Ted meets Bo

.. and what a delicious encounter it proved to be … well Ted what did you expect when the chef is a Scottish-Chinese ex member of the punk dance band fabulously called shitdisco … err not sure now that you ask …

So enter (real name) Jan Lee and his wife Jae Chung and eventually (after all that other kind of creative artist stuff) their minds quite rightly turned to where they should be aka food. So welcome to Bo Drake, their East Asian restaurant with (in their own words) modern and bright food, combining sweet and pickled influences from East Asia alongside slow cooked BBQ methods from the Americas and Europe.

Now on the face of it Bo Drake is a place that probably should annoy me … it’s a no booking and sharing plates kind of place … BUT (and yes it’s a big one) it’s worth the wait … we didn’t queue in the way that you don’t have to if you’re happy to have “dunch” (dinner/lunch) at 6pm … or better still you’ve discovered that they do actually take reservations!!! Communal dishes have always been and will remain part of the traditional and culinary heritage of most cultures and Bo Drake serves up in this tradition.  Not to be confused with the small “sharing plates” that are so in vogue in metropolises’ and are so small that of course you can’t share … but you really would have liked too shared because of the silly prices - and even if you went home hungry at least you looked hip and didn’t have to sell a kidney (yes one of yours) to pay the bill...

I have recently had a rather expensive dining experience that was beyond bad … it was the ultimate in the chef and the sommelier focusing on what they like and totally forgetting that their customers may not have such rarefied or singularly focused taste buds or in fact what they were doing was just off the scale silly (you know who you are The Typing Room). 

But back to Bo Drake - the food is everything it says it will be and doesn’t pretend to be anything that it isn’t. This is great Korean influenced BBQ food – from the incredible sticky ribs and chicken wings that are now my contender for first equal in the UK. The menu is short but well formed with vegetables, seafood, meat and naturally the Korean national staple Kimchee.

… add some eminently drinkable cocktails, wines, and beers and you have an experience that you’ll go back for again and again …