Bob Bob Ricard has been on my to-eat list for over two years! Can’t believe it has taken me so long to get here – its so much fun! How does one describe Bob Bob Ricard? It describes itself as serving luxury English and Russian to an eclectic clientele in London’s most glamorous all-booth dining room.
The dining room is certainly one of the must glamorous I’ve seen – come on, it even has a button you press to call for champagne (although in reality what it does is simply beckon your waitress to the table.)
Great deco both in the dining room and the bars below ground (love the backgammon flooring in one of the bars) though I do wish there was just a touch more light in the dining room!
Everything is Bob Bob Ricard branded – from the coatcheck tag, to the placemats, to the deco and to the butter.
Food-wise the menu is kind of exciting. They have this Vodka / tapas (or Zakuski) pairing menu but also other exciting items such as Quails Eggs Mayonnaise with Black Truffle, Suckling Pork and Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Truffle Sauce.
Those items were trumped by my love of having breakfast for dinner – for my starter I had Eggs Benedict which was quite incredible. Egg was perfectly poached and the Hollandaise sauce was incredibly tasty. Sandra had a starter of Scallop & Shrimp Shell Pie which was very cute and she reports it was very good. I can’t remember what Ying and Laney had.
For mains Sandra had the Chicken and Mushroom Pie, Ying the Cheeseburger from the BBR Favourites menu and Laney the Veal Holstein with Quails Egg, Anchovies and Truffled Mashed Potatoes. For once I didn’t have a pig dish but had to go the signature Bob’s Chicken Kiev with Sweet Corn and Potato Mash. Sandra reports her mushroom pie was a bit more ordinary than she was expecting (bland was a word she used) with the truffle sauce, though being quite fragrant, was not very truffly. It was certainly a large portion though! Ying’s burger looked fairly standard and the best part of Laney’s dish was probably the truffled mash (which you can order from the side order menu too.)
I very much enjoyed my chicken kiev which was very tender and juicy though it was a touch overseasoned. Just as well my mash was nice and sweet!
Dessert-wise Sandra’s Chocolate Glory was certainly the most theatrical. Her dessert was served at this golden ball and then the waitress comes along and pours hot molten chocolate all over it to melt the ball. It was way too rich for me though consisting of chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie, passionfruit orange jelly, meringue and raspberries. For me I certainly couldn’t look past the trio of Crème Brulees: Pistachio, Passion fruit and vanilla. Scrumptious.
Service at Bob Bob Ricard is very good – prompt, available and efficient. We had really friendly waitresses and one of them got so excited about the dish we were ordering. The positive was that it was consistently good service from when we first walked in the door all the way until we left. The booths we were in had coat hangers right next to us and upon leaving the waitress was very quick to try and get to the coats ahead of us so she could assist us with putting them on.
Bob Bob Ricard was certainly a fun, if not cheap experience. This meal including service and one drink was £50 which pushes the meal into the above average category. You can certainly spend a lot more if you start going crazy on the “Press For Champagne” button. Heh heh. I would certainly come back again to try out some of the other delights … after I’ve saved up a few more pennies!
