But I digress. Misses Bourbon is an expert in Asian food and Dim Sum in particular. An appropriated feat seeing as we were headed to The Drunken Monkey. A cocktail bar annex Dim Sum restaurant in Shoreditch. From the start the bar was set high. But did Drunken Monkey pass our gruelling tests?
Short answer? Yes, although not without shortcomings.
The Venue:
The bar/restaurant looks great with the red Chinese lanterns and wooden finish on the tables and walls. The music was modern and non-Asian which is actually a perfect decision as Asian music would have made it REALLY tacky. The venue was a bit loud but altogether it had a great atmosphere which surely made Codename Bourbon score points.
The Food:
All dishes came were well proportioned and were overall quite tasty.
"The Siu Mai came from frozen packages" Misses Bourbon immediately muttered as she dug into the first of the batch. And sure enough, I believe I have some of these stuck in my freezer somewhere. Way On brand I believe? VERY Bad Monkey. I myself was not entirely impressed by the chicken lettuce parcel, somehow getting a separate plate with 4 lettuce leaves makes me wonder what I'm supposed to do with those? A few more cocktails and I could see myself throw them as the new vegetarian frisbees. (ninja-style baby) The vegetables in it though were nice and crunchy and the dish itself tasted good, but it felt a bit too much like eating a chicken noodle soup ... with lettuce leaves.
The chicken wings were nicely fried and salty. The ribs were succulent and delicious, and best of all: they came with lots of meat to gnaw off. That's why I order ribs you know, to gnaw off juicy marinated meat. Hate it when you get those tiny bony ribs where you feel you need to suck the marrow out just out of sheer necessity. Cheers for that Monkey, excellent job.
The piece-de-resistance though was surely the fried squid. Doused with just the exact right amount of chili, garlic and salt, yum. Then fried to perfection. The bowl of squid was in my honest opinion of a higher quality than what you would get in some Chinatown places. And Misses Bourbon has a similar opinion.
The Drinks:
But the drinks, because that's why I came here.
Black Rose:
Black Rose is a cocktail made from Four Roses bourbon, cherry liqueur, and a finish of prosecco.
Overall this was a well-balanced cocktail and I loved how even though this screams sweet, the prosecco gave it a mild sour finish. All flavours are well in-tune and it makes for a lovely drink! It looks good to with the three marinated cherries topped on the ice.
Simian Features:
This is the house signature drink, it's an exotic cocktail made from El Dorado rum, with pineapple and passion fruit juice, topped-up with soda and with fresh basil leaves.
What struck me first was how good this drink looks with the passion seeds. A real eye-catcher of a drink.
The taste itself is wonderful. A rich fruity taste which again is not too sweet, a hint of sourness from the passion fruit too. The basil gave it a more spicy hint which became much more dominant as the drink was finishing. A sad realization as this drink has now become one of my favourites.
My only negative point was perhaps a bit too much ice in the drinks (does a diet coke really need 10 ice-cubs?) And in the case of the Simian Features, perhaps not crushed enough. But let those rather minor details not get us carried away from the main finding, namely the fact that Drunken Monkey serves some class-A drinks that soothe the taste-buds, even while dining on Dim-sum!
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