Bob Bob Ricard’s new Waffle & Bellini Hour
Bob Bob Ricard has reopened following lockdown, with a new menu from a new head chef, and a weekend Waffle & Bellini Hour.
It sounds like one of those classic conundrums: ‘Pray tell, riddle me this, wayfarer: what is it, that is neither breakfast nor brunch, yet is still intended to serve as a late, luxurious start to a leisurely morning after a lie-in, or perhaps as stylish and elegant pit-stop during a day out in old London town?’ If you answered, ‘Nope, I’m sorry, I haven’t a Scooby’, allow us to put you out of your misery. Think: waffle. No, not gabbling mindlessly, but the simple but delicious foodstuff.
For beginning Friday 4th September, that great Soho Dining Institution, Bob Bob Ricard, is emerging from Lockdown hibernation with a mouthwatering proposition: a new Waffle & Bellini Hour, from 11am until noon every Friday to Sunday. Lovingly created by new head chef Tom Peters, the made-to-order menu employs bespoke waffle irons, with waffles served either au naturel, with wild arctic cloudberries, or organic crispy bacon. Meanwhile, the truly decadent might plump for The Truffle Waffle: a feverish taste-orgy of black truffle served with fresh truffle-infused organic maple syrup. All washed down with classic peach and strawberry champagne Bellinis, or champagne by the glass. Now, doesn’t that sound like the perfect Sunday to you? “Waffle & Bellini Hour promises to be great fun,” says Bob Bob Ricard’s owner Leonid Shutov. “I hope it will become as much of an institution as Bob Bob Ricard itself.”
Billed as “much-changed, yet reassuringly the same,” it’s the return after months of closure for the beloved Soho joint in Upper James St, and there’s much for guests to discover. The menu, for one, has been updated by the aforementioned 2017 Masterchef finalist, who says he wants to take Bob Bob Ricard back to its roots as a ‘diner deluxe’, dishing up London’s finest haute comfort-food. If anyone can, he can: his CV includes spending a year at Maaemo in Oslo – named one of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2018, along with six years at the Roux family’s Roux at Parliament Square.
Among other new dishes he’s introducing are Turbot Coulibiac: a Russian speciality of turbot and hand-dived scallop mousse wrapped in puff pastry, served with champagne beurre blanc; Salmon Poached in White Wine served with watercress and pickled radish and fennel salad; and a double-baked Stinking Bishop Cheese Soufflé with hazelnuts and Comté sauce, served with apple and gooseberry chutney. He’s also refined and reworked Bob Bob Ricard’s most popular signature dishes, including The Bone-in Chicken Kiev, the Lobster Macaroni & Cheese (with more lobster and cheese), along with the BBR Chocolate Glory, a ravishing blend of Valrhona dark chocolate mousse, praline crunch, hazelnut ice-cream and halal coffee marshmallow.
Said Shutov, “I am delighted to have Tom Peters with us as head chef and I am excited about his refinements and additions to the menu. It is still unmistakeably ‘Bob Bob Ricard’, but with Tom’s stamp on it.”