Bob Bob Ricard is the kind of place to save for a special
occasion, not least because of the eye-popping prices. It is sumptuous inside,
employing that grandest of designs, art deco. A bit like Hoxley and Porter, I
felt like I was on the inside of an Agatha Christie 20s train. It’s all plush
leather booths (literally – every table is a booth), and each comes with the
famous ‘Press for Champagne’ button.
And everything tasted really nice, but I wasn’t wowed by it.
My starter of stinking bishops soufflé for example, on a chive sabayon, with
salad of hazelnuts, apple and endive, looked quite pretty, but I was rather
expecting a towering mousse, perhaps bursting from its ramekin. It was light,
and it tasted very cheesy and worked really well with the oniony chive sauce.
The salad was ‘deconstructed’ I guess you could call it and felt more like a
token effort than part of the meal. None of the aspects went all that well with
the souffle – some whole toasted hazelnuts were a bit pointless.
Alison and I couldn’t pull ourselves away from the fillet
mignon rossini which came with confit apple and foie gras for our mains. We
added truffled mashed potato and sautéed spinach to this and had it cooked
medium rare.
Some of this dish was wonderful, some of it I was a little
baffled by, and unfortunately, quite a bit before I came to the end of the
meal, most of it had gone cold. Two beautifully pink medallions sit atop one
another, with seared foie gras to the side, lounging on some apple sauce.
Spheres of the apple confit sat to the other side. These were odd, hard, cold
marbles of apple that detracted, if anything, from the rest of the plate. The
beef was fabulous, but as I said, became cold very quickly. This was my first
time eating foie gras and it was amazing enough for me to not twinge with guilt
when I ate it. Silky and smooth and delicate of flavour, I can see why it is so
popular. The spinach was lightly sautéed so it still held it’s shape and
texture, and the truffled mash was the right side of truffly, though could have
been a bit creamier. I would have welcomed much more of the truffle gravy that
came with the steak, especially as it could have been used to keep the morsels
warmer.
And finally, it was time for dessert. The main had slowly
and stealthily filled me up, but for a goodbye dinner of course we had to have
dessert. We decided to share the chocolate fondant, which came with a ball of white
chocolate ice cream. This was cooked well – plenty of oozy chocolate in the
middle of its crunchier chocolate surrounding, but as with my soufflé, I was
underwhelmed by its presence. It was a small, thin little thing, looking rather
boring sat on its big plate. In general the presentation of the food did not
live up to its surroundings, and, though it was nice to eat, it was not
spectacular.
Service was exactly right and gave the whole experience an extra boost – friendly and efficient, everyone happy to answer any questions. I had a very lovely meal, and I’m glad we went. But I doubt I would go back for the food. However if you’re looking to impress, or celebrate and you’re after some classy, well executed drinks, the bar is a must.
Service was exactly right and gave the whole experience an extra boost – friendly and efficient, everyone happy to answer any questions. I had a very lovely meal, and I’m glad we went. But I doubt I would go back for the food. However if you’re looking to impress, or celebrate and you’re after some classy, well executed drinks, the bar is a must.
Find the menu and restaurant information on Zomato.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to add your views, or maybe suggest somewhere I should put on my list!