20/1/12 - Bam Bams (www.mybambam.co/)
Our neighbours asked if we wanted to go with them to this relatively new restaurant. Having been to their 'sister' restaurant, Farmer Browns, which is excellent incidentally, I was really quite excited about going. According to the website it promises 'to flawlessly fuse a pan Asian dining experience with a late night boutique bar'. Having looked at the example menu, and liking almost everything I saw, I was looking forward to the experience.
So much annoyed me about Bam Bams, I don't know where to start. As mentioned, the reason I stopped my last website is because I got fed up of going to places that weren't as good as I could cook at home. I'm pretty sure, given the same ingredients I could have done a pretty similar or even better job. But let's not start with the food. Let's go back to the beginning. The entrance. The entrance is bloody confusing for first-timers. You walk in to be met by 2 sets of steps - one going up and one going down. No signs and nobody to greet you. We eventually realised that up was for the bar. We were actually greeted by a BOUNCER, or I guess a doorman as he would prefer to be called, who politely explained how everything worked. Our table was booked at 9 and we were slightly late. The bar, which consisted of a large room with a DJ booth in one corner, a selection of tables and chairs and, in one corner, a massive table and 3 what I could probably call thrones - castoffs from it's other sister place, Beluga? What really annoyed me is that the barman had his back to me. He didn't even notice us arrive. I could quite easily have crept up on him and shouted 'boo!' before he noticed me. Mark and I both ordered Asahi beers to be told "These are probably the last 2 in the barrel", which was slightly disconcerting. Also, his was poured into a proper Asahi glass and mine was poured into a normal pint glass. Now, I know I'm being picky, but if they want to be a cool, trendy bar, they should firstly have enough beer to serve people and also put drinks into the correct glasses - or at least in the same glasses.
Now, onto the food. When we were finally greeted and seated we were taken downstairs. It's probably due to my expectations but I was really disappointed by the decor. Because of the cool website and the trendy bar upstairs, I was expecting an equally trendy and cool theme downstairs - leather seats, booths, dim lighting, cool stuff. Nope, it's just like a pub restaurant or maybe a cafe. Not a cool or trendy thing in site. However, there were some delicious prawn crackers on the table. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got.
The menu was completely different to the one on the website. That's fine, I shouldn't have looked. This happens a lot. I set my heart on something I see online all the time and when I get to the actual restaurant it's never there. Even the actual menu annoyed me! Ok, one dish annoyed me. I'll get to that in a bit.
For starter I had the chilli squid with mango salsa and puree and sesame seaweed. Tasty but I didn't really taste the chilli on the squid. Also, the mango salsa could have done with some heat too. Overall, a little disappointing. However, everybody else was pleased with theirs - my wife had the '5spice pork belly, spring onion salad, oyster'. It wasn't an oyster which was slightly frutrating. It was a typo, it meant oyster sauce. My wife hates oysters, I love them. Was quite looking forward to that. Our friends each gave me a bite of their sweet chilli beef and lamb kofta. Nice, tasty - but where's the fusion? It seems to be Asian OR European, not a fuse of the two.
Main course was where I started to get a bit tetchy. I read 'noodle dish for you, simple or complicated, mild or hot, vegetable, fish or meat, our chef will craft it to your liking' and thought it sounded really quirky, fun and interesting. What does 'complicated' mean I wondered. Just a play on words according to our waitress, nothing really complicated about them. Hmmm, not so interesting now. I pressed ahead anyway and asked for complicated and spicy and was really quite intrigued by what I was going to get. Unfortunately, the message between myself and the chef must have got slightly blurred and he must have thought I asked for ordinary and bland. The noodles had no sauce, not much taste and they certainly weren't spicy. The prawns, however, were cooked beautifully - succulent and juicy and well seasoned. However, I didn't come out for just that.
I must say, for balance, that our friends really enjoyed their food and said they would come back. My wife enjoyed parts of hers too. Maybe I was being too picky or set my sights too high or perhaps even expected the wrong thing.
Service was pretty poor. Nobody asked how our food was until we'd actually finished which I found slightly unprofessional. Overall, it was slightly nervous and clumsy. I'm not having a go at the waitress herself, she was sweet and friendly - she just needs better training. I also noticed there was no uniform - not even matching t-shirts - so it took me a while to notice who was a waitress and who was just going to the toilet.
Overall, I found the whole experience rather 'cold'. Not in temperature but in atmosphere. The whole place doesn't seem to have a heart, soul or identity. I also don't really know what it's trying to be. There's no continuity between the bar and the restaurant. They look and feel like two completely different buildings. The menu doesn't reflect their vision and I feel that they're promising something they don't deliver.
Would I go again? Yes, possibly. At gunpoint and you're paying.
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