I’d never heard of Bubba Gump, a big American chain that specialises in shrimp, until it opened its first UK restaurant right in between DSTRKT nightclub and the Trocadero Centre – glamorous!
Considering the place has only just opened it was absolutely rammed – which is quite impressive considering it can seat around 400 diners. I can’t understand why the hell anyone was in there though as it was the most unpleasant place to have dinner – filled with references to the film Forest Gump everywhere you look and screaming children running around drinking giant milkshakes with flashing lights in, it was ghastly. Not to mention the insanely bright lighting, it had all the charm of a kebab shop at two in the morning.
The food was awful. To start the three of us shared the ‘Run Across America’ (£15.95) which was an odd mixture of nachos and a cheesy spinach dip (which would have actually been quite nice if it was served warm), some chicken strips in a disgustingly tangy brown sauce, breaded shrimp and cold shrimp. The latter were sitting atop some ice cubes, which once melted left them swimming in icy water – weird. Garlic bread (£3.25) was cold and flavourless.
For main, the ‘Shrimper’s Heaven’ (£19.50) was just as bad. The prawns; tempura, breaded and cold (atop more of that ridiculous ice) hadn’t been prepared properly meaning after every bite you could see their poo tract which was most off putting. None of the accompanying sauces were the slightest bit enjoyable; they tasted sugary and factory made.
The BBQ ribs (£15.25) were humungous and just a bit….ropey. It didn’t help that they were stone cold. The same could be said for the ‘Frizzled Onions’ (£4.50) which were 98% frizzle and 2% onion – it was all greasy batter and not much else.
Service was certainly sweet but totally clueless – everyone was running around with their ear pieces in but not really doing much. It made TGI Friday’s look like Restaurant Gordon Ramsay – I honestly believe you could get better prawns from Iceland. Someone pass me a Rennie…
2/10
