Tucked away on the corner of Montgomery Street and West Montgomery Place is Café Renroc, a bright and stylish little café bar. With beautiful cornicing and a chic blend of dark floors, white walls and light wood tables, it’s a perfect little summer hangout spot, and truly one of the bonniest wee places in the city.
Interior
Unfortunately, on my lunchtime visit, today, I was met with a really mixed bag that didn’t provide a fitting match for the elegance and charm of the surroundings.
Upon entering the relaxed confines, the counter woman was extremely welcoming, and she put up with my usual ordering vagueness with polished panache. With her help, I eventually settled upon a goat’s cheese and pastrami ciabatta, to follow my soup.
Sad soup
Their nice outside seating area was busy, today, and it seemed that their downstairs bistro was similarly chock full, as service was rather chaotic. It took fully twenty minutes between ordering and leaving. So, basically this is a place to sit in, as they’re just not set up to handle takeaway customers.
Once returned to the office with my goods, I turned first to the soup. I regret to report that it was very sad indeed. It had a sharply unappealing taste and lacked body.
Ciabatta
Luckily, the toasted ciabatta was significantly better, with generous amounts of tangy cheese and nicely peppered pastrami. I was really pleased with it.
So, Café Renroc had peaks and troughs like a rollercoaster. It’s worthy of a repeat visit simply because it’s such a lovely wee spot, and considering how close it is to the main drag, it’s remarkably quiet and laid back, even when sitting outside. The pace of service is too slow for it to be a viable takeaway place, so sitting in is definitely the way to go. The quality of their soup needs a huge upgrade, though, so I’d steer clear of that in favour of some of the other options on their menu.
Scores
Blythe scores Café Renroc
2.5/5 for food
3/5 for presentation
4.5/5 for setting
2.5/5 for service
giving an overall 12.5/20
Today’s quester was: Blythe
I ate: tomato and rosemary soup, toasted goat’s cheese and pastrami ciabatta
I drank: nowt
I wore: red, white and blue www.tieclub.co.uk tie
Total bill: £4.50
