One of the newest additions to this part of town is Bibo. A new modern Italian restaurant and bar launched by head chef, Chris Beverley (previously Theo Randall at The InterContinental) and Rebecca Mascarenhas (proprietor of Michelin starred Kitchen W8). Rebecca is also the women behind the much loved Sonny’s in Baby booming Barnes – a restaurant I love and which initially got me excited about Bibo when I heard it was opening. Finally getting round to trying it we came here for an early Sunday lunch and dined from a set menu of £25 for three courses, which turned out to be a bit of a bargain really. We also couldn’t help ordering this vibrant buratta dish from the a la carte menu. What a choice it turned out to be. The ball of fresh buratta oozed out its creamy filling as soon as you took a knife to it. Lashing of olive oil, crunchy romanesco and a punchy pesto trapanese that was so good it will haunt my dreams. This was a mouthwatering dish which made my Sunday.
After we stopped dribbling from that buratta, we also ordered one of the nibbles to keep us entertained before anything else arrived. I’ll tell you now, Bibo are feeders. For no more than loose change, £3 will get you this bowl of truffle arancini. A lovely crisp outer, well cooked and creamy inner and with a delicate truffle flavour – this is food that begs you to move over to the bar and hit the wine – hard. If it wasn’t a Sunday, I’d have been perched at the end no doubt and by 10pm rolling these truffle balls across the bar like the Maltesers advert but with a straw in one hand and like most nights – ripping my shirt off and dancing somewhere vaguely near the bar. Classy.
More food arrived, the actual starter now and I could already hear my stomach telling me not to eat too much. I ignored it and ploughed on, chucked back some of the cold white wine from my carafe and delved into the plate of venison tortellini with rosemary butter. It’s a dish which was screaming my name – sage and venison are two of my favourite things. Sadly though this dish just didn’t quite have the wow factor I was hoping for. The pasta was actually very good, cooked well and could not be faulted. The venison filling was not seasoned enough and the few gratings of Parmesan were too delicate and should be replaced with a more aged version – the sage butter was also far too weak for my palate. Sage is such a wonderful ingredient which can easily overpower but I still think Bibo could have been slightly more adventurous with its potency and took a risk
Main courses were again hefty, which means I can certainly blame the kitchen for my soon to be obesity problem – much like the rest of Britain. Al dente cooked tagliarini pasta tossed with clams, chili and cime de rapi (turnip tops I think). What was rather unusual about this dish was it was almost served in a kind of broth. A little new for me but I absolutely loved it. The cime de rapi simply sucked up all the juice like a hoover and let it all out once in the mouth. Seasoning was perfect and the clams good – although I can never be bothered with shells and in fact we did come across a few broken ones which meant for a few crunches under the teeth. A little more chilli would have been nice too but that’s down to my personal taste, not a fault of the dish.
Dessert wasn’t the most exciting or technical of dishes but after a big hearty lunch already, it was much welcomed and satisfied our sweet tooth urge. A cold mousse like chocolate budino (not the hot molten version I’m used to), topped with chopped hazelnuts, sea salt and a chunky crumbly cocoa crumb. Bibo was undoubtedly a lovely find in Putney and is a fantastic new addition to this becoming place for not just middle class families who populate London with babies, but also for us foodies who simply want a good bit of grub. Would I come back to Bibo? Without a doubt. I only wish Bibo was my local.
7/10
