Housed in an elegant Georgian town-house and styled with colonial French-Vietnamese inspired furnishings, Bam-Bou’s unique offering has seen it firmly establish itself as a favourite amongst the glut of restaurants in Fitzrovia. It’s no surprise really, given that its labyrinth layout of two dining rooms, four private rooms and the top-floor Red Bar makes Bam-Bou ideal for the secret trysts and deals taking place amongst the media-set who dominate the locality. The various dining room options also makes Bam-Bou just as suited to a romantic dinner as it is a lively evening meal with friends.
Visit at lunch-time or for early supper and you can expect quick and tasty options such as dim sum and hearty noodle bowls. However, it’s well worth heading down for a proper meal to experience the eclectic South-East Asian menu, with many dishes taken from the cuisine of Thailand, China and Vietnam.
The seasonal menus include delicious starters of burger-style Chilli sauce coated lamb in Chinese steamed buns and properly meaty Hanoi-style short ribs; both packed full of flavour, we’d happily sit and eat them all day. A bit cheeky, however is charging £4 for the giant and pretty bland prawn crackers. Mains are of a good standard too, with the option of curries, stir fries, noodles and grills. Seared scallops with sweet pork & perilla cress was beautifully cooked and presented, with large sweet scallops and delicious cubes of melting pork. Spiced slow-roast duck with salted plum sauce and sugar snaps was a little dry through the middle, but well spiced and ideally accompanied by a big plate of Bok choi with tamari & chilli.
With its interesting décor and unique yet familiar menu, Bam-Bou is well worth a visit, particularly if you fancy a change from the multitude of mediocre Thai restaurants in town .
Food: 3.5/5
Venue: 4/5
Value: 3/5
Cuisine type – South-east Asian
Dinner for 2 (ex. drinks) – £55
Wine – £4.50
Cocktails – £8.50
Bam-Bou
1 Percy Street
W1T 1DB
Fitzrovia
020 7323 9130
www.bam-bou.co.uk