BAO Fitzrovia

We Serve BAOs, steamed buns, and a range of Taiwanese Dishes in London.

BAO

BAO is a restaurant that serves Taiwanese inspired dishes that has three locations around London.

Each serving a selection of dishes that are unique to each restaurant.

Specialising in BAO, which literally means steamed bun, we steam our BAOs daily in our Bakery using a tangzhou starter and milk.

BAO began in 2014 as a six seater shack in a carpark in Hackney before we opened our first restaurant in Soho in 2015.

We are available for private hire and catering.

http://www.baolondon.com

Bao Fitzrovia review London | City A.M.

A Taiwanese restaurant that’s as famous for its queues as it is for its cloud-like buns crammed with meat and fish.

The couple are in charge of the kitchen, while Wai Ting looks after front of house.

The crowds come for the fist-sized steamed buns, packed with pork – both braised and confit – lamb and a new addition that’s the best of the bunch, black cod with hot sauce, a chunky fillet with real bite.

The peppery fried chicken chop brings more meaty heft, also served with hot sauce and egg yolk, alongside Chi Shiang rice bowls topped with slices of beef shortrib or aubergine.

A relaxed, intimate venue that’s as fashionable as it is unflash, its varied menu has so much more to offer than steamed buns.

BAO Fitzrovia

BAO is a restaurant that serves Taiwanese inspired dishes that has three locations around London.

Each serving a selection of dishes that are unique to each restaurant.

Specialising in BAO, which literally means steamed bun, we steam our BAOs daily in our Bakery using a tangzhou starter and milk.

BAO began in 2014 as a six seater shack in a carpark in Hackney before we opened our first restaurant in Soho in 2015.

We are available for private hire and catering.

Bao Fitzrovia review – Taiwanese sequel tops Tottenham Court ...

Firm slices of octopus tentacle were served in a sweet and umami soy sauce, possibly laced with a bit of shaoxing wine, which really hit the spot.

Served on a bed of al dente soft grain rice, the aubergine was doused in a sauce that was more tingly, tangy and moreish instead of the typical spicy and numbing heat of a traditional mapo tofu.

The only vegetarian bao on Bao’s menu has a slab of sweet and starchy daikon coated in a crisp, airy, light and oil-free panko batter.

It was delightful just as it was, with no need for a repeat appearance of the same ‘hot’ sauce that came with the confit pork bao.

The soft pillowy bun of the lamb gua bao was just as good as ever, but it was eclipsed by the unctuous, earthy and fatty chunks of lamb dressed in a tingly, piquant sauce.

BAO Fitzrovia | The Bigger, Better Version Of The Soho Original

BAO Fitzrovia | Central London Restaurant Some people have a fear of long words.

And now they can also love the bigger, better BAO that’s opened up in Fitzrovia… 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.

Of course Team BAO are putting out the same classic, light-as-a-damn-cloud steamed buns stuffed with confit pork belly, lamb shoulder, and introducing exclusively to Fitzrovia the Cod Black that they’ve become known for… but they’ve also seriously amped up the menu, starting with their “Xiao Chi” (that’s “small eats” in Mandarin) featuring nibbleables like beef cheek tendon nuggets, fried chicken chop with cured egg and hot sauce and ginger prawns with crispy heads.

NOTE: BAO Fitzrovia is open Monday to Saturday 12-3pm, and 5:30-10pm.

However the downstairs area accepts bookings of 4 and above, seating up 20 guests for private hire and bookable via phone 0203 011 1632, online, or by emailing Fitzrovia | 31 Windmill Street W1T 2JN       Like being in the loop about London’s newest bar and restaurant openings?

review of London Taiwanese restaurant Bao Fitzrovia by Andy ...

The expanding group of restaurants started as a street stall in east London and then opened up in Soho with lengthy queues outside the door – there are no reservations.

The menu is very much the same as its Soho sister restaurant, with Taiwanese buns and an assortment of other Asian dishes.

The buns themselves, both the classic bao and the battered black cod bao, were suitably light and fluffy, though perhaps a notch below the level of the ones in Soho (14/20).

By contrast the fried chicken here was a little better than the Soho version, the bird having a crisp coating, good flavour and lively spicing (14/20).

Nuggets of beef cheek and tendons were crisp and had a filling with plenty of flavour and a good kick of chilli (13/20).

Bao Fitzrovia, London: 'Perhaps the queue is part of the experience ...

On the site of the short-lived Boopshi’s (schnitzels with spritzes, as Julie Andrews never sang), they’ve set up shop in this light, airy room with its horseshoe bar, chilled vibe (sorry, sorry), neat line in merchandising, and a menu much expanded from the original.

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.

The tone is set by squeaky-fresh raw langoustines, the flesh as spoonable and sweet as set custard, dunked in aged soy, and topped with oyster leaves, that herb that synaesthetically manages to taste like shellfish.

We tick choices off our menu, dim sum-style: aubergine mapo, treated like the famous tofu dish with chilli, soy and the tingle of Sichuan peppercorns, piled on that fine rice – fat chewy grains almost like the best Japanese sushi rice.

A more burger-shaped, pillowy bun, grey-hued from black sesame, comes stuffed with dramatically inky cod, stained jet by squid ink and “ng sauce” (no idea, but it has a pleasing touch of the tartars).

Bao Fitzrovia | Restaurants in Fitzrovia, London

Kudos to Bao.

The key bits are all still here: cute crockery, a minimalist aesthetic and a menu with bao (Taiwanese steamed buns, in case you’ve just splatted down from Mars) at its heart.

The best bits aren’t actually the bao.

They’re everything but the bao.

If you pop in for a light bite and order a chicken chop, classic bao and mapo aubergine to share, it comes to £13.50.