And “small” is an important word. Seating fewer than 30, the long, narrow space seems larger because of some nice visual tricks with curves. And don’t miss the light fixtures, featuring dozens of pieces of paper that flutter with any breath of air and offer fortune cookie-style messages to tall diners. The menu is rather short, but the skilll of chef Ny Vongsaly, who has worked with Houk at Café Zoe and I Fratellini, keeps it fresh and appealing, presenting food that tastes as good as it looks, arranged on complementary china. Among the appetizers, our favorite was the Asian barbecued spareribs, a half-dozen meaty guys, much more moist than the usual Chinese restaurant ribs, almost falling off the bone, and with just enough glaze to add flavor but not leave the feeling they’d been dipped in corn syrup. And the seared salt shrimp (shown below) were very close behind on our scale. The shrimp are quickly cooked in their shells, which crisp to the consistency of soft-shell crab. Often this dish is made with shrimp whose shells just become tough and splintery, unpleasant to eat, but these little fellers had such soft outsides that chomping on them, shell and all, worked perfectly. Lots of flavor remained from that flash-frying, nicely complemented by a mango-yogurt sauce, sweet and cool with the shrimp, zippier when tasted on its own.
Small and stylish is the immediate impression at Bobo Noodle, tucked into a New York-narrow space in a new building across the street from the campus of Washington University. Zoe Houk who’s been opening and running restaurants around town for more years than her looks would have anyone believe, has created a spot that blends noodle traditions from all over Asia into casual American Modern cuisine.
Crispy pork spring rolls were meaty and un-greasy but didn’t seem particularly remarkable until they were dipped into the accompanying sauce, which seemed to be lime juice-laced soy sauce, the acidity adding a good bounce. The shrimp summer roll was low on shrimp and needed its Vietnamese-style dipping sauce, the bright orange one called nuoc cham, which blends sweet/sour/fish sauce/pepper into a sparkling, tingling delight.
Main courses are listed as “Pho” or “Wok/Grill.” A non-traditional rendition of pho (“soup” in Vietnamese) featured chicken and green curry, with delicious slices of slender Chinese eggplant, and some shiitake mushrooms, along with thin rice noodles. The green curry is Thai-style, and quite spicy, the way we like it; the chicken was white meat and not overcooked. All in all, quite tasty and leaving a pleasant tingle on the tongue. Lemon grass beef was four or five good-sized slices of very tender beef, still a little pink inside after their grilling, difficult to eat with the chopsticks that come from a container on the table (smaller pieces of beef would solve that nicely), but quite tasty aside from oversaltiness. They sat atop a cucumber salad that was long julienne strands, still a little crunchy, and cool in a light coat of tart dressing and a little red pepper, and the house sesame noodles, also chilled. This is not the peanut butter-based sauce often seen on fettucine-sized noodles about town, but rather fine threads of noodle in a soy sauce dressing.
We paid special attention to one of the two desserts, because Bobo was out of the other, a chocolate-dipped almond macaroon. Two chocolate cookies from the estimable Pat Rutherford-Pettine of Sugaree are the sandwich holding coconut ice cream from Quezel’s Ron Ryan. The chewy cookies have little chocolate chips in them, the coconut ice cream is silken. How tasty are these? We could eat several a day if we could persuade Zoe to lob them into our car as we drove by.
There’s wine and beer, plus a selection of teas. We tried a white peony and a hibiscus. The former, though pleasant and flowery, was too delicate to go with the big flavors of the meal; the fruitiness of the hibiscus did better. Youthful servers are pleasant and eager. The presence of the boss kept them from mentioning their favorites or expanding on her descriptions, which covered all the angles.
A large treat from a small place.
Bobo Noodle House
278 N. Skinker Blvd
314-863-7373 www.bobonoodle.com
Lunch & Dinner Mon.-Sat. Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Satisfactory for rather tight quarters
Smoking: No
Entrees: $8-$12
Comments
12 responses
I disagree. The chef/owner should stick to Western cuisine. None of these supposedly Asian-inspired dishes on the menu tasted authentically Asian or inspired.
Simply plating a dish attractively and calling it “Modern American” and serving it in a nice atmosphere does not make it tasty and certainly does not make it worth paying for.
You should really check out The Corner Pub and Grill in Valley Park, really great food, especially their hamburgers. Worth a visit.
We had a mixed experience. The green curry chicken was, as you advertised, quite flavorful and not shy on the spice. We enjoyed it. The pad thai, however, was way off base — much closer to a sweet and sour sauce and quite cloying. We will try Bobo again but I am somewhere between your review and the unimpressive feedback from the washu student (piece of advice — when you are critical it helps to offer some substance).
slightly below average, the seared salt shrimp were ok, but my pho was a no…
Mia Lee is still the king in my book.
I’d say anything other than Kayak’s is a breath of fresh air.
Just had our first meal at Bobo Noodle. I had high expectations and was not disappointed. Real food withreal flavors at a very reasonable price. I have missed Zoe’s Pan Asian since it closed, love I Fratellini, and am delighted to have Bobo in the neighborhood.
The curried chicken with soba noodles was the best!
Zoe pays attention to details and you can taste and see that at Bobo.
Hm. Well, to specify, the wok-fried seafood noodle was ridiculously salty, and oddly curry-flavored. The vegetable dumplings consisted of four ordinary-tasting dumplings falling apart in a bland broth. As for the curry chicken, it was decent, but you can get it cheaper at a thai restaurant on the loop.
I enjoyed an amazing lunch at this new gem. I sampled several salads and the Pad Thai – delish! The staff was very attentive. Can’t wait to go back.
I went with a date last weekend and was nothing but pleased. It was a fun atmosphere, with fantastic food to die for. Oh and washu student, please don’t double post with criticism, I don’t believe that you’re neive mind can understand the cruelty of your posts and the impact they have on the owner.
I went expecting something similar to Zoe that was in the west end. I left disapointed, as my pad thai was too gummy and tasted off. I can’t describe it, but I may have been basing my opinions on that of the old Zoe.
To be honest, I haven’t missed Zoe much, since it was replaced with a restaurant that turns out more consistent meals.
I went with a friend on Tuesday night trying not to have been swayed by reviews. There was a wait that was longer then I would have liked especially with the cold door opening repeatedly. The space is really not conducive to waiting and while it looks nice, it falls short of being a place I’d want to go for a relaxing dinner. We ordered the veggie spring rolls, lemongrass beef, and curried chicken. I asked them to make the lemongrass beef medium heat and they said they could not as everything was already seasoned. We sat down and did not have to wait too long for our food. Our overpriced spring rolls were good but the sauce that came with it was amazing. The beef in the lemongrass dish was excellent but they were a little too heavy with the sesame oil making the noodles almost greasy and I wasn’t sure why they included an extra side of sauce. The chicken in the curried chicken was also delicious as were the udon noodles but there was no evidence of peanuts in the dish like the menu suggested. We didn’t feel that the dishes were salty like some reviews have said but they were definitely highly seasoned. Our waters stayed filled as were our stomachs and we felt that it was an interesting experience. Would we go back? Maybe but it’s not at the top of my list.
My wife and have had several excellent meals here and it is always among our recommendations for people looking to try something new. Kudos to Zoe for breaking out of the standard conservative design and going with a sleek minimalist interior. You can almost pretend you have escaped St. Louis for a while!