On The Bab (Covent Garden), London

Having visited the original On The Bab on Old Street on its opening night I was keen to visit its new Covent Garden site which opened last month. On The Bab serves modern Korean dishes along with a mix of classic dishes in a modern open kitchen environment with K-Pop tunes providing a chilled out backdrop.

The menu is split between nibbles, small dishes, Korean fired chicken, rice and bun dishes and traditional dishes. In the nibbles sections are bar snacks and its take on a muffin, which is a food trend from South Korea. It comes in a choice of fillings, kimchi & cheese or quail egg & bacon, we opted for the former.

Yangyum chicken better known as Korean fired chicken comes a small medium or large sizes and with a choice of flavours. The classic sweet spicy is very moreish and goes perfect with ice cold beer. 

The garlic mayo and seasoned spring onion flavours are also very good but the sweet spicy has the edge.

The small dishes section contains dumpling and salad dishes. A noodle salad with bulgogi beef is refreshing and light.

Seaweed salad with sweet spicy dressing has a kick from the chilli seeds and is served in a jar.

The classic bulgogi beef bibimbab is served in a metal bowl, note a stone bowl is only used if described as a dolsot bibimbab.

More interesting is another Korean food trend being a Korean style burrito with spicy pork. Essentially a sushi roll but very enjoyable.

From the traditional dishes section we tried a baek ban, which is a single tray with a choice of meat served with rice, salad and kimchi. Our choice was the spicy pork which was very additive with the kimchi and rice.

Soondubu Jjigae is a spicy tofu & seafood stew with free range egg. This was a warming dish together with plain boiled rice with the right level of heat and variety of seafood including squid, mussels and shrimps.

Possibly my favourite thing about the new On The Bab is the large pitchers of Somaek beer which are served in large iced tubes and dispensed at the table at your own leisure. On The Bab has truly whetted our appetite for our upcoming visit to Seoul in December.

Bao, London

2015 is proving to be a hot year for Asian cuisine in the capital, already we have seen a host of new openings including Engawa (Kobe beef imported from Japan), Bo Drake and Jin Juu modern Korean inspired dishes), On The Bab (adding a Covent Garden site to its popular Old Street based Korean restaurant), Duck and Rice (a Chinese gastropub by Alan Yau), amongst others. The most exciting for us however is Bao, serving up sumptuous Taiwanese street food whom we have followed religiously in their street stall guise at various locations over the last few years including Kerb, Netil Market and Feast.

With the cult following and ever growing queues the next logical step was to find a site to set up a permanent restaurant. With the backing of the Sethi family (the guys behind Gymkhana and Trishna) the restaurant opened early April on Lexington Street in the London food mecca that is Soho.

The Bao brand is simple and effectively marketable with its minimal and clean design. The interior keeps to this approach with clean wood panels and detailing. It would not be a surprise to see the brand expanding into a mini empire and beyond, however I’m not sure if the passion of the founders Er Chen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai-Ting could be conveyed without being diluted with new sites as they are the life and soul of the business. This is evident by the interaction we see amongst the diners and founders who are genuine in their gratitude for the support which I would guess would be from people like ourselves who have followed Bao around the street food scene.

Onto the food, the new and larger self-marking menu which is very competitively priced with dishes ranging from £1.50-£6 begins with the small eats section. Introducing some classic Taiwanese street food with Baos own inventive twists among their own creations. From this section we tried the following:

Scallop, yellow bean garlic, simply served in the shell and finished by gulping down the remaining sauce. 

Beef soup, braised daikon, a deep beefy soup, would be ideal during Winter.

Aubergine with wanton crisps, this packed some chilli heat.

Pig blood cake with an oozing egg yolk to create a velvety black pudding like dish.

Trotter nuggets served with coriander paste. Packed with rich pork pieces and a light batter.

40 day rump cap, aged white soy sauce - the soy brings the rump alive which has a bit of chew due to the cut.

Guinea fowl Chi Shiang rice, just when you think things can’t get any better this little bowl of plump rice with well-cooked moist shredded Guinea fowl pieces with an egg yolk which oozes and adds richness to a very delightful and rounded dish. For the peckish ones this will certainly be a pleasing course following the parade of baos and other small plates.

The next section of the menu focuses on the gua bao variations. Headed by the classic bao which has been on the menu from day one and how it all started.

Classic bao - still the top bao in my opinion, the sauce of the the braised pork is what makes it for me topped with the perfect match in coriander and peanut powder.

Confit pork bao - a new creation with satisfying slabs of pork belly topped with fried shallots. Maybe lacking a little bit of sauce, this with a little of the classic bao sauce would be heaven.

Lamb shoulder bao - superb with a slight hint of heat in the sauce.

Fried Horlicks ice cream bao - the only dessert on the menu but I don't think anything else could top this!

Peanut milk - there has clearly been some thought on the drinks front along with the innovation of the food menu, a cool milk with a hint of peanut.

Along with a selection of teas the foam topped iced tea was refreshing, different and unique.

Any regular readers of our blog (not sure if any exist!) will have noticed the short hiatus from January. Work and other commitments have come first but hopefully normal service will be resumed especially as the blog backlog has reached epic proportions. Bao was so good and lived up to its crazily high expectations we had set for it, so much so that it made me get back into the blogging mood.

Blanchette, London

We planned a last minute New Years trip to the capital and after a frantic search for somewhere  to dine that wasn’t charging an arm and a leg for a ‘special’ menu, we finally settled on Blanchette in Soho. A cosy bistro serving French small plates and not a set menu in sight which was welcome, at short notice we managed to bag ourselves a table for four for an early dinner before heading off to find a good location to see the fireworks. 

Typical of most Soho restaurants where space is at a premium, the dining room is long and narrow with bar seats offered along the bar area. Blanchette was established by three brothers, Maxime, Yannis and Malik Alary and also draw on consultancy from another small plate London favourite, the Salt Yard Group who run Opera Tavern and Ember Yard amongst others.

The small plate concept encourages dishes to be shared, which in our opinion is more interactive along with the added benefit of being able to try more dishes! The menu is split between snacks, starters, charcuterie, fish, meat and veg. Dishes range from £5 - £10 and are worth it for the quality. We ordered a whole host of dishes to share including:

Crispy frog legs with bois boudran sauce

From the charcuterie section we tried truffle saucisson from Rhone

Octopus with burnt clementine, fennel and pistachio

Hot smoked salmon with beetroot, quail eggs, potato crêpe and truffle butter

Daube of pig cheeks with dauphinoise croquette

Braised lamb shoulder with anchovy, rosemary and soubise sauce

Confit duck leg with butternut squash purée, hazelnuts, chilli and star anise

Tournedo Rossini with foie gras en croute, shaved truffle and madeira sauce (a NYE special)

Roasted beetroot with pickled girolles, fleur de marquis and tarragon dressing

Brillat-Savarin salad with pear, red endive, honey and poppyseed

Hot chocolate fondant with salted caramel ice cream

Passion fruit vacherin

The favourite dishes of the night were the frogs legs, pigs cheek, salmon and salad dish, the desserts also hit the spot as well with the passion fruit vacherin being perfect foil for the sweet gooey chocolate fondant. 

The Pudding Bar, London

The Pudding Bar was a dessert pop up bar serving afternoon tea and desserts in the evening. It was located on Greek Street and was a great idea and hopefully the guys behind it will pop up again or find a permanent fixture soon.

We visited for dessert after dinner one night and our eyes were bigger than our bellies again as we opted for three desserts to share and one glass of each of the four available dessert wines. Each of the desserts were quite large and priced very reasonably at £6-7.

Blackberry panna cotta with honeycomb, blackberries and spiced rum & nutmeg ice cream.

Apple and maple syrup baked Alaska, cinnamon spiced apple cake with maple syrup ice cream, wrapped in Italian meringue with maple glaze.

S’more cheesecake, milk chocolate cheesecake on a ginger nut biscuit base with peanut butter ice cream.

Dessert wines from right to left, Maury Grenat, Finca Le Estacada Secua Chardonnay Dulce, Royal Tokaiji Lake harvest and Chateau du Levant Sauternes.

Each of the desserts was made with skill and the baked Alaska was the unanimous favourite with the apple and maple combination edging out the peanut butter ice cream and chocolate cheesecake.

Rex & Mariano, London

Rex & Mariano is the latest venture from the Goodman restaurant group who are also behind the Burger & Lobster mini chain. A seafood restaurant where orders are placed using Ipads sees it only charging 5% for service, a rarity in London where 12.5% and even 13% in places have become standard.

The restaurant is spacious with an open kitchen where diners can observe the dishes being prepared and leaving the pass. The menu contains a selection of raw and cooked seafood with a few vegetable sides also available. Service is rapid with dishes reaching the table within minutes of ordering with the Ipad, therefore ordered a few dishes at a time to enjoy a more leisurely paced meal.

Rock and native oysters with lemon and vinaigrette

Tuna tartare, avocado, chilli, chive, sesame. Nice big diced chunks of tuna livened up by the chilli.

Salmon tartare, parsley, shallot, smoked tomato.

Lobster ceviche, coriander, fennel, yuzu, orange.

Gambero rosso prawns, lemon, olive oil, salt. Red prawns served raw with a cooked version also available. Very enjoyable due to the freshness of the prawns.

Fritto Misto, mixed fried seafood including squid, prawns, whitebait, whitefish with alioli.

Fish of the day, whole grilled lemon sole with a light dusting of flour. Reminds me of how my mum cooks sole.

We enjoyed Rex & Mariano very much with the star dishes being the raw prawns and tartare dishes. A good choice for seafood lovers with reasonable prices and friendly service.