I have dinner with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kerrypolka once every couple of months, and recently we have been on a fantastic roll of amazing places, of which Bao was the first that I can remember clearly enough to review. They don’t take bookings, which is a practice I don’t entirely approve of, but the fact that we had to queue for 45 minutes after arriving at 18:00, whilst slightly irksome, did seem like a good sign.
We were reading the menu as we waited, and let me tell you it looked like it was going to be a challenge to pick, but I remembered reading a review that said that one of everything was a fairly sensible amount of food for three people, and we were both quite hungry, so we figured what the hell. That was a good plan. There are various starters, bao (basically small sandwiches in buns half way between the fluffy white things you get in chinese style dim sum and sweet brioche), and a handful of other mains and sides, but everything just turned up when it was ready. For me the standout starter was the sweetcorn with beef butter, which was so rich and warming, with just the right amount of spice. Kerry was particularly keen on the crispy prawn heads, although I was less blown away by them. Of the sides, the grilled lettuce with confit garlic was the thing that kept us going “but how, how did they get lettuce that texture” all the way to the tube station. Every single one of the bao was incredible - the buns so soft, the meat so tender and flavourful, and the accompaniments so well balanced and innovative.
It turns out that when the food is that good, not only can two people polish off one of everything, but they can go back and order seconds, and then when told that there’s no pudding menu, thirds. The bill came to around £100 between the two of us, including drinks and tip. You could certainly eat there a lot more cheaply if you could resist filling yourself almost past the point of bursting with all the tasty tasty buns, but you’d need a stronger will than mine.
kerrypolka once every couple of months, and recently we have been on a fantastic roll of amazing places, of which Bao was the first that I can remember clearly enough to review. They don’t take bookings, which is a practice I don’t entirely approve of, but the fact that we had to queue for 45 minutes after arriving at 18:00, whilst slightly irksome, did seem like a good sign. We were reading the menu as we waited, and let me tell you it looked like it was going to be a challenge to pick, but I remembered reading a review that said that one of everything was a fairly sensible amount of food for three people, and we were both quite hungry, so we figured what the hell. That was a good plan. There are various starters, bao (basically small sandwiches in buns half way between the fluffy white things you get in chinese style dim sum and sweet brioche), and a handful of other mains and sides, but everything just turned up when it was ready. For me the standout starter was the sweetcorn with beef butter, which was so rich and warming, with just the right amount of spice. Kerry was particularly keen on the crispy prawn heads, although I was less blown away by them. Of the sides, the grilled lettuce with confit garlic was the thing that kept us going “but how, how did they get lettuce that texture” all the way to the tube station. Every single one of the bao was incredible - the buns so soft, the meat so tender and flavourful, and the accompaniments so well balanced and innovative.
It turns out that when the food is that good, not only can two people polish off one of everything, but they can go back and order seconds, and then when told that there’s no pudding menu, thirds. The bill came to around £100 between the two of us, including drinks and tip. You could certainly eat there a lot more cheaply if you could resist filling yourself almost past the point of bursting with all the tasty tasty buns, but you’d need a stronger will than mine.
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