Ahh soo, Arco!

I promised I would return, and I feel that the time has come that you are hungry for more Nik-knacks. Well, I'm not just an aspiring languages teacher and Technology enthusiast(see all previous blogs) I'm also a big fan of a good meal (who isn't), so moving forward some of these blogs will be reviewing various eateries. A lot of the meal reviews will be based around Coventry and it's surrounding area as this is where I am currently based. Furthermore, if future Warwick University students find this blog, it will serve as a useful guide of places to go/avoid. So without further ado, lets get on with our first review: 

Arco 

Bar and Ristorante 

https://www.arcocoventry.com/

Located at 13 The Butts, Arco is located in an ideal area just on the outskirts of the city centre and handily very close to student friendly pub The Aardvark.  Opening at 5pm each evening, it's an Italian establishment offering Pizza, Pasta, Seafood and meat based dishes. With a 4.8/5 Star rating on Google reviews, I had high hopes when my friends suggested our latest meal here.

With the decision made to go to Arco for Monday evening, as all good food critics do, I studiously spent Sunday evening studying the menu (ignoring the far more important tasks I should have been focusing on).  So, now, one day later let's give Arco a score

Location and Layout

Location as mentioned is excellent, in terms of you can have a drink in the aardvark before/after, or you can easily walk to/from the city centre to get the establishment. Upon arrival you will find a clean and tidy establishment with a pleasing décor, which is certainly easy on the eye. It is also somewhat larger than it appears from the outside which is a nice surprise. 

5 Nik-Knacks

Menu

The Menu, whilst offering a reasonable choice is not extensive, not this is necessarily a bad thing of course, far better to have fewer options that are quality than a plethora of rubbishness.  However, with only 6 possible starters on offer and 3 of them fish-based, I feel like this aspect of the menu could certainly be improved.  My party (of 3 people due to an unfortunate no-show) opted for a starter each and the Mussels starter to share (pictured) These were all delicious.

This was in fact my first time to try Mussels and I have to say, they were delicious. Our individual starters were all agreed to be equally tasty. A very promising start.

Onto the main meals, and having spent 24 hours looking forward to my 'carefully selected' 'slow cooked pork belly' dish, I was distraught to learn that they simply didn't have any Pork available.  I instead had the same dish, but with Pork replaced by Lamb Shank (pictured below), which I have to say simply fell of the bone, accompanied by some delicious mash and vegetables. I could not fault my meal at all, we also had some accompanying Parmesan chips, which were both beautiful but very very filling. So only get those if you are extremely hungry.  The other meals in my party had a free choice Pizza (pictured below) and the Pollo Pesto dish as both went for more traditional Italian meals than I had selected.  The Pizza, whilst nice, had a very take-away Pizza (think Dominos) feel, which you would probably hope for more. The Pollo however, was noted to be delicious if ever so slightly over garlicked. 

Drinks are where, for me, Arco was somewhat of a let down,  offering a choice of various Wines/Champagnes. I opted for the only draft beer on the menu 'Cruzcampao' which is not even Italian. Why not get Birra on tap, or even better Angelo Poretti? Of course, this is just my preference, if you are a fan of Wine you will  be fine. There is also a selection of teas/coffees/soft drinks on offer.

 Lamb Shank

Free choice Pizza

Starters : 4 Nik-knacks (would be 5 with more options)

Mains :  4.5 Nik-knacks (My meal would get 5, but marked down slightly for the pizza)

Drinks: 3 Nik-knacks. Needs more on-tap options

Price

Lets just state from the outset, Arco is not cheap. With most starters coming in at £9 which even for standardly expensive establishments is on the high side for starters, however they were all of a good size. The main meals were more traditionally priced ranging between £14 to £20. My chosen dish of the Lamb Shank was £17.90 which I feel was more than reasonable for a highly quality piece of Lamb.   Drinks are also somewhat on the costly side at £4.50 for a 330 ML bottle of Peroni, the draft beer was more reasonable at £5.30 for a pint.

Our parties bill totalled £114 for 3 people (4 starters, 3 mains, 1 side and 5 drinks) 

Overall, it's not cheap, but you are paying for quality and in that respect it does the job. 3.5 Nik-knacks. 

Summary

Arco is a nice restaurant, it has a nice ambience and is ideally located. The menu could be bigger and the prices could be a bit more wallet friendly.  However, should you go, you are sure to have a nice meal, with excellent staff on hand. It's an ideal place to go for an occasion, birthday meal etc. Cost would prevent it being a regular haunt, but certainly good for a semi-regular visit if you want a  pleasant, chilled out Italian dinner. 

Overall 4 Nik-Knacks 

As Michael Scott once said : 

"Do you even bother cooking and stick with your standard eggs or avocado toast or try something new like carbonara for once?"

so go try something new- go try the classic carbonara at Arco (or my advice- try the Pork belly if they have it- but avoid the pizza) 

here are the menus to check out:

Arco Menus

Hope you enjoyed this first food blog! Okay. BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE