Bob bob Ricard City : Things change but they stay the same. I attended the June 2019 opening of Bob Bob City. It was the sister restaurant of Soho’s Bob Bob Ricard . I wrote that it was the best place in London.
It was a costly venture that cost PS25m. This place is a love letter to gastronomic minimalism. The decor featured a sea of red and blue, with rows upon rows of LED numbers that ran beneath the ceiling like ticker tape.
It closed in March 2020. While many restaurants struggled to survive the pandemic and continued trading, Bob Bob, on the third floor of the Leadenhall Building in the epicenter of a Square Mile, realized it was a loser, and closed its doors.
This week, I attended its second opening. It was a great reminder of how much this crazy restaurant means to me. The newly rebranded Bob Bob Ricard City has seen more money spent, rounding off some of its most jagged corners. The accent colours are now used to highlight a vast expanse of mahogany and thick rug. Booths are now less private jet and more Orient Express. Even the ticker tape that flashed blue to red when somebody hit the “Presser pour Champagne”, button used to light up, but now it lights up almost apologetically. Although it’s easier on the eyes, I miss the old version.
Decor is not the only thing that has changed. Eric Chavot, the rockstar chef, has left for “family reasons”. Ben Hobson, previously of Galvin at Windows has taken over the top job. The Anglo-Franco/Russian menu is largely unchanged.
The “vodka shots” section is still available – Leonid Shutov is a Russian restaurateur. Caviar and dumplings are located among the steak tartare, beef wellington, and snails.
The crab and lobster pelmeni dumplings were delicious, presented in neat little boxes and topped with roe. They were served with rich langoustine bisque. What I wanted to know was if the champagne pie and chicken survived the pandemic. It did, down to the glazed lid which looks shiny and new (although the “Bob Bob Cite” logo has been removed).
This pie is truly a masterpiece. The thin, wafer-thin crust gives way to a delicious filling with fennel and tarragon, and shitake mushrooms. This pie is one I would happily cross county lines to get, if possible, international borders for. It represents the Platonic ideal against all other pies, and it will not disappoint. They are good pies.
