db Eats: Buddha-Bar London

Twenty years after the original Buddha-Bar opened in Paris, db’s Lucy Shaw heads to the London outpost to see whether the Asian-fusion concept has kept its cool.

The concept: In 1996 restaurateur Raymond Visan opened the Buddha-Bar off the Champs-Elysées in Paris; a chic nightspot that successfully combined Asian fusion cuisine and ambient house music.

One of the first restaurant/club hybrids, the Paris original spawned siblings all over the globe, from Moscow and Monte Carlo to Mexico City. The London outpost resides in affluent Knightsbridge a stone’s throw from the Bulgari Hotel.

The décor: In keeping with its lounge bar roots, the London site feels more like a plush nightclub than a restaurant with its dimmed lighting, chill-out soundtrack, polished wood and oriental seating.

crunchy sushi

The cavernous venue is split across two floors, with a wall of levitating bronze buddhas and a beautifully backlit bar stealing the limelight on street level. Visiting on a Monday night, by 9pm the place was buzzing with City suits and groups of girls sipping Cosmopolitans like it was 1996.

The food: Staying true to the Asian-fusion theme of the Paris original, the menu is crammed with sharing dishes, from decadent duck and foie gras gyozas and silky salmon sashimi to addictive popcorn-like bites of rock shrimp tempura served with a piquant spicy sauce.

Signature dishes: Unique to the London site is crunchy sushi, formed of bite-sized deep-fried rice balls topped with spicy salmon and spicy tuna sashimi offering an indulgent twist on the Japanese staple.

The black cod with lemongrass miso is unmissable. Lightly charred on top, the swan-white cod is so tender it flakes apart at the mere suggestion of a fork, the silky meat enlivened by the sweet miso and lime in a glorious symphony of flavour.

The drink: The cocktails are well worth checking out – my refreshing Green Tea combined Hendrick’s gin with cucumber, apple juice, lime, mint, egg white and black peppercorn – the perfect apéritif. Whisky lovers should try the Tokyo Old Fashioned, which switches Bourbon for Hibiki 12-year-old, plum saké and chocolate bitters in an elegant, indulgent sip.

One the wine front, a bottle of 2014 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling, with its mouth-watering minerality and notes of freshly-squeezed lime and grapefruit proved an ideal pairing for the spicy Asian flavours.

Who to know: Ebullient restaurant manager Bee Ansari has tried every dish on the menu, so is a great port of call if you’re not sure what to order.

Don’t leave without: Sneaking a peek at the downstairs lounge area, complete with a giant floating Buddha.

Last word: There’s something charmingly retro about the Buddha-Bar. The place can draw a crowd, and is certainly hip, but in a late-‘90s way. It feels like the kind of place Samantha would take Carrie and the girls in Sex and the City as the hottest new place in town. But for carefully crafted cocktails and moreish Asian-fusion cuisine, it’s hard to beat.

Buddha-Bar London, 145 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7PA; Tel: +44 (0)20 3667 5222;