The Frascati

My pre-​salsa food search led me to dine at Frascati recenly. It’s an Italian restaurant, whose sign is prominently visible on the A24 between Dorking and Leatherhead. Although traffic is zooming past on this main road, you can pull in and park up in a layby just outside the restaurant.
The restaurant is decorated in an eclectic manner with the dining area divided into little nooks and crannies.
This family run restaurant has been here for decades and the owner told me that most of the menu hasn’t really changed. Together with the friendly waiting staff, the warm welcome is apparent and from the conversations I overheard with fellow diners, they have a lot of repeat custom.
A little plate of canapes arrived while I perused the menu — small pieces of cheese, olives and peppers. The only disappointment of the evening was the small size of my pineapple juice.
I started with scallops, white wine, honey butter and chilli. The dish has good concepts with the various components balancing each other out and you certainly got a lot of scallops. I especially liked the fact that they served the corals of the scallops as well as the white flesh.
My main was fegato (liver) a la Griglia. The liver was grilled but I would have loved to see and taste scorch marks on my liver, which you get in other Italian restaurants. This came with some bacon to add a lovely salty contrast and I got a selection of vegetables, which had to be ordered separately.
I finished off with the classic tiramisu, which was a lovely version of a dessert it’s hard to get wrong.
The rustic charm of this restaurant is palpable from the presentation of the food to the warm welcome and it’s easy to see why it has survived the test of time

Straight out of the 1980’s this place, so when you walk in look for Gene Hunt in the corner.
Old men patronising you because the feel that they are offering a fine dinning experience, when in reallity it’s old fashioned and should have been put out of it’s misery years ago!
Give it a miss.