Bad Egg, London

I love eggs. Scrambled, fried, poached, boiled, baked, you name it, I will eat it. When I heard Neil Rankin, the man behind Smokehouse in Islington was opening an eggy concept diner I was indeed looking forward to it. For a fact, I've not been to Smokehouse since anywhere beyond zone 1 is a mission for me to get to. I was unsure what the food will be like, hoping it would be similar to his Smokehouse's food or would it be completely different?

Thank you to the humble social media, I found a menu on Instagram but except it was missing the Korean fried chicken wings on the day on the menu. I know it's a non egg dish, it was something I wanted to order. I was expecting surprises from Bad Egg, some sort of egg revolution. Yes, eggs does play a prominent part on the menu with egg-based dishes from around the world alongside burgers, ribs, tacos and salads. Literally everything that you ordered, you can add an egg if it doesn't already come with an egg. If you were expecting imaginative re-invention of egg, this was not the place.

Korean Pork Tacos

Chaat Masala Hash

House Burger

Ironically, egg was not added onto every dishes that was ordered. So no Korean chicken wings and I still wanted some Korean flavour so came the Korean pork tacos which was a missed match of pulled pork and kimchi. It felt like there was something missing, maybe a quail egg on top? Whoever fried the egg on our chaat masala hash, you made the egg looked very lifeless and the yolk was barely there as much as it was enjoyable with a crunch from the peanuts and puffed rice. The house burger was good, with bone marrow added to the juicy patty and served pink. The sauce on it somehow reminds me of the burger sauce you get at late night kebabs shop.

Buffalo Fried Rib

Som Tam Fruit Salad

If I can choose again, I will definitely not order these two dishes. The buffalo sauce is just all wrong on the fried rib, it does not match and it got very salty at the end. It can happily stay on chicken wings, never on ribs. I wanted to feel a bit healthier by ordering greens/salad. The som tam fruit salad was a disaster. There are some fruits that you can pair with fish sauce and spiciness, but not all. I should have went for the fries and fried egg. A mistake I have learnt.

The gimmick of an egg focused diner sounds brilliant, overall I think it is a stretch too far. With many items on the menu are equally enjoyable without the runny yolk. Loads of tweaking can be done before the eggs will shine. On a side note, there are no desserts.

Score Rating: 2.5

Price: £30/head (50% soft launch, £20.45 for 2 people)

http://badegg.london/