Bacchus Southend Review

May 10, 2016 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Bacchus Southend

You may recall a few months ago I visited Old Hat? A rather quirky establishment right in the thick of Southends answer to Shoreditch. What made this place special was its eccentricity and uniqueness. This little area of Southend is thriving with quant independent shops and restaurants. Everything from down to earth, no nonsense, gritty restaurants such as Legend Deli. That description is by no means a criticism, quite the opposite. These guys put their heart and soul into all the food that leaves the kitchen; it's got a real street food feel about the place. I love em; it’s Southend ‘Soul Food’ at its best. Then of course you've got the newly refurbished Royal Hotel just a stones throw away. Elegant and smart with a fine dining restaurant soon to open; can't wait for that one! But not just restaurants; juice bars, vintage shops, even an old record shop, yep it's a pretty cool part of town, and it's only getting better. I've heard a few rumours there could soon be a new kid on the block; all I'll say is ‘craft beer’. Watch this space people!

Anyway, whilst meandering through this little up and coming part of our seaside town, I stumbled across Bacchus. Not far from the Alex pub on Alexandra street. I hadn't been here for years. It wasn't called Bacchus back then, if my memory serves me right it was the Glasshouse? A pretty nice restaurant, pitching themselves towards the fine dining end of the market. Well, the Glasshouse is no more, and we’ve got Bacchus, which is a little different to say the least. Different, yes; but in a bloody good way. The owners have certainly adopted a rather alternative approach to its design. It fits the rather left field ambience of the area perfectly. To keep it simple Bacchus is quirky! When I say quirky I mean QUIRKY with a capital Q.

As soon as we walked through the front door I was amazed. It’s like nothing else in Southend. First of all my eyes where drawn towards the cakes which seemed to be dotted around the restaurant, of course covered by glass cloches. These cakes where huge, I just wanted to get stuck in there an then! But, it’s the décor that wouldn’t fail to astound anyone. Imagine Alice in Wonderland, combined with an old and interesting curiosity shop; hopefully you’re getting the picture. A large bison’s head mounted on a plaque stares down at you as you eat, together with other weird and wonderful taxidermy. Even the lighting is like no other I’ve ever seen; hands up who’s come across an armadillo table lamp before? They’ve got one here! Old pots and pans hang from the celling, large original modern art works on the wall; even vintage ladies frocks adorn the place. I really don’t know how to describe it best; it’s mental! It gets even better though! When we sat down I looked up. Had Michelangelo been in with his paint brushes? Was I sitting in the Sistine Chapel? Yep, they have painted a large fresco on the ceiling. The owners of Bacchus have really gone to town with the interior design. Clearly these creatives have just let themselves loose, and gone wild; Brilliant!

What about the food? These guys are open for breakfast lunch and dinner. We were here for lunch, but the breakfast selection looked pretty good. Never have I seen sardines on a breakfast menu before, but hey why not! Kippers, Eggs benedict, welsh rarebit and of course the obligatory full English are all there for your brekkie needs! But, lunch it was for us. We had two menus to choose from; the Brassiere or full Ala Carte. On the simple Brassiere menu you either order from ‘the farm’, ‘the ocean’ or ‘off the field’. On the other hand, the Ala Carte follows the same charismatic and almost wacky theme of Bacchus. Starters are described as ‘Titillations’ ‘Fins and Scales’ head up the fish section, and ‘Fancies’ for the puddings. Haunch of venison and a lamb rump where on the menu under the rather peculiar heading of ‘Larry’s Trotters Quackers’. WTF!! Confused? You and me both!

I love a good burger, so I needed to see how Bacchus do a burger. It’s almost a litmus test in my eyes. It can tell you so much as to the pedigree of the chef! The verdict? A solid effort here. It had an almost perfect bun to burger ratio. You don’t want too much bread; equally you don’t want too little. They’d got this spot on. The burger itself was a perfect size to match the tasty brioche bun. It’s got to be a brioche bun hasn’t it? There is no place in the burger world to be serving up gourmet burgers in seeded buns. We’ll leave that to the golden arches. With the addition of Bacon and cheese, two classic accompaniments, I thoroughly enjoyed this burger. Chips and slaw, both homemade, finished off the dish. I was happy a diner.

Lou is a sucker for a bit of simple pan-fried salmon, so the salmon with anchovy and lemon butter was a no brainer. I’m not gonna go on about this, but fish can all too often be cooked badly. A lot of chefs cook the hell out of it, making it dry and rather unpleasant. I think it was Marco Pierre White who once said ‘just 10 seconds is enough to over cook fish’ and its so true. Salmon should be treated as a fine piece of steak; cooked pink or medium rare. Bacchus got this pretty much spot on. The salmon was juicy and slightly ‘under’ just how Lou and I like it. The Anchovy and lemon butter was a lovely addition, together with asparagus and their homemade chips. It was a very pleasant dish.

Lou’s sister joined us and managed to polish off a huge sausage and onion sandwich. The sausages looked great with a generous pile of sweet caramelised fried onions. Just a simple sandwich, but damn tasty. If I had to be critical, the bread could’ve been more ‘hand cut crusty’ rather than ‘thick cut Hovis’, but in no way did that distract from the overall enjoyment. At the end of the day, what’s the secret to a sausage sandwich? Well, sausages! That’s exactly what this had; a generous amount of plumpcious sausages.

No pudding for us (as always!) but, if you were up for something sweet, cheesecake of the day, sticky toffee pudding or lime and rum panacotta to name a few would have satisfied I’m sure. Lou’s sister did grab a couple of slices of their ‘Cherry Bakewell Tart’ cake, to take home. I was later told its was fine eating! So a good lunch was had by all, and at £40 for the three of us with a beer; it didn’t break the bank either

Bacchus, I like you. I’m hoping this could be the start of a very long and enjoyable foodie adventure together. Your eccentric and unconvential style won me over the moment I walked through the door. I don’t think I will ever begin to understand what goes on the mad and bonkers mind of Bacchus, but who cares. If Bacchus were a person I’d imagine it would resemble somebody like Lord Bath, Grayson Perry or any other mad eccentric you’d dare to mention. Bacchus delivers superb breakfasts, lunches, dinners and afternoon tea. It just secretes eccentrism from every corner. Whoever decorated this restaurant certainly has an eye for rather alternative interior design; it's wonderful! I mean, how many other restaurants do you know with a fresco on the ceiling, rivalling that of the Sistine Chapel? Not to mention the obscure ornaments and mismatch furniture. All this, together with great food and service, goes together to make a dining experience like no other.

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