Bob Bob Ricard: When someone says 'press for champagne', you do as you're told

When the button in the wall is labelled “Press for champagne”, you do as you're told.
Ailis Brennan19 December 2017

If you grew up a goody goody, ceaselessly heeding the cry to “do as you’re told”, Bob Bob Ricard is your reward. When the button in the wall is labelled “Press for champagne”, what choice does a dutiful diner have? In little longer than thirty seconds, your glass is being refilled by a pink-waistcoated waiter and you’re left wondering why you ever did anything else with your life. Ever.

This is Bob Bob Ricard and at Bob Bob Ricard, luxury is on tap. Every surface is crammed with the desirable: gilding, marble, Prussian blue leather, mosaic, art deco fashioned monogramming, crystal, velvet and every kind of luxurious food stuff you can shake an oyster fork at. Bob Bob Ricard somehow it manages to make all this opulence mercifully cute. It’s boutique, not rambling, and there somehow isn’t a spot of smugness about it.

A large part of this is down to the food. Bob Bob Ricard has welcomed a new Executive Head Chef, Eric Chavot, who is overseeing Soho and at the Bob Bob Cite site opening next year. Chavot has put his own spin on recipes, but the Russian-influenced menu remains in all its glorious peculiarity. A scan through it and, in between the caviar and the truffle and the lobster, are almost exclusively things that you’d quite happily eat on a rainy Sunday evening: this, you realise, is oligarch comfort food.

The baked Brehnez oysters with parmesan and truffle are a pretty opulent (and divine) start to the evening, as is the caviar-topped steak tartare, but after the first course and a couple of glasses of champagne, it’s time to let go. The superb mac and cheese is made with five types of cheese – and lobster. The chicken Kiev is a Bob Bob Ricard classic, reinvigorated by Chavot, with a peppery kick to the centre of the meat. The fries, naturally, come dusted with truffle.

The satisfaction of Bob Bob Ricard is irresistible, and more decadent for not being as painfully refined as you would expect (and not necessarily want). If you feel like getting fancier, just press the button again.

See more of the Best Restaurants in Soho

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