RestaurantsLondonSohoW1
HARDENS CLUB PARTNER

survey result

Summary

£91
 ££££
2
Average
4
Very Good
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

The ‘Press for Champagne’ button has become an Instagram classic – made famous by the original Soho branch of Leonid Shutov’s decadent diners, which provide luxurious treats like caviar and beef Wellington all served in a sumptuous environment, whose dark wood and polished surfaces evoke the deco glam of a trip on the Orient Express. “A fun place for a celebration” or romance, they are also notably “overpriced” – a factor harder to overlook in the era of straitened post-Covid expense accounts, when splashy business dining (for which they are a favourite) has been reined in. Perhaps that’s why the renamed ‘Bob Bob Cité’ – a “nightclub-like space” occupying a floor of the City’s Cheesegrater – has failed to make waves, and generates very few (albeit positive) reports. In August 2023, the group (celebrating its fifteenth year) started a new, 56-seat spin-off, a few doors down from the original, called ‘Bébé Bob’: the offering here will shoehorn champagne and caviar into a more dressed-down offering, alongside rotisserie chicken as the main event.

Summary

£81
 ££££
2
Average
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“What a sexy dining room!” – the “all-booth seating” at Leonid Shutov’s extravagant Soho venue (each with its own ‘Push for Champagne’ button) “makes you feel like you’re in your own carriage of the Orient Express” and is perfect for “date night and important romantic celebrations” (and also for a lighthearted business meal). Even if the “luxurious” Russian-British cuisine (caviar and Beef Wellington are highlights) strikes some as a tad “overpriced”, most reporters also feel it’s “absolutely delicious”. In 2019, Shutov launched a £25m sibling Bob Bob Cité on the third floor of the City’s Cheesegrater. It inspired mixed reports and in October 2021 relaunches under the Bob Bob Ricard brand, after tweaks to the decor bringing it closer to the Soho original. In EC3, the menu will have a Russian-French leaning.

Summary

£98
 ££££
2
Average
3
Good
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“OTT-opulent decor, with a ‘push for champagne’ button in each booth” have carved a big name for Leonid Shutov’s fantastical Soho haunt, whose “high novelty factor” is extremely romantic (“you just have to take a date”). When it comes to Eric Chavot’s menu of luxurious classics (“amazing beef Wellington” for example) results undisputedly taste “very nice”, but the food is “expensive for what it is, and you get more adventurous cooking at the same price-bracket elsewhere”.

For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at Bob Bob Ricard?

Restaurant details

Yes
16
Jacket required
220
15
Yes

Prices

Traditional European menu

Starter Main Pudding
£19.50 £34.00 £7.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £28.00
Filter Coffee £0.00
Extras  
Bread £0.00
Service 15.00%
Opening hours
Monday7:30 pm‑12 am
Tuesday7:30 pm‑12 am
Wednesday7:30 pm‑12 am
Thursday12 pm‑12 am
Friday12 pm‑12 am
Saturday12 pm‑12 am
Sunday12 pm‑12 am

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