On the Bab
Korean 36 Wellington Street, WC2E 7BD
£
On The Bab - meaning 'served with rice' is a very typical new London restaurant - bare brick walls and wooden furniture greet you first, with your food later being served in small metal bowls and off greaseproof paper.
Trendy it is, original it isn't. Reasonably priced, On the Bab aims to deliver traditional Korean street food to edgy Londoners wanting to get their cultural dose. The que's outside speak for themselves - this place must have something great to offer... how did I miss it?
Luckily, Tom and I arrived around 5pm on a Sunday after a long day of London strolling and exhibition going and managed to nab the last table before the ques commenced. The warm and cosy of interior of the restaurant was well received, bare brick walls and minimal furniture not adding any particular coolness (in both senses of the word). The place was rammed, and mostly with Korean's - usually a good sign.
The menu is small but varied - we ordered the Yangyum Chicken, medium portion £12.50 with half Soy & Ginger sauce and half Sweet & Spicy along with a Beef noodle salad £5.90 and some Spicy Pork filled Buns £8.50. The chicken was tasty, although the batter was heavy and meat inside not anything to write home about. The noodle salad was also perfectly nice, if not slightly on the sour side (too much vinegar). The pork filled buns at first bite hit the spot, however as I continued through it the sweet creamy sauce became sickly, the buns sticky and the pork pretty tasteless.
After a long day in the cold we thought it best to order what sounded like the most filling and greasy... however, a group of teenagers next to us had some kind of Noodle Soup which is hindsight looked infinitely better than what we had. The food we chose did satisfy our hunger and the surroundings our need for warmth, but it did leave me feeling a little queasy on our journey home and since eating On the Bab again I have had this same queasiness after.
This kind of food would be a great stop off on your way home from a night out, but in terms of educating yourself on traditional Korean cuisine, I would give it a miss.
OVERALL RATING: **
http://onthebab.co.uk/
