Jimi Famurewa opinions Chet’s at Rondo La Cave: Tantalising however imperfect

And so, early final week — because the temperature nudged 25 levels and the whole metropolis gave the impression to be one inebriated, half-naked mass, spilling fortunately onto each patch of obtainable pub pavement — I can’t say that I felt particularly thrilled to be descending to Chet’s: a kitchen residency at midnight, windowless confines of Rondo La Cave wine bar in Holborn.

Now, the standard dramatic flip right here can be to disclose that the meals and ambiance at Chet’s — which is the pop-up brainchild of fêted LA chef Kris Yenbamroong and a trial balloon for a everlasting restaurant — helped alleviate this apprehension. And it actually did. Up to a degree. However for all of the explosive irreverence of Yenbamroong’s Thai-American flavours, I discovered that, over the course of two visits, occasional sloppiness made for a long-lasting impression that was extra combined. Which is to say that Chet’s felt at instances like precisely what it’s: an imperfect, tantalising glimpse of a extra absolutely fashioned operation, wedged slightly awkwardly in a clean canvas lodge bar and missing the guiding hand of its (presently) absent figurehead.

Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a denying that Yenbamroong — a second-generation restaurateur who has turned his Night time + Market model right into a mini-empire — can slap a lip-tingled grin in your face.

Ensconced within the murkily lit, bottle-lined, Parisian cellar of a room, my first dinner started with decently executed fried rooster: a hefty, gushingly juicy piece of thigh meat, topped by golden-fried wisps of batter and largely notable for its volcanic little sidecar of fowl’s eye chilli dip. “Now that’s type of bodily painful,” stated an outdated buddy, dabbing his forehead and gulping a glass of Alpine white (courtesy of natural producer Damien Bastian Goddard) from the low-intervention checklist. “However I actually don’t need it to be taken away.”

The higher dishes all are likely to possess this knife-edge depth. Chiang Rai hotdog introduced the satisfying tensile pop of frankfurter, thickly heaped with a equally ferocious pork chilli, whereas smashburger — primed with the aromatic, fiery tang of “Chet’s secret sauce” — was gloriously sloppy and rude. Crispy rice salad had smoky warmth, an invigorating blast of ginger and a voluble, multi-faceted crunch that might most likely be heard at avenue stage.

Nonetheless, alongside these highs had been flatter moments. Slices of milk bread toast, topped with garlicky bubbled cheese, had the heat of prik tum (a variation on the chilli-flecked Thai dipping sauce) flowing via it, but additionally the hurried, store-bought simplicity of a snack made by a drunk individual. Wedge salad, slopped in blue cheese dressing and gummy candied pork jowl items, was a little bit of a cloying mess. What’s extra, the spicy Thai beer nuts we’d had whereas we perused the menu re-emerged, crumbled over an (admittedly, fairly efficient) Hackney Gelato ice cream and fish sauce caramel sundae. You may see it will probably’t you? By which I imply the lingering sense of a kitchen vulnerable to repetition and never precisely pushing itself.

To evaluate Chet’s as a completed undertaking is maybe unfair. Rondo La Cave is, finally, an area for cooks to fine-tune their concepts forward of a much bigger roll-out inside Ennismore’s world community of resorts (Yenbamroong’s absolutely fledged operation will launch at The Hoxton in Shepherd’s Bush this autumn). Even so, given it’s in situ till September, there’s a actual alternative to make this place really feel like much less of a franchised stopgap; to lift another dishes as much as the thrilling stage of the menu’s audacious stand-outs. And, honestly, to only go for it a contact extra. As a result of as summer season swelters on, Londoners may have slightly bit extra motivation to take issues inside.

199-206 Excessive Holborn, WC1V 7BD; Meal for 2 plus drinks round £120. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm to 12am; rondolacave.com