Bob Bob Ricard

Press Reviews (8)

• Jay Rayner (20th April 2009)
  
  “There is much that is absurd” about this all-day brasserie, but, due to “a steady hand at work both in the kitchen and front of house” the Observer’s man has an enjoyable meal here. In an ideal world, BBR “could be all things to all people”, but in reality “it's comfort food at prices that can only ever be aimed at people who are already very comfortable indeed”.
• Matthew Norman (6th April 2009)
  5/10
  
  This style of this Soho newcomer makes it “quite a confection”, Mr Norman observes. “This is a very sweet restaurant, styled after a drink-induced Orient Express hallucination (Bob Bob Absinthe), in which the male waiters wear candyfloss-pink jackets so lurid they should get danger money.” The problem is that “if affordable glitz is the noble ambition, there’s a problem: it isn't affordable… If they lopped a third off the prices, BBR would stand a chance, because the food is fine, the service delightful and the room a pleasure to sit in, even if it lacks the bustle to match the grandeur”.
• Marina O'Loughlin (4th February 2009)
  4/5 stars
  
  The critic admits that she is “prepared to dent any possible [foodie] credentials by saying I love the deliciously daft Bob Bob Ricard”. She does indeed seem to have been swept along by the “camp” Soho newcomer, with its “hilariously gorgeous” staff, and its décor “designed by David Collins of The Wolseley fame on a particularly farouche day… Imagine a Belle Epoque railway brasserie accessorised by Bobby Trendy and you're close”. We looked in vain for much in the way of (express) foodie justification for the four-star award.
• Terry Durack (19th January 2009)
  14/20
  
  As in most of the reviews to date, the “eclectic, ebullient new funked-up brasserie in Soho”, which is open all day, finds itself being compared by its author to the Wolseley. Unlike, say, AA Gill, he finds that the former Circus premises are “now a fabulously hospitable room with row upon row of cosy booths, and lashings of marble, brass and leather”, designed by David Collins “with his usual intelligent mix of common sense, luxury and grace” (and this time “a bit of fun” too).
• AA Gill (12th January 2009)
  0/5 stars
  
  “Bob Bob Ricard manages to nose the tape as the worst new restaurant of 2008”, says the critic. “BBR is a stupid name… [b]ut it’s a name that fits, because this is a stupid concept. Not just stupid, but Bob Bob Gloriously Chronically Unfixably Misbegotten”. “The room is supposed to be reminiscent of an Edwardian railway carriage”. but it’s ‘more like Liberace’s bathroom dropped into a Texan diner”. The dishes are “bizarrely random, like the reverie of starving prisoners of war… This restaurant is the last turkey standing”.
• Tracey MacLeod (12th January 2009)
  
  Difficult to believe that the Sunday Times’s man went to the same restaurant as the Indie’s lady. She concedes that the name is odd and unpronounceable (and some of the pricing is “questionable”), but this “eccentric, retro-themed brasserie” turns out to “unexpectedly good”, and “in its own quirky way”, she would pronounce it “a hit”. [Famous restaurant designer] David Collins, she waxes, “has created the same sense of golden-hued nostalgic glamour he achieved at the Wolseley, and the menu is “relatively short, but full of personality and provenance”, and the dishes samples were “uniformly good: simple, well-conceived and pleasingly enhanced with characterful tracklements”.
• Charmaine Mok (7th January 2009)
  3/6 stars
  
  This grand Soho brasserie newcomer “cuts a fine figure in old-fashioned quirkiness”, says the critic, “but unfortunately when applied to the menu, the result is more dowdy than delicious. … While BBR prides itself on pushing the ‘English comfort food’ wagon, it’s a pity it has not been done with more skill”.
• Fay Maschler (3rd December 2008)
  3/5 stars
  
  “Soho is experiencing a restaurant revival”, pronounces the critic, and this Edwardian train travel-inspired brasserie is, she suggests, part of it. The review is rather disappointingly short of opinions though – it clearly wasn’t just written from the press release, but much of it might as well have been.