What an unusual and atmospheric restaurant the Rake is, set in a beautiful area with a little stream running outside and local artwork on the walls you must pay this place a visit for it’s originality alone.
T
his charming inn and hotel dates back 400 years, with the history, the candles and the diligent and friendly team making for a truly enjoyable experience. Something that is not so old is the menu, with a large choice of gorgeous sounding tasty tapas you can’t go wrong. It is safe to say we ordered a bit of everything, potatoes, prawns, scallops, bread, ham, cheese and more as it is you will find it to be an extensive menu therefore very difficult to eliminate dishes. We really went for it and wow the portions were extremely generous so next time I think we would order less if only so we can fit in our clothes the next day. The generosity of spirit at The Rake stems right through the whole venue. Although many dishes had garlic and similar ingredients, each dish did maintain its own impressive flavour.
We enjoyed everything very much and it all came out very quickly, which was a nice surprise with it being freshly cooked to order. There was a mixed clientele of all ages and tastes and a bustling yet relaxed lunch time feel. Next door is a brilliant fish and chip shop that is part of the same group so if you were staying in the hotel you would have to visit this. Being a Spanish theme chips were not on the menu but one of the team kindly went next door to their chippy and got us a portion of proper chip shop chips which was wonderful. The dessert menu was lovely but unfortunately, like children in sweet shops, we looked and could not touch as having had chippy and tapas we still had to figure out a way to get back to the car, even though we were parked right outside, actually next to one of the most interesting houses in the area, I’ll leave that one for you to enquire about when you go if we have anyone with an Interest in Cromwell please ask at The Rake about the tales of this fascinating property. Being Nosey and needing to walk off our feast we then had a look around one of the bedrooms which was lovely. Perfect for families, business or singles you would not be disappointed, especially when you see the prices. This is a really good value for money establishment with enthusiastic owners who are passionate about improving and working together in the community, it deserves supporting and you will have a good time but please book as unsurprisingly tables go very quickly especially at weekends. We hope you enjoy and please don’t miss out like us and save room for pudding. Blackstone Edge Old Road, Littleborough OL15 0JX. N 01706 379689 D theraketapas.co.uk F @theraketapas
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LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
www.lancmag.com
