On the Bab – Covent Garden, WC2

This popular Korean street food restaurant doesn’t take reservations so allow some time for queuing on arrival.

On my visit earlier this week, H had arrived first, queued, and been seated at a small table for two by the time I arrived, meaning I skipped a substantial line at the door. Which was nice.

 

Inside On the Bab – prepare to queue
 

Rice poppers @ £3.50
 

It’s a small restaurant and tables were crammed in close together. It was busy, and although we ordered a bottle of Argentine Malbec @ £25.00 straight away, it was very slow to arrive. We pondered slowly over the food menu before ordering food, and chased the arrival of the bottle of red wine twice.

When our waitress brought our food a while later, we asked her to return it as we still wanted a drink first – the wine we’d ordered some time ago. The Malbec eventually arrived.

 

Baek Ban – bulgogi beef with rice, salad and kimchi
 

I had baek ban – bulgogi beef (spicy, marinated, tender beef) with rice, salad and kimchi (spicy hot pickles) @ £11.90 (so good) while H had spicy pork bibimbab @ £9.50.

 

Spicy pork bibimbab – as served

 

Spicy pork bibimbab – mixed

 

The verdict: Not a restaurant to visit if you’re short on time (allow for queuing and slow service when busy). Well worth a visit for great Korean food though – the bulgogi beef was so good it’ll be a challenge to try something different next time. But I’ll try; the people next to us were eating bbang – steamed buns filled with meat (or mixed vegetables) and our waitress also recommended yangyum chicken – Korean style fried chicken in batter with crushed peanuts. Ready to return…

 

Restaurant info:
~ Lardbutty rating: 3.5 / 5
~ Type: Korean
~ Address: 36 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London
~ Postcode: WC2E 7BD
~ Nearest station: Covent Garden, Charing Cross
~ Website + menus: On the Bab website
~ Photos on flickr: On the Bab images
~ Location: On the Bab map