RocoMamas at The Harrington

27 February 2019

ROCOMAMAS AT THE HARRINGTON

29 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

Is it worth my while writing about RocoMamas at The Harrington (impressive moniker, innit, cheekily yet misleadingly redolent of olde worlde luxury dining) or any RocoMamas outlet anywhere? The chain has been around in Cape Town for a while yet my first experiences of them were at Sun City and at Nelson Mandela Square (strictly halaal) before tonight, when RocoMamas was the most conveniently positioned eatery for dinner before a show at the Fugard Theatre. The wife refused to set foot inside the Diaz Tavern.

It seems, as has apparently been the case in Gauteng for a long time, that restaurant chains are becoming a veritable thing in the Western Cape, particularly burger chains, and I speculate how many of them will survive the 5 year and 10-year cycles. I suspect that RocoMamas may not make the cut. It's a fun kind of place, I suppose, but doesn't blow the hair back; okay, I don't have much hair left, but you know what I mean. 

The Buitenkant Street shop is not very large, furnished in the inimitable RocoMamas style, is vibey I guess and caters to a young, urban demographic and tourists in the area. One sits on hard benches, except for a long section of upholstered banquette seating at the rear wall, where the two long tables had reserved signs.  That intrigued me. Are there actually people who’d book tables for a function at this place?

The concept is simple. The diner is given a booklet of menu selection sheets where one ticks off the various components of your meal, from the basic burger (or ribs or wings), to add-ons to sides, all of which tend to expand the base price quite radically and if you’re not careful, your humble burger meal could escalate into the realms of finer dining price-wise.

Of course, it’s great to have your culinary fate in your own hands but to inflate the price of a simple burger supper like that is sharp marketing at the very least.

Two burgers, one fries, one spicy coleslaw, one chocolate milkshake and one 250ml glass of Heineken on tap cost R356 and this seemed a tad steep to me and not value for money.

The wife’s favourite pejorative for a meal she’s underwhelmed by is “decidedly average” and this describes the RocoMamas offering to the T. The burger was overcooked to my taste, and I wasn’t asked how I wanted it, and the add-ons of bacon and caramelised onion didn’t make much of an improvement. The coleslaw was good though and the wife’s ribbon fries were plentiful and crisp.

The burger is served on greaseproof paper on a wooden board and the amount of white goo on the patty soon soaked through the paper and made a mess, which was off-putting.

I was forced to drink the Heineken because the beer options were either a selection of craft beer or the products of a major beer manufacturer, neither of which I drink.  It's good that the craft beer makers, many of whom seem to be crafty only in their marketing but are otherwise major players, are given an opportunity but if there is such a wide range of choice, why can’t RocoMamas stock my brand?  We didn't fight the Beer War of 1997 for nothing, you know.

Look, if you want a mediocre burger, RocoMamas need not stand back for so many other burger joints in this town but there definitely are better burgers and better ambience to be had elsewhere.