BAO Fitzrovia
31 Windmill St, London W1T 2JN
October 2016

Bao started off as a London market stall selling Taiwanese street food before opening its first restaurant in Soho in 2015. The menu consists of small plates that could be shared by a duo and, bizarrely, some branded tote bags and t-shirts. The Fitzrovia restaurant seats 47 and is perennially busy, so at peak hours expect a queue. I would not take this as a sign of quality but more as a show of the current interest in Taiwanese food. It is definitely not worth any more than a five-minute wait, nor the amount they are charging.

Food: 5 / 10

Confit Bao – Pork Belly, Crispy Shallots, Hot Sauce
Everything pork belly should not be; rubbery fat and chewy meat. It boggles the mind how any chef would let this out of the kitchen.

Lamb Bao – Shoulder, Green Sauce, Soy Pickled Chilli
The lamb had been slow-cooked and was completely more-ish. Meanwhile the accoutrements were a tad superfluous, lacking the flavour to lift the dish.

Cod Black Bao – Fried Cod, Ng Sauce, Hot Sauce
This looks pretty unappetising, but tastes much better. The star of the show should have been the cod, but it’s flavour was actually a bit muted, I would guess from a lack of quality. The seaweed bao and ng sauce (some sort of mayonnaise variant) came to the rescue though and lifted this dish from mediocre to delicious.

Daikon Bao – Panko Daikon, Daikon Pickle, Hot Sauce
The highlight of the baos – basically a Taiwanese chip butty. The flavours were good, but the magic was in the textures here. The slight stickiness of the bao and the fluffy daikon juxtaposed with crunch from the panko and pickles.

Fried Chicken Chop, Cured Egg, Hot Sauce
A simple dish, languishing in mediocrity due to a lack of quality. I wouldn’t be surprised if both the chicken and the hot sauce had been store bought.

Beef Shortrib, Marrow, Cured Egg, Pickled Daikon
The shortrib was melt-in-the-mouth good and came together beautifully with the marrow and cured egg. The daikon didn’t add much flavour, but lent some bite to the dish.

Grilled Lettuce Gem, Confit Garlic
A promising dish ruined by poor execution of the confit garlic, which had been burnt, leaving an oily, bitter aftertaste.

Service: 5 / 10

Disorganised and a touch apathetic.

Price: A bit more than the high street

In conclusion: Bao does not come close to doing its namesake justice, suffering from a lack of quality in the kitchen compared to how much they are charging. Given how popular Taiwanese food is getting in London, I’m sure the competition is coming, and when it does it is not going to be hard to blow Bao out of the water.