Checco’s - A Tasteem Review
Checco’s is an Italian restaurant we frequent just occasionally. I say this as there are a few reasons why.
It’s very close to where we live, its better than most of the other local haunts and it’s comparatively expensive.
Reason #3 should be emphasized and why we visit just, ‘occasionally’.
I have often said, if the food is wonderful then it doesn’t matter how much its costs, but it does actually because my pockets are not passively gold encrusted with a built in baby production line.
So there you have it; in my opinion Checco’s is comparatively expensive for what you get and so it’s only an occasional dining experience.
To enter the restaurant, you need to go in through a small side door that looks like someone’s house. The food rating sticker on the door gives it away though.
Expensive or not, you need to book to get a table at Checco’s, especially at weekends as the interior is not very large. I would say there are 25 tables at best in several different sections.
There’s a really cool map of Italy on the wall where you pay for your food which shows all the elevations of the different parts of the country. It’s interesting for someone like me who doesn’t know the mountainous areas, while waiting to empty my pockets on departure.
It was already quite busy when we arrived which made for some uncomfortable photographs. The waiter didn’t look too happy with me taking this one with him staring into the camera.
The tables are a little cramped for my liking too; you can see @bingbabe has to squeeze past the couple in the corner in her attempt to sit at the table.
I ordered the King Prawn Thermidor at £15.95 while @bingbabe chose the Spaghetti Bolagnese at £9.50.
No starters this time as we decided some ‘stodge’ may be in order later. That’s pudding or dessert for the speech conformists.
While we were waiting for the main courses, I tried to get some more shots of the tables and took this one. The people immediately started gossiping, ‘He… took a photograph of us’. We couldn’t hear them, but @bingbabe has some skills in lip-reading and picked it out.
As I said, empty places are the best to get your photographs, without getting the bad looks or comments.
The service is adequate at Checco’s and no longer that 20 minutes at worst. @bingbabe has eaten the spaghetti several times so knows it’s decent even though it looks relatively bland.
The prawns looked lovely in that sauce and the vegetables were nicely cooked.
I managed to eat some but @bingbabe grabbed quite a lot of mine AS WELL as eating all hers. I honestly don’t know where she puts it all.
After the main course we both felt we had some space left, and ordered a Sticky Toffee Pudding and a White Chocolate Profiteroles at £5.25 each. There is no menu and we were told that what’s on the board is what we have; fair enough!
The Sticky Toffee Pudding was indulgent to say the least. I’m not a big fan of ice cream, and pouring cream is no doubt a lot worse for us but tastes great!
@bingbabe tells me she really enjoyed the White Chocolate Profiteroles though it looked like a big pile of ice cream to me.
Almost £50 for a meal for two that was not ‘steak’ related does seem a little much to me, but as I have already covered this point I wont harp on about it.
The staff and management are Italian, complete with your Pregos etc, and it is a real Italian experience; just don’t come here too often.
Address: 13 Whalley Rd, Great Harwood, Blackburn BB6 7UH, United Kingdom.
http://www.checcos.co.uk/greatharwood/
Restaurant Information
Checco’s
13 Whalley Rd, Great Harwood, Blackburn BB6 7UH, UK
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Your weekly choice
We have a checco too in our city, as an italian i see many istakes in the menu but by the way usually italian food is good so i am happy you like it ^^ You must try a restaurant in tuscany most of them are really excellent ^^
I don't think the Checco's here are related to yours. It is good food, but expensive. @bingbabe wants to visit Tuscany. She's coming to SF3 with me so you can tell her all about it :)
Good !! Ah ah no i do not think so there are many many restaurants named Checco in Tuscany ^^ I hear that italian food in foreign places it's usually expensive, that's why i never eat italian when i am abroad! XD We will see at the steemfest!
I'd also have baulked at the cost there mate. I think a tenner for a spag bol is a bit off no matter how good it is. I cook Italian a lot and it would just stick in my throat a bit.
Im obviously completely out of touch because I also cringed at the 11.50 for 2 drinks!
Either way, as long as you and your better half enjoyed it, thats all that matters....they had to pay for that imposing exterior artex job somehow!
In Leeds, we used to have a massive choice of Italians. For a treat and more for the pose, it had to be Bibis back in the day....right now Im happy on a Saturday night watching football with a couple of large Singha, Basil Pork and rice and a bowl of chips for under a fiver...with a live act too. lol
We have Italians here but they are even more pricier than yours and the food is generally poor so I steer clear these days, leave them for wealthy posing Thais.
You and the good lady have a great weekend :-)
Some of the food in the north is more like London prices, or what I remember of them. I haven't worked in the city since 2008. We wont be going back for a while methinks. Lots of others too choose from, but which are good?
TripAdvisor tells you that somewhere or other is the number 1 eatery and then its just middle of the road again. Food is a like music, quite subjective.
I always appreciate your restaurant reviews because you are like me: value and quantity count!
We don't really have an Italian restaurant here in Yuma. We did have, and enjoyed it a couple of times, but the owner died suddenly and now it's an old name Mexican Restaurant. To my way of thinking it wrecked both places. The old Mexican place had to 'up it's game' to pay for the new great location and building and of course, the Italian place was just gone.
Looks like a decent meal, but maybe just a touch smallish portions. Ah well, if it's good it's worth it.
There's no shortage of Mexican Restaurants in AZ, I can attest to that. I never saw any Italian's in my AZ days there but Thai's can be found.
The portions here seem to be diminishing in size as some places, perhaps then the eaters will buy the puds and they make more money. It worked on this occasion.
'Would you like your beans re-fried sir?' ;)
Ahahahahaha. That's funny. "No quezo por mi frioles, gracias." (No cheese on my beans, thanks).
There is a little Italian place in that warren near the Baseball stadium. It's a pretty cool place with about 50 kinds of lasagna and deserts to die for. I don't remember the name, but I can always find it when I'm in the area :) I like to have desert first and then take lasagna home with me.....
The restaurant doesn't look like a 50 pounds diner , but view can fool you ;) ... Though the food looks great. For me italian is a great kitchen..
Sometimes you choose whats closest if it's half-decent. That's what Checco's is to us. There are still many more dotted about that I would like to try, but if you get a bad one and its expensive you feel ripped off.
Looks like a quaint little place. I understand what you are saying about the spaghetti though. I went to a place and got something similar. It came and I said to myself "really, this is it". It didn't look like much, but they sure packed a lot of flavor into what was there. It was really amazing. The desserts look pretty fantastic!
I'm not really a Spag Bol person, it always seems plain and I want something exciting when going out. The puds were good, at least mine was.
Looks like a good place to eat. We'll be right over. Something close to where you live is nice too. Glad you enjoyed your meal.
Greta review and sounds a greta place, maybe thta is exactly why the elevation map is there to distract you from how big the bill is
We had a few safe places where we used to live. I do miss out local Italian restaurant. Pricing looks to be similar but it was a bit like a dodgy caffee inside. A proper mixture of furniture - nothing matched. On the up side it was always full of Italians which is a good thing right?
Was that in Compton, South-Central LA? ;) ....., its just the way you typed it... made me chuckle.
The place full of Italians and being and Italian does sound good though.
Haha... I know your pain at taking photos in a restaurant! I don't know how some people can do it!
Food looks great, and it reminds me to do my tasteem post tomorrow! A nice change from Fish and Chips! (Although, I have to say, I had some pretty awesome fish and chips in Ireland last week.... but no photos, I was in a group and was too embarassed to make photos...)
Your slipping up.. :), if you eat out then there's always lot of photos.. though I'm usually with @bingbabe and most of my friends also know what I do so no worries there.
Yeah yeah... I'm turning amateur! I should just whip out a tripod and screw the looks and the pointing fingers...
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