THE PLACE
If you had a café would you fill it to the brim with things that made you happy (music, art and strange goings on maybe) or would you go for a stylish minimal approach? Thankfully musician Jane Bom-Bane chose the former, packing the small Kemptown eatery with lots of little touches to make you smile. Without giving too much away (we want you to feel the joy of surprise), each table holds a secret, ours being called the Twenty-Seven Chimes Table. Let’s just say a little salt will make the meal more enjoyable even though the food doesn’t need it.
THE MEAL
We pop in for lunch where there’s a restricted menu but still plenty to choose from. Stoemp and sausages is a nice twist on bangers’n’mash, the potatoes mixed with seasonal veg, this time spinach and carrots. At £7.95 for just two sausages it seems expensive but on arrival the O’Hagan’s are as large as they are spicy, a sensation balanced by the red wine and tomato sauce. The concept of ‘Five-a-day in a bowl’ (£5.95) is an excellent one, and the Tuscan bean and vegetable stew doesn’t disappoint, feeling like your favourite homemade dish and – rare for a meal out – like our health isn’t being compromised by our taste buds. By the time we’ve shared a plate of chocowafflettes (£2.50) and had a pair of hot chocolates (a rather reasonable £1.80 each with a very nice biscuit) we’ve still only spent £20.
THE VERDICT
An absolute delight and now we’ve moved our office just round the corner, surely the new SOURCE hangout. Why? Not only is the food delicious and feels ‘real’, Bom-Bane’s is a jubilant place to be due to the passion and culture that clearly drives it. We might even drag our laptops down for the Homework Night on Wednesdays and finish the mag up there.
WERE WE SUSSED?
No one said anything, and they’re probably used to people taking photos of the strangeness, but at one point the staff were talking in the open plan kitchen and pointed over. Probably caught out but the friendliness felt genuine.
Bom-Bane’s
24 George St (01273) 606400
Tues – Sat 11.30am – 11.30pm
