london
Bao Fitzrovia
• Taiwanese• Fitzrovia
About the restaurant
Co-founders Erchen Chang, Wai Ting and Shing Tat Chung created the BAO concept as a street-food stall in Hackney’s Netil Market in 2013 before expanding to brick-and-mortar. They now operate multiple BAO sites as well as sister restaurant XU.
A light and airy atmosphere with counter dining and floor-to-ceiling glass walls tends to guarantee a fun and down-to-earth dining experience in this two-storey restaurant, as you might expect from an operator whose beginnings were in the street-food scene. Fun fact: the bar is inspired by Edward Hopper’s famous painting ‘Nighthawks’.
BAO’s menus tend to revolve around confident, modern interpretations of Taiwanese dishes, as well as the range of buns that give the group its name. Fried chicken, beef cheek and pork belly are stuffed between pillowy steamed rice flour buns, and sharing plates like beef cheek and tendon nuggets are incredibly moreish and delicious.
Reviews from the Web
Critic reviews
The Infatuation
The fried chicken chop and short rib rice bowl are always on our order and should be on yours, too.
The Guardian
Even though dishes arrive with improbable speed, this is no fast food. Ingredients are thoughtful (aged white soy; the celebrated rice from Chi Shiang (sic) in Taiwan; prawn heads fried into addictive, crispy beer snacks); technique is knife-sharp and the results utterly bewitching.
Standard
The classic bun comes stuffed wide open with braised pork, pickled veggies, coriander and crushed peanuts, with other varieties sporting fried chicken, lamb shoulder, daikon and even a Horlicks ice cream bao for a sweet-meets-savoury aftershock.
Time Out
A much-anticipated follow-up to the smash hit Taiwanese street-food joint.
The Nudge
This ambitious follow up has almost double the space of the Soho original, spanning over two levels: a typically white, minimalist, ground floor with huge windows, and a metallic-walled basement space with banquette seating slapped in front of the open kitchen.
- 31 Windmill St
- W1T 2JN
- London
- +44 20 3873 2750
- Visit website
