The rather tasty Moorish Burger
The Riverside Grill seems to be a bit of a blessing for Bedford. The town has been having quite a bit of trouble filling all of the units in their fairly new Castle Quay area; a development of apartments and boutique shops, just off the High Street. It’s a nice, quiet location which unfortunately suffers due to it being so secluded. This restaurant seems to be helping to turn the area’s fortunes around.
My and @Mooley’s trip to the Grill was our second attempt at eating there. Although they tried to be accommodating on our first try, there clearly wasn’t enough room for us to sit without a reservation for lunch, which we saw as a very good sign. So we booked up for the following day and proceeded to turn up twenty minutes late. We were in luck and they hadn’t given away our table (though it was much quieter than it had been previously).
Although billed as a grill, the menu would suggest otherwise. There are far more items in their Speciality Burgers section of the menu than From The Grill. Nor is the grill selection particular extensive. They only offer rump or ribeye steaks, with pork chops, chicken, king prawns and grilled halloumi cheese thrown in for good measure (with a Riverside Mixed Grill getting you some of everything to share).
After choosing our wine (a nice Chilean Merlot), we headed straight for the main course and I opted for the strange-sounding Moorish Burger, which was ground lamb with homemade minty babaganoush and hummus. I must say, the meat was very good and the toppings worked extremely well. Unfortunately the bun was a little too toasted and had I tried to pick it up, the bread would have been no use at keeping all the saucy goodness inside. But it tasted great. The double-cooked chips were also very good and I found that the salad actually added to the meal, rather than can often happen and it becomes something you feel compelled to eat because it’s on your plate, rather than being something you actually want to chow down on.
Unfortunately, @Mooley’s meal was not so good. She opted for a steak which, although enormous (massively so) was simply not up to scratch. It was cooked perfectly well, but the amount of fat and gristle was frankly unacceptable. A huge vien of it running down the centre eventually called time upon a steak which the chef had clearly not taken his time over. I blame both the butcher and whoever cooked it. At some point someone should have checked that the steak was of good enough quality to be served and certainly not fobbed-off on the lunchtime crowd. And the steak certainly should not be explained away by the waiter by suggesting that “all steaks are different”. Unacceptable. The meal also took an age to arrive, in a room that certainly wasn’t at capacity. More chefs and waitresses are definitely needed.
We were offered free deserts after complaining, but we opted for a couple of coffees instead, before heading elsewhere to finish our meal off. Disappointing would be how I’d describe the experience of eating at the Riverside Grill. Which really is a shame as there aren’t enough quality restaurants in Bedford, and certainly nothing much else yet to bring you in to the Castle Quay area.
| Rating | |
|---|---|
| Riverside Grill, Bedford |   |
| Whilst I can certainly recommend the burgers to anyone looking for an alterative to a McDonalds or a Burger King, the steaks on offer are simply not good enough. | |
