Budō, Bath: 'Quite simply the best pancake I’ve ever had'
A welcome respite from the Bath Christmas market crush
Christmas markets are the antithesis of festivity. No, I do not want your mass-produced mark-up Christmas crap and £9 hot chocolate thats only blessing is it burns your tastebuds. A singing animatronic reindeer? Just the thing to get me in the festive spirit. Few things rile me quicker than a tectonically slow crowd of people shuffling like penguins between little wooden huts.
So it was against my better judgement that I agreed to spending the day in Bath last weekend with my friends.
I actually had a very nice time, but that was due to the fact that A) I have a great bunch of friends, B) we spent about 20 minutes wandering the markets before deciding it was completely futile and C) we went to Budō for lunch.
Budō managed to accommodate eight of us with a whole host of dietary requirements and not much cash to spare at relatively short notice without anyone feeling they were compromising in the slightest. That’s part of what’s so brilliant about it.
The menu is shorter than my attention span in the last work week of the year, but still there is something for everyone. Even at lunch, when their kaiju-fired skewers sadly aren’t on offer. A good excuse to make a return visit, perhaps I’ll come back on a Sunday when they make gyoza too.
While Budō’s Japanese aspirations are made very clear by its claim to be Bath’s original izakaya and its extensive sake selection, the food menu is a little more oblivious to borders and large bodies of water. At lunch time, it reads like Bath’s answer to Bokman. But the answer to Bokman is always yes, and Budō does its many Korean dishes very well.
Though missing its distinctive and addictive crisp rice bottom, beef bimimbap (£11.50) was gratifying and well supported by a cast of pickles and salads; cucumber (£5.25), mushrooms (£6.50) and my favourite of the trio - daikon radish (£5.25).
But nothing, nothing, compares to the kimchi pancakes (£9). In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what Sinead O’Connor was singing about. Yes, she could eat her dinner at a fancy restaurant, or she could spend an evening sitting on an old bus seat with those pancakes. I too have been counting the hours and days since I ate them. They’re quite simply the best pancake I’ve ever had.
And Budō bosses - if you’re reading - a bottle of that dipping sauce is at the very top of my Christmas list.
A trawl through a mile of Christmas markets would seem positively worthwhile for those kimchi pancakes. Though I think I’ll make my return visit at a quieter time of year, and perhaps by car. Actually - scratch that - I plan to make a considerable dent in the cocktail list. Skipping that and missing out on the skewers are my only regrets.
Words and photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour
Budō, 3 Argyle St, Bath BA2 4BA