Review on Rabot 1745
Hotel Chocolat founders, Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris opened Rabot 1745 in November 2013, a unique restaurant serving exclusive cocoa cuisine using the culinary traditions of both the West Indies and Britain. Spread over several floors in Borough Market, one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, the restaurant is named after the company's cocoa plantation in St Lucia, which has a similar restaurant called Boucan.
Combining a shop, cocktail bar and restaurant the interiors have been created by Thomas Moore Design to replica an old West Indian cacao plantation house. Highly polished ironwood felled by hurricanes from the St Lucia plantation have been used for the bespoke furniture, screens and sculptures and there's large windows and an open air terrace to take in the hubbub of the historic market below.
Heading up the kitchen is Jon Bentham who joins the restaurant from St Lucia having previously worked for esteemed chefs Stephen Bull and Gary Rhodes, as well as contributing to the training of Tom Kerridge when he was starting out. So expect the likes of potted brown shrimp in spiced cacao butter, cacao Creole chutney and salted crisp bread or cacao marinated beef and beetroot carpaccio with roast walnuts, green beans and grilled onions with cacao pesto amongst the starters. Main courses offer dishes in the shape of rare seared cacao-marinated tuna, warm spiced aubergine salad, green beans, coriander and cacao pulp yoghurt or nine hour braised lamb shoulder, cacao balsamic glaze, new season pea puree and cacao garlic mash. Close the show with white chocolate and cinnamon spiced biscuit cheesecake, cherries and kirsch, cacao pulp sauce or passion fruit and rum bavarois with Supermilk-coconut macaroons.
Service is warm and professional, there's a carefully compiled wine list that complements the food and the inventive cocktail list is well crafted.
Rabot 1745 is also featured in: Hardens
Rate this RestaurantCuisine
Modern European
Chef
Jon Bentham
Restaurant Opening Times
Breakfast: 8.00 - 11.30am Tue-Fri (9.00am - 12.00pm Sat Brunch)
Lunch: 12.00 - 3.00pm Tue-Sat (1.00 - 5.00pm Tue-Sat Afternoon Tea)
Dinner: 5.00 - 10.00pm Tue-Sat
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Master Card, American Express