Kome, at the Dolls house Hoxton square
The Dolls house is a great venue on Hoxton Square, this is a really busy, vibrant area near old street station with loads of bars, clubs and restaurants within a five minute walk. With 4 floors and a roof terrace and a small smoking area this was a perfect location for Kome. This 4 night pop up serves LA inspired street food.
We arrived promptly, starving and tipsy for the 9pm sitting with a tag along that they happily accepted although the event was sold out online. The only danger of the later sittings on a weekend is not getting too drunk in the couple of hours between finishing work and having dinner while in a bar.
The starters came and was one slate between two (as a group of 5 this meant extras which was perfect). There was a kimchi quesadilla, which wasn’t very spicy which for the group was probably a good thing but for me i like to know there is chilli on my kimchi, the oshinko (pickle) of cucumber,ginger and carrot which was very refreshing and a tuna tataki tostada. These were wolfed down in seconds as we were so hungry and there were no complaints from anyone about the taste, just bickering about sharing and who had the larger half.
Next up was the Bulgogi fries, which is fries topped with korean beef, spring onions and coriander with a sauce that was kin to a burger sauce, once again sharing between two so the bitterness from the starters sharing fiasco was still fresh and the bickering continued to the entertainment of the ones who were capable of sharing. I would have happily got through one of these plates on my own as how can fries with beef on not be a winning combination which these most definitely were.
The main event came as a portion each, much to the relief of the two who had almost fallen out over the fries. What arrived was pork belly that had been glazed in agave and had perfect crackling on top of the falling apart and melt in the mouth pork. This was easily in the top 5 pieces of pork belly I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. To accompany the pork there was jasmine sticky rice, thai basil, baby leaves, asian broccoli, pickled radishes, queso fresco, crispy onions, crushed peanuts, salsa verde, sambal and a fried egg on top. When reading the menu online before booking the tickets i thought this was going to be way too much, but when all these were combined it all worked and each mouthful had a slightly different taste profile which kept me very happy. Every component of this dish was excited perfectly and therefor was great on its own and with the other parts. Full marks to the guys for putting that much effort into one dish as well.
Starting to feel quite full and rather tipsy, I was slightly worried about the size of the dessert as i would have to eat what i was given (bad habits from school). Luckily what arrived was a raspberry and hazelnut ice cream balls incased in mochi, which is rice flour and hot water combined to form a pastry that encases the ice cream, this has a pleasant chewy texture that was really nice with the ice cream, the hazelnut was by a long way the best of the two. It is also the best hazelnut ice cream I’ve had…in fact it was so good one of the group hates nuts, but enjoyed the ice cream which is impressive.
Kome put on a great meal which was a great night out, everyone was so friendly and the service was great. i really don’t have anything bad to say about this, so if you ever see tickets available for a Kome pop up then buy them (after i have mine of course!).
A tourist in my own city 