Rabot 1745

This review is actually 3.5 stars — we visited Rabot on a Friday night for a 4 people dinner. Each one of us tried a main and dessert so we had a decent variety to try. Desserts (lava cake, cheesecake, mousse and roasted fig) were the highlight of our meal, the mains were presented very well but lacked a bit flavor and the service was just plain bad. I think I will be back for the bar area and desserts/​hot chocolate.

I’ve passed by Rabot many times when going through the market yet never went in until last night. From the outside, it looks like a nice wine bar (and it is) — but what I didn’t know was there’s a restaurant upstairs. I definitely would be interested in going there for dinner, since I had a lovely experience at the bar. For a Thursday night, the place was busy, but we were able to secure a table right away, which was really nice. I was there on a date and it seemed like the perfect ambiance for that — it was busy but not too loud and the music wasn’t overwhelming — you could easily have a conversation. The wine can be a bit pricey, but nothing out of the ordinary, given the stellar location. The service was excellent — helpful and attentive. I would absolutely recommend this place and will be back again in the near future.

Found another gem for great coffee, and this time with lovely chocolate as well which is an absolute bonus.
Rabot, located basically right in the middle of borough market is a great place for a sip of casual coffee or hot choc. The coffee tasted great as you would expect for a 5 star review, so the surprise here is for the hot chocolate.
We had the ‘Made in Borough’ hot chocolate, basically it’s a 70% coco drink, and it was just superb!
Definitely worth going if you are close by. Which I guess that’s also my only complaint, it’s not exactly a neighbourhood area, so they make you work for your coffee (travelling there).

Starting with the food first, they were doing a deal of £17.45 for two courses during weekdays.
The venison starter had a nice combination of flavour tho slightly towards the blend side.
The sea bass and sweet potato main had really fresh fish and nice sweet potato inside, however the other side — spinach was completely off. It must be soaked in lemon juice and cacao overnight because it was so sour and too much cacao made my lips very numb. Both me and my friend tried the dish and we both agreed this dish was on the edge of being returned to the kitchen if it wasn’t because fish being nice.
The pork selection with cacao gravy had very nice gravy, flavour has a new twist but not overpowering. However the pork meat was disappointing. Two out of three pieces were super dry.
We also ordered moose selection as dessert. It has grounded cacao bits on the surface which gives it a nice lift of flavour. I’d recommend this dish.
The restaurant has a nice atmosphere, staffs were friendly and fast. I got to try full 3-​course with a taste of 2 different mains as £17.45 each with a friend. However judging by the quality of food, I definitely wouldn’t pay more than £17 for a 3-​course at this restaurant.
Hope this helps!

If you like chocolate and a chill atmosphere then this is your place. I had the basic hot chocolate with a shot of rum and chocolate whip cream.
Order the whip on the side.

You have to come here for the chocolate afternoon tea, great value at £40 for two and as we used our voucher before March we got a glass of processco each included.
Starting off with mini sandwiches including gin infused Salmon; they all have some chocolatey theme, scones and chocolate ganache, jam and cream (who chooses the jam — crazy). This is followed by dessert of chocolate cheesecake and shortbread with chocolate.
Meanwhile we managed to slurp 2 of their hot chocolates each; I had salted chocolate and white chocolate with nutmeg. After all of that I couldn’t move! All delicious, service could have been a bit better but can’t complain as it didn’t cost us an extra penny.

Salted Caramel Drinking Chocolate is happiness in a mug. Not too sweet and with a hint of salt.

After having dinner at the Wright Brothers, we stopped in for dessert. Who can say no to chocolate desserts? I had the molten lava cake. It was good and the molten center was delish. However, I found the cake portion to be incredibly dry as if it was in the oven too long. There also ice cream on the side. The ice cream was the definite highlight! It was housemade and infused with cocoa nibs. Next time, I would skip the molten lava cake and just get the ice cream.
They have a great selection of bottles or half bottles of wine. However, as a glass there is only one choice for red, white, or sparkling.

How have I never reviewed Rabot, it’s one of my favourite hidden spots.
And here’s the thing, it’s not hidden at all. It’s right next to Borough Market with a giant sign above the door. And you’ll still walk right by it. Why? I have no idea, maybe it blends in too much with the surroundings.
But don’t. Go in. Try it.
And I don’t just mean the first floor either. Rabot is Hotel Chocolat’s restaurant, so the first floor is all the chocolate (and a nice bar to drink at if you want to while eating chocolates). And it’s lovely and you should check it out. But you can’t stop there.
Go upstairs, get a table, either inside in their beautiful wooden dining room, or outside on their terrace overlooking Borough Market (great for people watching.) Either way, sit down and eat, because the food here. My god, the food here.
Anything on the menu is good. It’s a meat-​friendly spot with nice twists, like 9 hour braised lamb shoulder with a cacao balsamic glaze. Who does that? No one I’ve found in London.
Also, they have white chocolate mashed potatoes. My god.
Although it seems chocolate heavy, it’s not. They just know how to use the flavours they do so well and incorporate them into classic dishes without being overwhelming. Yes, it’s pricy and you will pay for such a meal. But what a meal. I guarantee, you’ll walk out of here happy that you finally found this place that you’ve actually been walking by all the time.

Great Café/​Restaurant located just by Borough Market, owned by Hotel Chocolat, this is the place to go for a nice fresh chocolate or coffee and cake if you don’t want to be with all the hustle and bustle of the market nearby, till service in place, then you find your seat, is always busy in there they also have a restaurant upstairs and an open area that overlooks the market.

We shared a burger and a pork 5 ways dish… Both were amazing with a bottle of wine over looking the market.

I took my boyfriend here for his birthday as he loves chocolate!
The menu looked really great — finesse with cocoa aspects throughout so greatly themed and good for a special occasion
We shared some bread with cocoa nib butter and a terrine to start that was presented beautifully. For main we had a roast saddle of rabbit and rack of lamb. Flavours were great and presentation was beautiful! Really impressed even though average sized dishes.
Service was also good with nice but formal service who knew what they were talking about and could give good recommendations
Desserts were also lovely and well presented. Particularly recommend the chocolate genesis which is 8 different miniature desserts taking you through different strengths of cocoa. Amazing!
To top it off I had 20% off whole menu as signed up to hotel so it made it a really reasonable and special meal
Both thoroughly enjoyed but wouldn’t be able to afford to return again however they’ve changed their menu to slightly more casual with choices of salad etc so looking forward to going back
Also their brunch menu looks good!

The rabot made chocolate is really good! Tried the velvet beans, pricey but totally worth as a treat to your taste buds :-)

Rabot 1745 is part of Hotel Chocolate. The restaurant was lovely, loved the atmosphere, the lighting and the size. Reminded me a bit of a French ski lodge the interior also when you go to the bathroom you are surrounded amongst wooden walls with the noise of forest creatures before finding the door to the toilet. The staff are happy and very helpful. Food that we had me a beef pudding and my husband and hamburger was good size portions, hot and tasty. The chocolate that was used partially in our food was different and really did give our food a bit of a twist. I would deff eat at Rabot again especially is wanting a nice romantic meal as the lighting and the size of the restaurant is quaint. Just lovely.

This review is based on my café experience. I have heard mixed opinions about their restaurant dishes but i never tried their main dishes myself so i cant really judge them on that.
The Rabot Estate is in a great location (away from the noise of the main street) with a very enticing open front design. The only disadvantage of their design is that it can get a bit cold if you sit at the front tables during the winter.
I have tried their normal hot chocolate, salted hot chocolate, coffee chocolate (mocha) and all of them are exceptional. I have also tried their chilli hot chocolate but i found the amount of chilli shadowing the great chocolate so i wont be taking that again.
Of course If you visit you must also treat yourself to the amazing crepes they make (both with dark & milk chocolate) and also try the brownies.
I heard they now opened a terrace so i will definitely going back during the summer to check it out & try the savory dishes.

Mmm. I reserve to myself the right to edit the review at a second test.
Following our event, we had dinner at Rabot 1745, and I was really looking forward to test some of their dishes.
Following the advise from the maitre chocolatier, I chose the curry fish (cod) in chocolate nibs and yorkshire pudding topped with beef and chocolate gravy. Sounds delicious and difficult!
First the starter, yorkshire pudding. Was it good? Yes it was, really. Nicely presented, flavorful and just well made, an optimal start The pudding was well made, while the beef is rare as written in the menu, and the chocolate gravy gives you that nice touch that tingles the back of your mouth and makes everything delicious. An optimal start.
The cod. Now here comes the bad stuff. Ok I was unconvinced by the idea of the dish, I couldn’t figure out how to put together cocoa with a fish curry without covering one flavor with the other, but because of the suggestion by the nice lady who led the chocolate lesson I went for it anyway. And the result was just as I expected: there is definitely too much curry inside the dish, which is ok if you are eating at a south indian restaurant and you are having a general fish curry, but here I want to have something a bit more raffinate on my dish, especially if you want to put together spicy and bitter tastes with white fish… I’m really sorry as I loved the place and the starter, but that main is a wrong step. The chips coming as a side were not great either, a bit soft. The sauces with chips were a bit too fat and buttery. I mean the whole could esasily be improved, for example if you leave the skin on the potatoes then you acquire a bit more of taste you need in order to go with the chocolate aioli, I mean it’s not difficult, just think a bit about the dishes before you put them on the menu!
In the end, I will try again this place as I think it’s natural spot would be the lamb and the beef, hence I will update my review there, where it can gets a ±1!

Yes, I went to a chocolate-​centric restaurant for a burger… And I bloody loved it!
Tucked just down the side of Borough Market, Rabot is a chocolate lover’s paradise. But as I found out, chocolate isn’t all they do well.
I grabbed a late lunch with a client, and was treated to a lusciously meaty pattie, super-​tasty bacon, cheese, and a creole relish, perilously wedged between two toasted halves of a (brioche?) bun with chocolate sprinkles.
The accompanying side of chips were a bit salty, but my god that burger!
Price was quite high, but ultimately worth it. 2 burgers and a couple of drinks came to just shy of £50.

Freezing bar, cold food, but good drinks selection!
Great service from the main guy — he was really friendly, chatty and was quick to take order for drinks. My friend and I then got a bit peckish and ordered sweet potato ribbons, french fries with chocolate aioli, crispy duck confit potato cake and yorkshire pudding filled with rare-​seared parkin-​spiced beef, white chocolate mash.
The plates were cold, and I had a couple of mouthfuls of the yorkshire pudding before wondering whether this place was so trendy that cold yorkshire puddings were intentional! I complained and then 10 minutes later a second was sent — this time, the plate was hot but the food was not!
I would recommend coming here for a few drinks (keep your coat on though as there was quite the draught all evening) but head to somewhere like Elliott’s nearby for food instead.

We came here after reading about this restaurant in the evening paper and being in the area. It was described as ‘contemporary dishes influenced by the West Indies and Britain, with the savoury richness of cacao used as a subtle garnish, infusion and spice throughout’. «Great’ we thought «a Caribbean restaurant near where we are going for drinks, let’s go». We managed to get a table booked for later on that night which, I thought remarkable given it was a sunny Friday evening after all!
There is a small bar downstairs with a chocolate shop next door. This restaurant is associated with Hotel Chocolat although you would not know this as it is rebranded to the restaurant.
Upstairs there is another bar and the restaurant on the terrace overlooking Borough Market. We were shown out little table and presented with the menus.
They had very faint music in the background from a small speaker system. You had to really tune in to hear it. There was ‘Caribbean’ music in the modern sense. To give the correct atmosphere, they could do with selecting more traditional music for the influence they were after.
Whilst there was a good selection of foods to select from, we could not help wondering where the influence from the West Indies came into it more than the use of the Cacao bean with many of the dishes.
We ordered salmon cakes and flat bread for starter. The waitress came back to say sorry the salmon we ordered was not available but she had noted the wrong dish so we still got the cakes. They were nothing remarkable, potato pieces could have been cooked a little further. The dips with the flat bread were nice although could have skipped the chocolate one for a starter. Although I love chocolate and almost a pudding person dream to have chocolate for starter, I really want to stick with savoury or sweet not mix.
I ordered fish for main (the original fish on the menu was not available so they had a replacement). This was nice served with a pumpkin mash. The flavours worked well together and the fish nicely cooked.
Now for dessert… dessert please??? Anyone? We waited for a good while then had to request the dessert menu. Some yummy choices, with, of course the chocolate to accompany them. Should be noted, this isn’t the sweet manufactured chocolate many will know and love, but more the pure type so it can be a little bitter which may not be to everyones taste.
I had sticky toffee pudding (that will be the British influence) which was OK. I have had better I think.
Service could have been a little better esp. as it wasn’t that busy. We poured our own wine most of the time with the waiters failing to top us up.
The toilets seem to be in a secret door by the bar (which was busy so clearly a favourite here) and they are unisex!!! hmmm.
They don’t mention it but as I am a Hotel Chocolat member, I asked about their connection. Then they let me know that you get 5% off the bill as a member just flash your card. 5% isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things but something is better than nothing I suppose.
All in all it was OK here. I think the bar is more popular than the restaurant at this time but, I would come back if I was in the area and needed food and drink.
Definitely feel the ‘West Indian’ influence needed to be stronger. It doesn’t have to be all Jerk this and Jerk that but there is more they could do with flavours and ingredients to pull this out more.

Et un paradis du chocolat, UN !
Ici, vous né trouverez que du chocolat. Et plus particulièrement du noir, du vrai, celui qui a juste une lichette de sucre ajouté.
Il est à consommer sur place dans la petite salle du bas pour un petit dej, ou en haut pour un vrai repas (si j’ai tout compris).
Nous on a opté pour le petit dej. Chocolat chaud à la noisette, ou au miel, accompagné d’un croissant et d’un scone (un peu sec). Et pour tartinades, beurre au chocolat et ganache à la noisette !
Parfait pour un réveil en douceur, si vous avez la chance de né pas être alpaguer par le serveur légèrement raciste du dimanche matin !

Hmmm I think this is a 2.5 rounded up to 3 review. The extra half a star is a bonus for trying to do something different and for the fantastic service from our server, Monty
Rabot have been spreading the gospel of good high end chocolate through their Hotel Chocolat chain. Their flagship shop has been in Borough Market for years but this has recently moved a short distance to new premises
The ground floor still houses the retail shop and café but upstairs, you’ll find their brand new restaurant. I was luck to be invited along by a friend in the first week that they were open
The restaurant is classy and well deorated. When we sat down, we found a little bowl of beans at each place setting. Being Unilocalers, we were a little impatient and had a little nibble — ooh, very bitter
Before too long, Monty came along and seeing the evidence on trhe table, asked if we had enjoyed the cocoa beans. We confessed that they had been a little bitter. She then explained that the roasted beans weren’t meant to be eaten whole. She taught us how to break open the shell, which is the bitter part, thereby revealing the inner cacao nib
She then gave us a little lesson about the origin of chocolate and how cacao nibs are savoury and it only turns into chocolate with the addition of sugar. Used in its natural state, cacao is a savoury product, almost tasteless but with a crunch
The USP of Rabot 1745 is that every dish on the menu contains cacao in some form. Between the 6 of us, we managed to try a good range of the dishes on the menu
My starter of fish carpaccio was nice but I’m not sure the few bits of crunchy cocoa nib added anything extra to the dish. That was the general concensus of the group — nice starters in flavour but the cocoa didn’t really add anything
I was lucky in getting the best of main courses — a slow cooked piece of lamb, whcih was yummy. Unfortunately, my dining companions weren’t as lucky. The other dishes, especially the sauces, lacked punch
However, the cacao came alive in the desserts. A trio opf chocolate mousses showcased the different flavours of cocoa beans from different parts of the world — my favourite was the fruity Vietnamese. The chocolate tasting plate was also fun, giving a real variety of chocolate products including a 100% cocoa stick, which technically isn’t chocolate as you need to add a minimum of 4% sugar to cacao to call it chocolate
I take my hat off to the kitchen — the lovely plating reveals an ambition in the kitchen but I can’t help feeling that using cacao in every dish is currently a bit of a gimmick. I can understand why Rabot wanted this USP but in many dishes, it served as a distraction and ultimate disappointment when it didn’t really add anything to the dish. I’m not sure how they can solve this issue but perhaps to add dishes like Mexican mole, which does use chocolate to add depth to the sauce, may be a start
A nice bonus was a card for a 20% discount in the retail store to be used that same evening
I wish them luck in their endeavour as I admire their bravery in trying to do something different