First restaurant review! The Rag at Rawnsley

Hello there fellow foodies!

Welcome to my first restaurant review blog. I'm going to be publishing it separately from my recipe blog and it should be more or less every week, depending on how much I dine out.

I want to start with reviews of restaurants, pubs, diners and cafes round my local area. Hopefully my experiences will strike a chord with anyone who doesn't live in a particularly foodie town but does like to go out for something to eat. I will be going to good places, which are usually a bit of a drive out of Cannock and bad places which are, unfortunately, numerous but close.

I've always enjoyed going out for something to eat, whether its a cheap midweek carvery to save on washing up at home, a quick bite somewhere to fill a hole, a nice curry with a group of friends or a special occasion full blown 4 hour Michelin starred  experience. I still remember when i was a kid getting ready for a family meal at what was usually a Berni Inn. I didn't like having to come home from a hard days BMX-ing or building dens over Cannock Chase and getting changed out of my usual tracksuit, having to have a wash  and putting on a shirt and sensible shoes but I new it was worth the effort because I loved the feeling of being in a restaurant. The buzz of the serving staff and dining room, the smells coming from the kitchens, the huge menus with exotic sounding items like scampi, prawn cocktail, chicken Caesar salad, lasagna, stroganoff, creme brulee and chocolate fudge cake. (well, this was the 70's!). As kids we were never allowed to order anything off the steak part of the menu as it was far too expensive!
These days, of course, if i want a steak I'll have one. Although to be honest when im at a restaurant I like to order something I can't do at home, whether that's because I don't have the ingredients, the time, or the inclination and you can guarantee that no matter where i go i will study the menu as if im going to be tested on its contents and I will always be the one everyone is waiting for when the waiter comes to take the orders.

So, on with the review!

I like The Rag In fact, a few years ago I left my job as Head Chef at the Bank bar in Cannock to go and work there because I thought it would be good experience. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived as I didn't get on with the chefs but that has never put me off going to eat there.

I went on a Monday night as i knew it would be fairly quiet and I took with me my good friend the fantastically gorgeous Josephina. She is always great company and we hadn't seen each other for a while so had a lot of catching up to do.
 In fact we did so much catching up, and laughing like drains, that i forgot I was supposed to be doing serious blogging and only took four photos. Still, as this is my first review im sure you will let me off and i promise I'll be much more professional next time!

After telling the waitress that we hadn't even looked at the menu as we were chatting so much we decided to dive in and see what was on offer. Along with the main menu was a shorter menu with an offer of 2 courses for 2 people, including a bottle of wine for £30. We both decided to go for that as there were some good food on it.
So, second time around, we placed our order with the friendly waitress. We ordered a starter of tempura belly pork with sweet chilli jam to share followed by a steak for Josephina and a "duo of lamb" for myself and to drink we chose a bottle of "jack and Gina" rose wine. I'm not one for Rose if I'm honest but Josephina doesn't do red and I don't do white so it was an obvious choice. Thankfully it was a nice, perfectly quaffable bit of booze.

Freshly baked bread was bought out to us, still warm from the oven (they used to bake their bread in flower pots which i always thought was a great idea, but as a chef there was a bit of a fiddly process ).

 Then, soon after our tempura belly pork.

As you can see the starter looked very appetising and was with us about 10 minutes after ordering. Nice crispy fresh tempura batter gave way to a unctuous piece of slow cooked belly pork, which both of us enjoyed immensely. The salad garnish was fresh and properly dressed ( I always eat salad garnishes, and I like it when they are done properly.) The only bit of a let down for me was the chilli jam which was out of a jar, but that's nit-picking really at these prices and Josephina liked it anyway.
After more chatting, mostly about Josephina's incredibly diverse job ( a job which I'm afraid readers is a bit too rude for me to tell you about! ). and a top up of our wine glasses we were presented with our mains.

My "duo of lamb" was a fantastic little shepherds pie, sweet with marsala wine and seasoned to perfection with a light fluffy mash top along side  a mound of slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, removed from the bone and  pressed onto a scallop of potato, with a very tasty and rich red wine jus.

Josephina's steak was a good hunk of rump with onion rings which, unusually, were breaded rather than battered. I tried one and couldn't really tell whether they were home made or bought in, so I suppose it didn't really matter either way as they were good.

Our sides arrived-a good bowl of properly cooked and buttered fresh carrots, cauliflower and broccoli and a large bowl of home-made chips between us.

My "duo of lamb" didn't  disappoint, the rich, tender shoulder of lamb was so tasty that  I forgot to ask Josephina if she'd like to try some and it had all gone by the time I remembered, oops!
The shepherds pie was also good, properly braised minced lamb in a sweet but not sickly sauce with smooth creamy mash. The red wine jus was divine. Again, sweet, but balanced and with a great slightly sticky quality that is a good sign of a proper home made jus.
Josephina's steak was perfectly cooked to her liking (well done) and a really good beefy flavour to it that can only come from a well-hung and aged piece of meat. ( she was far more polite than me and offered me a try.)They do use local produce at the Rag and this shows in the finished dishes.
The chips, to me, were just OK. Homemade yes, but I am a real enthusiast of the humble potato and compare all chips to my own home made, which are still the best chips I've ever tasted, so they'd have to be absolutely amazing for me to be impressed by them. Josephina really liked them though, but she has yet to try mine!

After a quick look at the dessert menu we decided on toffee pecan roulade to share.
I knew this wasn't going to be home made as its a product I'm familiar with  from working in a food distribution warehouse, but it was fine for what it was and looked good on the plate when the waitress brought it to us. (sorry, too busy enjoying our night to take a picture of it.)

All in all it was a fine night. Its great to see that there are places not too far away from me that do really good food. Benny (the gaffer, possibly the hardest working man I know, and definitely the hardest chef to get along with, in my opinion.) and his team at The Rag do great work in keeping the place one of the best in the area.
If you fancy trying it then please book up at least a couple of days in advance.The offer we had runs from Monday to Thursday but if you want a Friday night, a Sunday lunch or any special occasion (mothers day, valentines etc) then I would recommend booking a couple of weeks in advance.

Right, that's it then. hope you enjoyed my first review! Ive got some interesting places to eat coming up soon so I hope you will keep your eyes peeled for future blogs.

Happy eating!

Mat.