window, so we could watch the comings and goings along the Broadway, I guess were just a bit nosey! We love a bit of people watching! As you all should know by now I am obsessed with service, well so far so good, the menus were delivered to the table and the drinks ordered, impressive! You should also know my love of all thinks beer, and they have craft beer on offer, Brewdog Punk IPA, dead pony club and meantime lager, take ya pick! Well I actually decided on a pint of Peroni, I needed first pint refreshment. Lou went for a Meantime lager, which is brewed not too far from us, in Greenwich. So on to the menu, it’s a special Sunday menu, with the obligatory roasts, as you’d expect, but also great sounding dishes such as sweet and smoky chipotle chicken skewers and a homemade hummus selection. After careful consideration, to start, Lou ordered the Pulled pork and sweet potato hash topped with a poached egg. As I mentioned earlier, we’d been tempted here based on the increasing number of ‘excellent’ tripadvisor reviews, I read their sour dough bread is a must. Well as the smoked salmon starter is served with this reported wondrous bread I just had to try it. Mains? Other than the roasts, which looked very generous (I must stop staring, and drooling at other peoples food, its not such a good look!), the other dishes sounded great. Tempura battered cod for Lou and home cooked ham, egg and chips for me. Now, just a few things to point out here, both dishes are served with triple cooked chips. Homemade tartar sauce with the cod, and not just any old egg with mine, but duck eggs. Its touches such as these, which often turn the ordinary into the superb; let’s hope so.

The starters arrived, presented beautifully; the pulled pork hash was lovely, and the egg a perfect accompaniment. The smoked salmon? This was good, served on the toasted sour dough and horseradish cream it was lovely; I can now vouch for the quality of this bread! Our empty plates were cleared, and more drinks ordered; wine for Lou, a glass of house white, and a Punk IPA for me.

The bar had been raised high, those starters were pretty good, lets hope that quality will be continued. I needn’t had worried. The tempura battered cod was beautifully light and crispy. The homemade tartar sauce was some of the best I had tasted in ages. Capers, cornichons, dill, all in a creamy mayo, yummy. The chips were blooming good. I love homemade chips; you can’t beat them can you? Why more restaurants don’t make their own, surely it works out cheaper? Now on to the dish of the day, ham, egg and chips, where do I start with this one? Well, quite simply, this dish ROCKED! The chips, the same as served with Lou’s fish, I loved em! Two duck eggs, fried to perfection with runny yolks, but the ham, ohhh the ham. No mechanically reformed processed slices here with added water and salt, no no guys it couldn’t be far from that, just two huge chunks of glorious, hand cut ham, which is so obviously homemade. When dipped in the egg yolk, add a chip and a dollop of hot English mustard, you’ve got yourself something special. This is now the benchmark to which all future ham, egg and chips shall be judged. In all seriousness, I know I am making a big deal, to what is, essentially, quite a simple dish, but surely you will all agree, if you are going to serve up something simple, just do it well, with the best ingredients you can find, and it’s a winner every time.

I nearly forgot to add at this point, as with most restaurants, once the mains are served, the question is asked ‘any sauces?’ Well, Rio is no different. I am a bit partial to a drop of ketchup on my chip, so, ‘Ketchup please’ I responded. I always hope at this point, they will not return with the dreaded sachets, all I want is a good ol’ tommy sauce, and enough of it to dip those wonderfully crispy chip in. Bingo! I was presented with a good individual portion size, of Tiptree Tomato Ketchup, what a great touch. It’s small details like this, which I love.

I am a bit conscious of waffling on a bit too much with these reviews, so I will shut up now about the holy grail of ham, egg and chips I had just discovered! But as you may have guessed the mains were good. So good I just had to try a pudding, and you all know I rarely save enough room, but each of the previous courses just excelled each other, so I expected great things! It was no contest for me, if I see salted caramel on any menu I just have to get involved, and there it was; salted caramel chocolate brownie! Lou loves a bit of Rhubarb, so the rhubarb crumble and custard was for her. The brownie was great; gooey, chocolaty and with glorious salted caramel, not forgetting a scoop of vanilla ice cream, lovely. The crumble was equally good, reminiscent of those my mum used to make when I was a young lad!

As I am sure you can imagine, by this point I was almost in a food coma, so it was time to leave. The bill arrived and 3 courses for £61.90 not too bad at all!

I started off this review having a little dig at Trip Advisor, but I have got to admit it, they have come up trumps here. Friendly service, great food, I can’t agree more with all those previous diners who rated Rio as ‘Excellent’. Yet another great eatery in Leigh, aren’t we spoilt. On the back of this recent Tripadvisor success I might even give that kebab wagon in Rochford a try, surely its gotta be good!

Oh, just one final thing, and I am hoping somebody can help, what the hell was Rio called before it was Rio? I hadn’t been in there since it changed names, which was a few years ago. Neither myself or Louisa can remember, and its been bugging us since Sunday.