Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 34 and Version 13 of Bacchus, N1 6PJ

Version 34 Version 13
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Bacchus was a "modernist" restaurant in [[Locale Hoxton|Hoxton]]. It closed for good on Saturday 9 August 2008. The chef, Nuno Mendes, has since opened a new restaurant called [[Viajante, E2 9NF|Viajante]] in [[Locale Bethnal Green|Bethnal Green]].
Relatively inexpensive &#8220;modernist&#8221; restaurant in North London, billing itself as “fine dining in trainers”. We visited on a pretty quiet Tuesday evening; there were only six other people there (a two and a four), so didn't get much of an idea of what the ambience is like when it's busier. It didn't feel <i>extremely</i> casual to me (apart from the bit where the chatty and friendly front of house guy sat down at the table with us a couple of times) but again that was quite likely due to the low number of punters; it might have been easier to relax if it'd been a bit busier. We liked the music — Thievery Corporation kind of stuff.
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The Hoxton Street building was transformed into [http://bacchus-restaurant.co.uk/ Bacchus Pub and Kitchen], which opened on Monday 11 August 2008 as "a modern-day local boozer", and was reviewed [http://www.doshermanos.co.uk/2008/08/bacchus-we-hope-you-like-our-new.html by Dos Hermanos], [http://londonfood.typepad.com/stuff/2008/08/back-to-bacchus.html by Food And Drink In London], and [http://cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.com/2008/09/bacchus-bar-kitchen-hoxton.html by Cheese And Biscuits]. Unfortunately this only lasted a few months; [http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=94202&view=findpost&p=1617421 according to eGullet], the Bacchus people (Philip and Nuno) have now sold the place to someone else.
We chose the six-course tasting menu (£40) with matched wines (£30), and were generally pretty pleased with it. I wrote up our food in greater detail [http://www.chowhound.com/topics/420006 on the chowhound site]. Overall, the courses were well balanced and interesting, though there was perhaps a little too much reliance on the "crunchy powder" meme. The three of us did disagree on which bits we liked and which we didn't, which I reckon is a good sign that most people will find something to like here. I think the highlights for me were the Bacchus Bloody Marvellous cocktail (a Bloody Mary made with clear tomato water), the small and tasty rabbit mousse amuse-bouche, the lovely fresh-tasting vegetable salad with edible flowers and a very well-matched rose wine, the perfectly-cooked spiced king prawn that followed the salad, and the subtly delicious almond and garlic sauce that accompanied the monkfish course.
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The information below is retained for those who want to know what the Hoxton Street restaurant used to be like.
Note the restricted opening hours; they're no longer open at lunchtimes, or on Mondays or Sundays. Also note that they no longer offer a la carte menu; but this is scant hardship since they do offer a 9-course tasting menu from which you can choose 3 (£25), 6 (£40), or 9 (£60) courses, and this menu is set to change every month. They can cater for both vegetarians and vegans (though we haven't tested this out yet) — just mention it when you book.
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<div class="old_info">
Relatively inexpensive &#8220;modernist&#8221; restaurant in North London, billing itself as &#8220;fine dining in trainers&#8221;. It's never felt <i>extremely</i> casual on any of our visits so far, but it's been fairly quiet on all of them (one Tuesday and two Wednesdays) so we don't know what the ambience is like when it's busier. According to a friend of [[Bob]]'s, it's never all that busy, so you could probably turn up without a booking most nights.

Note the restricted opening hours; they're only open evenings, and only Tuesday-Saturday. Also note that they don't offer a la carte menu; they have a multi-course tasting menu which is available in three versions: reduced (&pound;45, or &pound;70 with matched wines), full (&pound;60, or &pound;95 with matched wines) and extended (&pound;75, or &pound;120 with matched wines). The extended version requires 24 hours notice. Red wine lovers may wish to note that the matched wines are usually mostly whites. The first course usually comes with sake rather than wine.

The menu changes every month, with some dishes being retained and others changing. They can cater for vegetarians and vegans (we've tested this, and they did well).

[[Kake]], [[Bob]], and [[doop]] have visited three times now (July 2007, October 2007, July 2008) and liked it each time. On our first visit, there was perhaps a little too much reliance on the "crunchy powder" meme, but this has got better, with only a single (and appropriate) appearance on our latest visit. The different courses are well-balanced and interesting; and every time we've been, there's been disagreement on which bits we liked and which we didn't, which suggests that most people will find at least <i>something</i> to like here.

Kake, doop, and [[Juliet]] tried the vegan option on our October 2007 visit, with [[Bob]] sticking to the normal menu, so we got a chance to compare. Although we gave them a week's notice of this, the chef decided to wing it rather than planning us a menu in advance, and he did very well too. Most of the vegan dishes were adaptations of the non-vegan ones, meaning that we were all eating roughly the same thing &#8212; handy in terms of discussing the dishes! The non-vegan components were substituted with other items from elsewhere in the menu, leading to a small panic in the kitchen when the chef realised he'd already given us all the components of the final dessert. I'm not convinced we were really meant to take the resulting "Stella Artois foam" seriously, but then food doesn't have to always be serious.

Our July 2008 visit was a birthday dinner with fourteen of us in total; they asked that we all choose the same number of courses, which is fair enough. They coped pretty well with the large group, with only one or two service hiccups, and the food was good as always. [[Kake]]'s only disappointment was the amaretto sour that I ordered on arrival; it was too sweet and no sourness was detectable.

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Accessibility: Step-free throughout, but didn't notice whether they have an accessible toilet.
They have an outdoor area at the back of the restaurant where smoking is permitted, and you can even eat out there if the weather is good. I don't know if it's covered over at all.
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See also:
*
[http://www.chowhound.com/topics/420006 Kake's extended writeup of our July 2007 visit]
* [http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/experts/matthewnorman/story/0,,2019141,00.html Matthew Norman's review]
* [http://londonfood.typepad.com/stuff/2006/10/sous_vide_local.html londonfood review]
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969448,00.html Observer Food Monthly article]

==== Other reviews ====
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<div class="last_verified">Last visited 9 July 2008 by [[Kake]], [[Bob]], [[doop]], [[Kat]], [[Bec]], [[Billy]], and various others. Opening hours taken from the Bacchus website, July 2008.</div>
* [http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/experts/matthewnorman/story/0,,2019141,00.html Matthew Norman]
*
[http://londonfood.typepad.com/stuff/2006/10/sous_vide_local.html londonfood]
*
[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969448,00.html Observer Food Monthly]
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</div>
<div class="last_verified">Opening hours as posted on the Bacchus forum, May 2007. Last visited 10 July 2007 by [[Kake]], [[Bob]], and [[doop]].</div>
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category='Featured Article,Now Closed'
category='Featured Article,Restaurants,Smoking Area,Take Kake Here,Tasting Menus,Weird Food'
== Line 38 == == Line 23 ==
formatted_website_text=''
host='212.183.128.70'
hours_text=''
formatted_website_text='http://www.bacchus-restaurant.co.uk/ '
host='213.165.225.132'
hours_text='6pm-midnight Tue-Sat'
latitude='51.530990'
locale='Hoxton,N1'
longitude='-0.078827
'
== Line 47 == == Line 36 ==
opening_hours_text=''
phone=''
postcode=''
summary='Now closed - used to be a 'modernist' restaurant in Hoxton.' website='http://www.bacchus-restaurant.co.uk/'
opening_hours_text='6pm-midnight Tue-Sat'
os_x='533245'
os_y='183145'
phone='+44 (0) 20 7613 0477'
summary='Now closed - used to be a 'modernist' restaurant in Hoxton.' postcode='N1 6PJ'
summary='“Modernist” restaurant in Hoxton.'
website='http://www.bacchus-restaurant.co.uk/'

Relatively inexpensive “modernist” restaurant in North London, billing itself as “fine dining in trainers”. We visited on a pretty quiet Tuesday evening; there were only six other people there (a two and a four), so didn't get much of an idea of what the ambience is like when it's busier. It didn't feel extremely casual to me (apart from the bit where the chatty and friendly front of house guy sat down at the table with us a couple of times) but again that was quite likely due to the low number of punters; it might have been easier to relax if it'd been a bit busier. We liked the music — Thievery Corporation kind of stuff.

We chose the six-course tasting menu (£40) with matched wines (£30), and were generally pretty pleased with it. I wrote up our food in greater detail on the chowhound site. Overall, the courses were well balanced and interesting, though there was perhaps a little too much reliance on the "crunchy powder" meme. The three of us did disagree on which bits we liked and which we didn't, which I reckon is a good sign that most people will find something to like here. I think the highlights for me were the Bacchus Bloody Marvellous cocktail (a Bloody Mary made with clear tomato water), the small and tasty rabbit mousse amuse-bouche, the lovely fresh-tasting vegetable salad with edible flowers and a very well-matched rose wine, the perfectly-cooked spiced king prawn that followed the salad, and the subtly delicious almond and garlic sauce that accompanied the monkfish course.

Note the restricted opening hours; they're no longer open at lunchtimes, or on Mondays or Sundays. Also note that they no longer offer a la carte menu; but this is scant hardship since they do offer a 9-course tasting menu from which you can choose 3 (£25), 6 (£40), or 9 (£60) courses, and this menu is set to change every month. They can cater for both vegetarians and vegans (though we haven't tested this out yet) — just mention it when you book.

The Bacchus website has its own set of forums, and a staff member has been known to post on the eGullet thread on Bacchus.

They have an outdoor area at the back of the restaurant where smoking is permitted, and you can even eat out there if the weather is good. I don't know if it's covered over at all.

(Apparently some people have had trouble finding the entrance; it's on the left hand side as you look at the photo above, which is taken from slightly to the north of the restaurant.)

Other reviews

Opening hours as posted on the Bacchus forum, May 2007. Last visited 10 July 2007 by Kake, Bob, and doop.

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