Date Night with my lovely wife and after the disaster of our trip to see the Maccabees we decided to book somewhere rather than wander Covent Garden forlornly looking for a table to eat at. We were due to see the excellent Gregory Porter in Hammersmith so needed somewhere near a station so that it wasn't a mad rush. We had tried to get in to Flesh & Buns before but there was an hour plus wait for a table. This time my lovely wife sensibly booked. I got there first and descended into the basement restaurant. I'm pretty sure that in past times this was a nightclub of some sort where I strutted my stuff in back in 90's. I'm shown to a large booth table and sort of forgotten as most of the staff are having their evening briefing. Eventually I get someone's attention and order a very pleasant whisky cocktail. My lovely wife turns up, she has a Margarita and we peruse the menu.
The concept here is Asian street food/sharing plates. There are an assortment of small starters and then to follow you have soft buns which a filled with a selection of meat, fish or veg fillings. We order some Korean fried wings to start which are good but not quite in the league of the excellent ones at Chickenliquor. To follow we get some spicy beef hot stone rice which is a bit like the Korean Bibimbap, tasty but not the biggest portion. For the main event the buns we advised to order 4 buns and a couple fillings we go for crispy piglet belly which comes with a mustard miso and a salmon teriyaki which comes with a picked cucumber. The buns are soft and pillowy as advertised. I've had these before at Shoryu Ramen. The salmon is definitely the star, good quality fish with a lovely sticky sauce, the combination of the cucumber gives my inexpertly self-constructed bun a spicy yet refreshing taste. I'm less fussed about the pork, as this was the start of evening service I don't feel the kitchen had time to get this crispy enough. It tastes OK but I like my pork belly super crispy and gnarly.
The drinks are going down nicely with my lovely wife doubling down on the Margarita whilst I opt for a Japanese craft beer. We finish with some very tasty Kinako Donuts. My lovely wife really enjoys her meal she likes the concept and the look and feel of the place appeals to her. In fact looking around I see that the clientele is mostly female interspersed with the odd gent and date night couples like ourselves. To be fair they have done well to make a fairly unprepossessing basement look cool and inviting. I'm less convinced about the food, it is fine but you can quickly run up a bill here. Our meal comes in at over £100, I do worry about eating this central as so much of what you pay is going on daft rents rather than the food. The meal has a good pace and we finish in plenty of time to make the gig. Gregory Porter was predictably excellent and the meal set us up well. I think my lovely wife is more likely to return than me.
