Bam Bou

Bam Bou is a French Vietnamese restaurant not far from Tottenham Court Road. I had read about it some months ago and thought the menu sounded delicious – a combination of the strong, tasty flavours of Vietnamese food cooked in the somewhat ‘fancier’ French style. Or at least, that is my interpretation! However you described it, it has been on my ‘restaurants to try’ list for a while, so when I saw that Top Table was advertising a deal for 50% off food, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The restaurant was already quite full at 7pm on a Wednesday night (the deal was only available Monday – Wednesday), but we were seated at a nice enough table for two in the corner. The menu was oddly laid out with white wines on the left, food in the middle and red wines on the right. Very strange.

Anyway, it was a really interesting menu with plenty of delicious sounding dishes, including prawns on sugar cane and pork, watermelon and cashew nut salad. It took us quite a while to decide and involved some serious negotiation. In the meantime, the waitress came over and, we thought, asked us if we wanted more time. We said yes. We thought they were being very generous when some edamame beans and giant prawn crackers arrived. Turns out, she asked us if we wanted some snacks to start. Still, they were very good, the edamame beans in particular are always a fresh, tasty nibble.

We finally ordered and our starters arrived quite quickly. Kyle had ‘won’ the first course and ordered the crispy-fried soft shell crab with chilli and lime. It was a generous portion of crab, crunchy on the outside making way for the soft give of the crab underneath. Almost more of a texture than a flavour, but that was more than made up for by the super-fiery chilli dipping sauce that accompanied it!
I chose the most non-date starter you can imagine (luckily we’re married, so that didn’t matter so much!) – Hanoi-style short ribs with chilli, garlic and red wine vinegar. This was also a generous serving of six ribs coated in a thick, sticky sweet marinade. The marinade was rich and delicious but it was all quite hard work and far too messy for public! Luckily, I was offered a couple of damp towels to clean myself up with!

Kyle’s main was the Sichuan-spiced duck breast with tamarind and chilli, cooked medium-rare, sliced thinly and beautifully presented on a bed of asian vegetables. The duck was soft and tender with the greens offering some variation in texture. The sauce was quite mild and could have done with a bit more kick.
While Kyle may have ‘won’ the choice for starter, I won the main and honestly – no contest! The Seared scallops, sweet pork and perilla cress was possibly one of the best dishes I have ever had. Four plump scallops sat alongside three big chunks of pork belly coated in a light, but sweet marinade. The scallops were excellent – well-seasoned, seared until caramelised and almost crunchy on top and with more flavour than I think I’ve ever tasted in a scallop. The pork was also good and the fact that it was pork belly was a pleasant surprise. The meat fell apart to the touch and the coating of sesame seeks offered a further flavour dimension. My only criticism – and this is nit-picking – is that the pieces were too big to be bite-sized and therefore elegantly eaten with chopsticks. Like I said, nit-picking. This was a classic, but very well-executed combination.

We also ordered some egg fried rice from the sides menu, which was also a good example of a typical dish. Lots of flavour, good bit chunks of egg and just the right amount of stickiness to be eaten with those chopsticks!

Seeing as food was 50% off, it seemed a waste not to have dessert. It is also one of the rare times I can remember Kyle looking at a dessert menu and instantly wanting something, that something being banana fritters. I must admit, I’m not a fan of bananas or of deep-fried desserts in general, so this was never going to be my thing. Kyle, however, thought they were fantastic! The pistachio ice-cream was not an obvious accompaniment and had a slightly odd flavour.
I chose the Vanilla and lime cheesecake with kiwi. The cheesecake was quasi-deconstructed with the buttery biscuit crumbled on top rather than forming the base. The cheesecake part was fairly standard and I had to really concentrate to detect any particular lime flavour. The kiwi was very strange – part of it looked and tasted canned. Can you get kiwi fruit in a tin? It wasn’t very pleasant.

Overall, the food at Bam Bou was generally very good and at 50% off, offered excellent value for money (all that food was about £30). The wine list was quite good with some unusual choices (we had a lovely Marsanne/Viognier blend) and service was attentive without being intrusive. I really enjoyed Bam Bou and I’m so glad we went – at full price, it would add up (fairly typical central London prices), but with this deal, it was a bargain for the variety and quality on offer.

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Bam Bou
Percy Street
London W1T IDB