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Restaurant Review: Bó Drake, Soho - Candid Magazine
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Bó Drake is one of the more unusual additions to the crowded restaurant scene on Greek Street in Soho.
You might not normally associate BBQ with east Asian countries, and even the most well-travelled food lover would struggle to name a similar restaurant in London.
The decor here wouldn’t sell any postcards with its sturdy inoffensive look, but no one would expect anything more for what is in essence a relaxed BBQ restaurant.
There is a persistent trend for Asian restaurants to look culturally neutral and it certainly helps here; guests feel comfortable enough to stroll in just to enjoy their fabulously inventive cocktails by the bar.
Thankfully, on the night we visited, all we could hear was the successful buzz of restaurant chatter.
London's Dining Couple Bo Drake Review - Solo Excursion
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For my latest solo excursion, I decided on Bó Drake, which as the name suggests is a fusion of East Asian cuisine with Western BBQ influences.
The waitress, who seemingly had a permanent and genuine broad smile, took her time to talk me through the specials on the board behind me and this only altered my order a little bit as I’d already decided on Korean Fried Chicken (KFC), Pork Belly Bao, and Smoked Duck Tataki.
The pork belly bao was also really good.
After a brief break, where in I quickly wrote a few notes on the restaurant and the dishes I’d enjoyed in Notes on my iPhone, the crispy kimpab and the Smoked duck tataki arrived.
Dress Code: Casual Star Dish: Korean Fried Chicken wings Price: £30 each (without alcohol) Rating: 4.7 out of 5 Bó Drake http://bodrake.co.uk 6 Greek Street Soho, London W1D 4DE To book call 020 7439 9989 or at OpenTable
Bó Drake launch new cocktails, review [STAR:4] | Culture Whisper
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Bó Drake embodies Soho: fast-paced fusion, through the lenses of Europe and Asia; this porthole on Greek Street is all about discovering new flavours.
The space: Bó Drake has an expensive, flashy interior with the likes of polished concrete, but look again and the plain wooden tables and rough finishes are clearly influenced by the street kitchens of Asia, where loud flavours are enjoyed in humble surroundings all day long.
The food and drink: A prosaic menu of 'meat' 'fish' and 'vegetables' won't take you much time to circumnavigate, but that's a good thing at a restaurant that's survived its first two years in Soho without closing.
New cocktails At Bó Drake, the pioneering of new flavours extends to the cocktail list, which has just been redeveloped.
The new cocktail line up at Bó Drake Served in a martini glass, the Zest & Bubble is a new lighter aperitif, with grain-sourced Chinese wine, a fortified French aperitif, and Sureau, an elderflower reduction that colours the taste of the overiding prosecco.
Fay Maschler reviews Bo Drake | London Evening Standard
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ES Food Newsletter Jan Lee, one of the founders of the dance-punk band with the dulcet name of Shitdisco — formed in 2003 at Glasgow School of Art — is now chef and owner of Bó Drake in Soho.
But it was meeting Jae Chung (now his wife) from Seoul at the Royal College of Art, where Lee was studying art and design, that lit the fire that is now slow-smoking beef brisket and pork, working the steamer for bao (rice-flour buns) and, incidentally, helping ferment kimchi that is light years ahead of much that you find commercially.
Korexican: what's on offer at Bo Drake (Picture: Adrian Lourie) Anju, a general term for Korean food served with alcohol, is a word being added to the London restaurant-goers’ vocabulary.
To enter into the Anju spirit one of us orders a signature cocktail called Watermelon Soju Tinny, sweetened with popcorn syrup and flavoured with mint, to accompany all three of the “Smalls” of brisket bao, kimchi quesadilla and mushroom tostada.
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Bó Drake, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph
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Like most of London’s Far-East-channelling hipster joints, “East Asian BBQ Restaurant” Bó Drake romances diners with exposed brick, pipes, and warm tungsten lamps.
Run by well groomed, T-shirted waiters (who certainly don’t look like they grew up on kimchi – and who do not announce your arrival with a throttled string of greetings in the authentic East Asian style), this perfect storm of zeitgeistiness is owned by Chinese immigrant and ex-rock star Jan Lee (whose band The Telegraph’s style book compels me to render as S---disco, a gauchely uncool act of bowdlerisation which will no doubt earn me his undying contempt) and his South Korean wife.
In particular, Bó Drake’s kimchi was among the finest I’ve had in London – balanced, refined and altogether addictive.
With another Korean classic, bo ssäm (spiced pork belly boiled in spices, sliced thin and wrapped with lettuce-leaf) I came in search of unctuous greatness, and found something merely satisfactory: tender meat that wasn’t quite fatty enough to have soaked up the spice.
And selfish as it may now sound, I wanted my asparagus side to be more than just asparagus, ever so lightly enriched with soy and yuzu: the dish served at Bó Drake was like the greens served at at an upmarket East Asian grill such as Jan Lee’s alma mater Roka: fine as a supporting act, I guess.
Bó Drake, London W1 – restaurant review | Marina O'Loughlin | Life ...
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Ribs are one of those dishes that people mistakenly regard as easy trash food, having endured horrible versions in pubs and chains, the meat sweaty and flopping exhaustedly from the bones, the connecting tissue strained and shiny, the sauce like something coughed up by a Haribo-addicted pipe smoker.
They’re just sticky enough, gently sweet with Korean pear (those crisp, elegant creatures also known as nashi), lightly scattered with toasted sesame and tendrils of green chilli.
Perhaps our bar perch leads us to order eccentrically, almost dish by dish, but I’d argue this is the best way to experience the place; to use it like a less draughty version of Seoul’s pojangmacha (plastic drinking tents) or LA’s Korean-Mexican food trucks.
Vegetables don’t miss out on the fusiony treatment: asparagus roasted with soy and yuzu; cauliflower, fried, with the earthy thrum of mushroom puree and red cabbage, and topped with translucent crisps of lotus root: good, but a tiny serving for a fiver.
Perhaps the bar is the right place to be, after all – table bookings be damned.
Bó Drake | Restaurants in Soho, London
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In fact it means Korean + Mexican, and some people – at least 20, I’m sure – think it’s going to be a big food trend.
Bó Drake, in theory an example of the trend, prefers to call itself an ‘East Asian barbecue restaurant’ – much more accurate.
It could also be called an American/Asian fusion restaurant, having elements in common with David Chang’s Momofuku group in New York and the Kogi ‘taco trucks’ (Mexican tacos, but with Korean-style meats) set up in Los Angeles by Seoul-born Roy Choi.
While the Mexican connection is indisputable, the dominant palate at this no-reservations restaurant is Korean.
Three meat dishes were sensationally good: long-smoked brisket served in a bao (soft bun) with tangy relishes; smoked pork ribs in a finger-licking pear sauce; chargrilled rib-eye (served rare as requested) with miso butter.