Restaurant Review: RUCOLA (Atyrau)

  Finest Italian restaurant opened up recently to Kazakh and foreign diners. Serving irresistible Italian cuisine in soft and silent surroundings, Rucola transports you into a home atmosphere. It is conveniently located at the crossroad where the city divides into two main parts: European and Asian. The soft green furnishings are pleasant and attract the diners into the restaurant. The chef  appears to be an Ucrainanian origin and very new to our market. But it does not put Sergey into trouble for presenting an incredibly delicate taste and well managed decoration.  

Spinach 'ravioli' that I ordered as startup and  'focaccia' for my friend tempted our imagination and stimulated us to stay. For main course my friend decided to try 'chicken cutlets' and myself stopped at 'beef steak' under cranberry sauce. The perfect quantity and delicate meat with melting mushed potato teased us to the limit and enticed us for desert. It was nice 'panacotta' we ever had around the city. Cocktail drinks were experimental in names – 'for gentlemen' attracted me most and my friend could not ignore 'blue geisha'. The  new beer of Chinese production was presented for the first time. And the prices were very democratic, done according to the portion of the main course apart from drinks from the barman. The serving shots are much smaller than the other bars in the city.

There was no proper structure in the menu that costed us time to understand. As well as the incompetence of waitresses annoyed us and made us wish better service. Changing waitresses put the cliché on the management image of the restaurant. The final waitress has made an error in the sequence of orders. She presented the starter for me and the main course for my friend at the same time. We were deluded. Later on looking around my friend noted many lighting equipments at the ceiling and for our big surprise and regret they were off. 'Why not to create more warm atmosphere and comfortable ambience' said we in a choir. The background Italian pop music matched the interiors, but after a while started to annoy. Either some clients were convinced by such a music and faded away. 

There are lots of positive about the restaurant and in particular: suitable location, chef's fine presentation of food and the interior style. But misprinting behaviour of waitresses, poor preparation of the menu and annoying music affects  the image of the restaurant and totally spoils the first impression. The restaurant could have a tendency to be the top in the city with its privileges and attributes, but the issue is still around how making the system works out. Accordingly the management should work it out for mutual interests. The complaints and recommendations from clients must be accepted and taken immediate action for an enhancement.

Generally, long lasting taste of creamy 'risottos' and the variety of 'antipasto' dishes may not keep you indifferent to this place. The high quality of food and its gentle taste keeps your eyes blanked to those minor mistakes of the backstage. For those fans of Italian diverse food and just for the change Rucola restaurant is worth to go.