Bi Bim Bap time

I like nothing better than finding a new cheap eat in London. Tired of venturing to the usual cheap eat haunts on a weekday night (GBK, Sagar, Fire & Stone, a Thai place or Burrito Bar), I googled 'cheap eats London' to see if anything new came up. And it did!! Time Out had a good review of a Korean restaurant called Bi Bim Bap.

The name alone intrigued me and after reading the review I knew I wanted to eat their. However I had to make sure that they had good veggie options. So I checked out their website and menu and was over the moon when I discovered what a Bi Bim Bap is.

At Bi Bim Bap, they serve Bi Bim Bap's. Bi Bim Baps is a Korean dish served in a very hot stone bowl. It consists of vegetables like cucumber, beansprouts, spinach, carrots, daikon and mushrooms, and these sit on top of a bed of sticky white rice (you can swap this for brown rice for an additional cost). On top of this is the vegetable or meat of your choice. The traditional one comes with a fried egg on top. I had this one and the American Vegetarian chose the tofu. They advise you that the best way to eat a Bi Bim Bap, is to mix everything up really well. That way all the well balanced flavours infuse really well together giving you a fantastic meal.

The thing I loved most was that the food cooked and stayed piping hot as you ate it. In fact I would say the food became more hot because it actually was cooking while we ate. They also give you chilli paste and miso paste to add as you wish. I loved the Bi Bim Bap. It was tasty, healthy, warming and something completely different. Oh and at £5.95 a bowl, you really can't go wrong.

Now we went on a Tuesday night, and there was a regular stream of customers coming in but it wasn't overly busy. Our service was fine but could have been better. There was a couple next to us who had been waiting a while for their order. They kept looking at their watch, and asked more than once where their food was. Our starter came within 15 minutes. I then had to remind the waiter of our drinks, which he swiftly brought immediately, but then our Bi Bim Bap's were brought before we had a chance to finish our starter. Usually I would have said something, but seeing as the table next to us had waited far longer for their mains then we had, I let this one go.  Also I think I was still experiencing an endorphin rush from the spin class I took before going to dinner. My work out schedule hasn't been very healthy lately due to a star jump that went wrong (my lower back decided to have a spasm mid jump).

I needed some no impact hard core exercise. So spin it was. It was a great class, and is made all the better as it is taught by a guy I went to infant school with. (Elementary for my US readers..I think I have some!).

So I highly recommend Bi Bim Bap for all vegetarians and non vegetarians out there. They have five options of each and some very nice Korean beer. The service could be better but I'm puting this down to teething problems and not going to hold this against them. I will definatley be going back, with friends in tow.

http://www.bibimbapuk.com/ for the food.
http://www.jubileehalltrust.org/ for the spin class (Simon; Tuesday @ 6pm).