Restaurant Review Rock On

It all started in London in 1969 when a couple of savvy Indian chappies opened up a music theme burger bar in London’s Piccadilly.They begged, bought and borrowed pop music memorabilia to hang on the walls, such as Elvis’s discarded socks and Lennon’s underpants – until they gained not only a reputation but also a buying power which spread worldwide. Now they can dominate any music memorabilia auction and their very presence in an auction house would delight the vendor, but force the other buyers to throw in the towel and go home, almost without
bidding. They can simply buy ANYTHING they want. And they do!
This is the first Romanian Hard Rock, but consistent with the franchisor’s music theme, Romania Hard Rock had to acquire the top level of both contemporary and historic artefacts to hang on their walls – and the result is utterly awesome.
So irrespective of your age (and of course your kids will love it) reel back the years in front of the Beatles section containing their autographs, guitars and clothes. God, what skinny little weeds they were. Just marvel at their girly physiques with 36 inch chests and 24 inch waists. I know these clothes are authentic as I have seen similar sized Beatle clothing in other music museums.
So walk around with me. Boys, just keep an eye on your wife to ensure she doesn’t drool over Bon Jovi's clothes. And girls, if you want to upset your man, just hang around the INXS section a bit too long.
For real music afficionados, there are signed platinum discs from Alex van Halen, Gilby Clark’s guitar from Guns n Roses, a mountain of autographed photographs and signed clothing and instruments from everybody from U2, to Metallica, Megadeath, Motley Crue… and far too many originals to remember.
But wait… this is a food column so let’s get down to it.
Naturally and in keeping with youth culture, they serve burgers. But unlike any other burgers in town they are made from Irish beef and the quality is there for all to behold.
The consistency of raw materials is rigidly controlled by the franchisor, who insists that the worldwide Hard Rock chain uniformly maintains the highest standards of supply that exist only in Europe. Oh come on – when I refer to Europe I mean the REAL Europe and when it comes to food, standards and sophistication, Romania is part of it in name only!
Sauces and toppings also must adhere to the Hard Rock standard, and why not! After all, the House standard has proven to be a success the world over. So they make in-house: their own BBQ sauce, honey and mustard, honey and lemon, Caesar, guacamole, blue cheese, and ranch. They smoke their own meats to produce spare ribs, smoked chicken and pork smoked chops. All of them fabulous!
I was delighted to see that they are proud to state on the menu that their Argentinian beef (they have rib-eye and sirloin) has been aged for 21 days. For years I have screamed at Romanian abattoirs to hang their beef at 2-4 degrees C for at least two weeks rather than selling it fresh. Fresh beef is both tough and flavourless.
Hard Rock is the only international theme bar to survive over the last three decades. Cheap wannabe imitators running ‘look-alike’ themes and owned by rich idiots all failed in the 1990s. There was Planet Hollywood owned by brainless actors and investors like Sylvester Stallone which crashed and shortly afterwards the models concept caf