Keen to try Preston's take on proper Cajun soul food, the Lancashire Post headed down to Coco's Soul Food on Friargate to sample their spicy offerings. Here's how it went...
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00:00 Hi everyone, my name is Jack Marshall, I'm a digital reporter with the Lancashire Post
00:04 and today we're bringing you another food review.
00:07 Now for people who have seen our previous food reviews, they'll know that we love to
00:10 go out and about in Preston and just get a flavour of really what the local restaurants,
00:14 local eateries, local street food vendors are offering the people and just to kind of
00:19 raise awareness of what kind of culinary delights are on offer in the city.
00:24 So today, basically what I was looking for was something a bit different, something which
00:28 offered the kind of cuisine which you don't normally find, which isn't kind of two-a-penny,
00:32 isn't your typical fried chicken shops, your typical kebab places or pizza or whatever
00:37 it might be.
00:38 So I decided to try out Coco's Soul Food on Frygate, which for those people who are familiar
00:43 with it will know that they serve Cajun and soul food.
00:47 Obviously soul food is famous around the world for being quite vibrant, colourful, lots of
00:53 combinations of spices, lots of kind of things like jerk chicken and fresh veg and lots of
00:59 interesting flavours, a bit different to what you'd normally get at your typical takeout
01:03 places in city centres.
01:05 So I thought what perfect chance to go down and try it out and really let readers and
01:09 viewers know what it's just like, just what it's like to kind of experience that kind
01:13 of food first hand.
01:15 And so there were a couple of things which really appealed about Coco's Soul Food.
01:18 As soon as we walked in, it was just an incredible kind of scene of colour and your typical Caribbean
01:25 murals of sun, sea, sand, that kind of stuff and Bob Marley pictures in places and it was
01:30 just all colour and vibrancy and life and that kind of whole welcoming vibe of you are
01:36 now in a place where it's famous for Cajun soul food, that kind of thing.
01:40 So that was really good first impression, it was really welcoming, it was nice and busy
01:43 as well, which is always a good sign in these kind of places to see lots of punters there
01:47 to try the food.
01:48 So that was encouraging and went up and the people who took my order and service staff
01:52 were really, really polite, they were all great.
01:55 There's also like three levels of seating, so there's plenty of space as well.
01:58 So it's a really, really attractive place.
02:00 Headed down and basically I perused the menu beforehand and obviously like I said before,
02:04 there were plenty of things like jerk chicken and a lot of really interesting typical Caribbean
02:10 flavours and so I decided to go for something called the Soul Burger.
02:13 Went for that for two reasons, one obviously we'd be in a soul food place, I thought I'll
02:16 go for the one called Soul Burger, that'd be like a classic barometer of just what the
02:21 food is going to be like and the second reason is that it was described as being like a double
02:25 beef burger with lamb on it and I love lamb, you know people who like lamb, obviously you
02:29 know it's so distinctive, so flavourful and I just thought that would be a really, really
02:33 good item from the menu to order to get a real good sense of what this whole place is
02:37 like.
02:38 So yeah, so I ordered the Soul Burger and here's how the whole experience went.
02:43 Cheers guys.
02:44 Hi guys, my name's Jack Marshall, I'm a digital reporter with the Lancashire Post.
02:47 We're just out today doing another food review, hungry, lunch time, we're heading down to
02:52 Coco's Soul Food, so yeah let's go check it out and see how it goes.
02:56 Once again finding myself on Frigate, I was looking for something a little tropical, a
03:01 little spicy, a little different to brighten up a pretty grey day, so headed into Coco's
03:05 Soul Food as you can see here, vibes were pretty good, it was nice and busy, nice and
03:10 lively and I ordered the Soul Burger as you can see here it is.
03:14 I've got to be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by this, it was just pretty basic, the cheese
03:18 was a bit plasticky, the whole selling point for me was supposed to be the lamb, it was
03:23 supposed to be something a bit different, a bit barbequey, a bit special, you know for
03:27 £8 you kind of, I think I was expecting something a bit more deluxe.
03:31 It was fine, it was nice, it was okay but nothing more to write home about than that
03:35 I'm afraid.
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]