RNK Restaurant, Old Chester Road, Bebington, Wirral

May 16 2008 by Glyn Mon Highes, Liverpool Daily Post

Glyn Mon Hughes enjoys food at the RNK . . . eventually

IT’S the stuff of weekend travel supplements. While away, your time in one of South Africa’s fine restaurants . . . Once there, things can be different, as we found out. When service is something between lax and laid-back horizontal, people glance at each other and murmur “TAB”. Bemused, we discovered it stands for “That’s Africa Babe”.

Back in Wirral, we could say something similar about service at RNK. When we visited, it was painfully slow. That’s in stark contrast to a matter of months ago when a group of us went there for a celebration dinner. Then the food was fantastic, unusual, undeniably something to remember.

Thinking about it, that standard of food is probably still available, but we seemed to catch it on a bad night when supplies seemed to run low and two large parties descended on the establishment en masse, throwing everything into disarray.

However, it is distressing to hear the waitress offer one lady on an adjacent table a bowl of plantain crisps since she felt close to collapse after waiting so long for her food.

Putting that behind us, what is RNK really like? A great idea. An Afro-Caribbean restaurant in the gastronomic wilderness of Wirral. And it’s BYO – massively popular in other parts of the world but not something which has caught on in penny-pinching Britain. So raid your own wine cellar, or your local where the wine list will be massive and, compared to marked-up restaurant prices, cheap, even taking into account the £2 per bottle corkage – or, increasingly these days, screwage – charge.

RNK’s drinks list is interesting, even taking into account that no alcohol is available. You could stick in the safe range and ask for something from their range of fresh juices, or even the omnipresent J2O. But, verging on the exotic, there’s Tropical Punch at £1.90 or a range of freshly-prepared smoothies with some intriguing names: the Immuniser, for instance, or Berry Boost, Pineapple Power Punch or Mango Tango.

There are also some tantalising non-alcoholic fruit wines available for £3 a glass. Mark spotted Malta Guinness, brewed in Nigeria and, according to the manufacturers, Africa’s most popular soft drink. He sounded prepared to be disappointed, saying that “his experience of non-alcoholic beers is not good”.

“It’s a shame you don’t see this very often,” he said, “as it is pleasant and full-bodied. It’s rather like an adult version of dandelion and burdock.”

I went for the Berry Boost, an explosion of flavours and very refreshing – though I really felt I needed rehydrating, as we had to wait 45 minutes merely for the drinks to appear.

But what of the food? The choice is a little bewildering, though staff can advise on the best choice, though if you’re really not sure, you could go for the tasting platter – a little bit of everything. For single starters, there’s familiar jerk flavoured barbecue spicy pork ribs, or suya – peppered beef – seasoned with African allspice.

Mark asked for grilled plantain and white fish, seasoned with bay leaf and pimento, all served on a bed of rocket (£4.50) while I asked for the highly spiced yam pepper soup, which is seasoned with African allspice chilli, palm oil and coriander. In the soup, there’s a choice of fish, meat or vegetables.

“The plantain is crispy and the fish plentiful and tasty,” said Mark, “and there’s a hint of fieriness. This really is a starter which makes you want more.”

I’d sampled the soup (£5.50) previously so was prepared for its heat, though I had forgotten quite how spicy it really was. I’d asked for fish in the soup – again plentiful – but I was a little disappointed at the slick of palm oil floating on the top.

We could also have done with a jug of water to quell the flames and to clear the palate, though this was not offered.

Five rice dishes are offered, including fried rice, pineapple rice or plain boiled rice and diners are advised to order a rice dish, combining it with one other offering from the main course menu. This appears to be an eclectic mix of Caribbean curries, beef and fish combinations and authentic African recipes.

Mark asked for Jolof rice (£5.50) – West African savoury rice cooked in tomatoes, red peppers, onions and thyme – along with beef pieces (£5.50), which came seasoned with Jamaican pimento, thyme and onions, and cooked in its own juice.

I passed on the rice, as I ordered sadsa (£8.50), also known as millie meal. This is a Zimbabwean dish made from dry maize and served with spinach.

I also ordered moin moin (£4.50), a West African savoury bean cake, which is a steamed paste mixture of black eye beans, vegetable oil, salt, mackerel and smoked African prawn. The whole meal was also served with RNK’s own savoury tomato sauce.