Bao to open second permanent London restaurant
The team behind London restaurant Bao is to open a second venue in May this year.
Erchen Chang and siblings Shing and Wai Ting Chung opened their first permanent Bao restaurant in Soho last year, following the success of the original Taiwanese-influenced Bao bar in Hackney. It will have 45 covers, with 26 upstairs and a further 19 downstairs.
Backed by JKS Restaurants, the trio will open Bao Fitzrovia on Windmill Street in what is currently Boopshi's, with a "familiar but greatly expanded" menu of new dishes.
The Fitzrovia site menu will have new ‘xiao chi' (small eats), including: cured ribcap, pickles and fermented chilli bean dip; beef cheek and tendon sausage; oysters with green chilli pickle; and crispy bird's feet with hot sauce.
There will also be a new selection of sharing dishes with many of them cooked on the kitchen's charcoal grill, including: quail stuffed with pigs' blood; crab, rice broth; ox heart with Szechuan dressing; and cuttlefish squid, sausage with XO.
Bao Fitzrovia will champion rice as a star ingredient, sourcing it from Chi Shiang in Taiwan. It will be used in rice bowls such as beef shortrib with scallop and beef tea and baby garlic; fried chicken with cured egg and roe; and octopus with bottarga.
The signature bao will be handmade every day at the restaurant and will retain favourites such as the classic, lamb, and fried chicken bao, with new additions such as gold coin chicken (pork belly, chicken liver pate, and chicken skin) and spring onion, liver parfait and roe.
The interiors of the restaurant have been designed by Shing Tat Chung, working with Katy Manolescue's Article Studio. The ground floor will feature a U-shaped wooden dining bar with space for 26. The basement level will have stools at the open kitchen's counter and metallic walls that make the dining room almost an extension of the kitchen.
There will also be an expanded drinks menu, featuring six original cocktails.
Speaking about the new opening, Wai Ting Ching said: "We were overwhelmed by the success of Bao Soho, but the small space always meant we would be restricted in the amount of dishes we could offer. Taking on a new site allows us to cook a new exciting range of dishes and gives us the opportunity to design a different environment in which to experience Bao. We are extremely excited to feature more of a bar element to Bao too, with an emphasis on cocktails and wine."
JKS Restaurants is run by siblings Karam, Jyotin and Sunaina Sethi, who also own and operate the Michelin-starred Trishna and Gymkhana restaurants in London, as well as other ventures including Hoppers in Soho. They also back several other restaurant businesses aside from Bao, including the Michelin-starred Lyle's, and Bubbledogs.
Meanwhile, Austrian-style restaurant Boopshi's, which serves schnitzel and sausage, said it would be moving to a new location in the summer.
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Bao to open Soho restaurant in 2015 >>
