It’s a Thursday night in January and we’re on our way to see They Might Be Giants. Cat drops the hint that we should make a night of it and grab a meal in town before the gig. I am easily persuaded, but not great at making decisions.
“Where do you fancy going?”
“A curry? Italian?”
“it’ll have to be quick”
This is our in depth text conversation as I was running late from work. We rapidly turned ourselves around in the house and headed into town. After struggling to find a closer parking spot to the Riverside Newcastle, we ended up in Quayside Multi story car park up from the Law Courts. We walked past several restaurants, most of which were empty, until we reached Babucho, Dean Street. A poster advertising their Rapido Menu caught our eye and we were ready to dine.
Babucho – Rapido Menu
We were quickly escorted through the restaurant to our table for two in the back section of the restaurant. It was clearly a popular choice as there were lots of diners in tonight. Our table was set next to a communal bench seat and another two tables for two. I did notice the potential proximity of the neighbouring table being a skinny thigh’s gap apart.
We’d settled on the Rapido Menu, which offered 2 courses for £11.95 or 3 courses for £14.95. As the time was ticking away until we had to be at the gig we only had 2 courses.
Our waitress brought our drinks, a Coke and a glass of Pinot Grigio. The wine was served in a mini carafe, which held just a single serving of wine. It was a cute little touch that added a little more interest into… A glass of white wine.
As we chatted about our kids, work and life the neighbouring tables filled up. Two more couples, who also ordered off the Rapido menu. We couldn’t help but get distracted by the conversation between the waitress and our neighbours. Mainly because the tables were so close together, but also it was the most awkward discussion about garlic butter / garlic dip / garlic sauce, which was corrected to garlic mayonnaise.
Our meals arrived and the presentation was perfect. I couldn’t fault the plating, the colours and the attention to detail. I chose potato skins (can you believe I’m getting excited about beautiful potatoe skins?), Cat chose Ribbolita, which is a Tuscan, Tomato, kale and Bean soup. Both were delicious and I can’t fault them.
For our mains Cat ordered Pollo Parmigiana Pizza, (a chicken pizza). I ordered Steak Frites (rump steak bashed into a submission, until it became pizza thick). The steak added a £5 supplement to the bill. Only because we’re a lovey Dovey couple (not) we shared the meals 50/50. In reality it’s mainly as we like to taste lots of food and it looks just greedy ordering two mains each.
I sliced up the steak with the large knife resting on my plate into two portions and timed the transfer with a quarter of pizza heading to my plate (I did get half, just needed more space on my plate). The steak came with a Diane sauce and skinny fries. The meat was tasty enough to leave off the sauce. Cat’s standard knife struggled to cut up the meat, which resulted in me leaning over the table cutting bite size pieces as I would do for my youngest child. The pizza was tasty, but relatively plain. The Diane sauce was a nice dipping flavour for it. I’m glad I ordered the steak.
For more detail about this restaurant visit their website here.
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