| rev:text
| - Cafe Bon Bon recently opened in the Times Square Plaza, where the old Vietnamese restaurant used to be. They did an amazing job renovating the place, with a beautiful open-concept kitchen design! The interior design is very modern looking, seating is comfortable and roomy, and the overall atmosphere is that of an upscale cafe. They poured a lot of money into this place! All the washrooms are individual, gender-neutral stalls that even the selfie-queen Trudeau would approve of!
Now on to the food. The menu isn't very cohesive, so I can't say what type of cuisine they specialize in. They have everything from sandwiches to pasta to rice bowls, most of which are Asian-inspired. I'm generally not a huge fan of fusion-type cuisine. Sometimes it works and tastes delicious, but often, the elements don't compliment each other and result in fusion-confusion.
For example, the Arancini Takoyaki is creative, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. Classic Italian Arancini and simple Japanese Takoyaki are both delicious, but when mashed together, it becomes octopus in a mushy rice ball. The bonito flakes go well with the traditional tonkatsu sauce, not romesco sauce!
Another example is the drunken fried chicken. Why use puffed rice as breading when after frying it becomes rock hard? The chicken is super tender after being brined in rice wine, and the tangy s&s sauce is awesome. Had you stayed with regular karage batter with a crispy outer coating, this would have been a knockout dish, but the hard puffed rice shell just doesn't work in my opinion.
The Kimchi Seafood Paella tries to put a Korean twist on a Spanish classic. The Kimchi flavor was light enough that it didn't overpower and mask the fresh seafood. But why use sushi rice for a paella? I think if this were a creamier risotto type dish, the short grain sushi rice would have been a reasonable substitute for Arborio rice. However with a Paella, a traditional Bomba rice would have been a much better choice as it will absorb a lot of liquid to get the flavors but still retain its starch to naturally stay more al dente. Undercooking sushi rice to try and mimic that same desired firm texture results in a more gritty core and since less liquid is absorbed, you get less flavorful rice. I still enjoyed this dish, but personally I think had they stuck with traditional Bomba rice and used a lighter saffron butter sauce instead of making it kimchi-based, this dish could have been even better.
Now on to the dishes that were really good.
The Thai crab cakes were light, plenty of crab meat, and had a nice base. The avocado crema complimented the crab cake beautifully. The vinegarette on the salad was light and balanced.
The 48hr short rib donburi was a stellar knockout dish. The sous vide technique cooked the marbled short rib perfectly, making it melt in your mouth. All components of the dish from the enoki, scallion, shoga, Japanese rice, and sauce compliments each other harmoniously. Had the chef tried to fusion-ize this dish with some tikka-masala sauce or cheese-whiz, it just wouldn't have been so good. Keep it simple, sometimes less is more! This was an amazing dish that I would totally order regularly. If there is one must-try dish here, this is it!
Finally, the soufflé pancake was a great way to end the meal. Light fluffy egg-whites made the pancake so light and airy. This was the first time I've had these, and it definitely won't be my last. Another stellar dish that is definitely worth trying.
Now on to the service. This is still a newly opened restaurant, so the servers are still understandably inexperienced. They don't know the menu well enough to be able to help with the ordering. There are far too many servers just standing around with nothing to do that they come by to take away the plates even before we are finished cleaning off the plates. Interestingly, they completely ignored my empty water glass and I had to specifically ask for a refill. Some further training definitely needed.
The price of the dishes I find is quite reasonable for what you get. With the exception of the drinks, costing between $7 and $11. Apparently, the teas are high-grade imports from Taiwan, but I really don't feel like paying $10 for a drink. They should add slightly cheaper options to the menu for more selection. Why not offer some regular bubble tea or at least some form of basic milk tea?
Overall, I think this restaurant has lots of potential. After some improvements to the menu and better staff training, this could become a really great cafe. Will definitely consider coming back to try some of the other dishes. Just don't get creative and change that 48 hr short rib donburi because it's perfect just the way it is!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)