Quick Bites: Boro Bistro
A promising spot in the heart of London that fell flat…
The view of Boro Bistro from London Bridge
My friend took me to Boro Bistro for a casual Tuesday night dinner after work, calling it one of his favourites. While the place showed real promise — with its relaxed, mismatched charm and great location right by Borough Market — the experience didn’t quite live up to the recommendation.
It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday evening, and despite our 6:30 reservation, we had to wait in a short queue for about 10 minutes to be seated. Since it was a last-minute booking, we were placed indoors, but I couldn’t help but eye the outdoor seating longingly — it looked lovely in the warm spring weather, filled with an eccentric mix of diners that felt refreshingly offbeat for the London Bridge post-work crowd.
We were taken to a snug back corner of the restaurant — cozy, but unfortunately tucked so far out of view that it became nearly impossible to flag down staff. It took another 20 minutes and two polite prompts before we managed to order our drinks (lime and gin-based cocktails) and a few tapas plates.
While Boro Bistro is marketed as a French bistro, the menu felt oddly pan-European, featuring dishes like padron peppers, accras, chorizo, pulled pork, and chicken schnitzel. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the lack of any clear culinary direction was slightly confusing.
The food, thankfully, took a reasonable enough amount of time to arrive, and given how hungry we were, we tucked in eagerly. Sadly, the flavours didn’t deliver.
Padron Peppers- some ‘burnt to fuck’, some spared
The padron peppers were good enough- although perhaps inconsistent with some being barely charred and others, as my friend put it, ‘burnt to fuck’. As I’m sure you know, the burnt ones were the best, but it definitely felt like the kitchen may have been rushing to get orders out as quickly as possible and whacked up the grill.
The other dishes came and they were similar disappointments: the panko & parmesan courgettes with yoghurt & basil sauce, the chilli crab cakes with lemon & aïoli and the Mussels with tomato, ginger, garlic & lemon were all bland and underseasoned, with the crab cakes tasting particularly that they had come from frozen.
The bavette steak was chewy and tough — a shame, given that the accompanying pepper sauce was one of the best elements of the meal. The pulled pork had the most potential; the seasoning was there, and the pomegranate seeds added a fun pop, but the meat itself was woefully dry.
Now, this isn’t a scathing “never go here” type of review. My friend — who’s been several times — was also surprised and disappointed, saying it was far below the standard he’d come to expect. It seemed like the kitchen was understaffed and trying to push food out as fast as possible. The servers themselves were polite and doing their best, but clearly stretched thin.
Would I go back? Possibly — but only to give it a second chance on a sunnier day, outside on the patio that’s made it into TimeOut’s Top 10 for outdoor dining and OpenTable’s Top 100. But, for now, I’d rate Boro Bistro a 5.3/10: great vibe and location, let down by lacklustre food and slow service.
