The trio behind Taiwanese steamed bun specialist Bao are to open a more upmarket restaurant, bar and tea house called Xu in Soho this spring.

Bao, which has branches in Soho and Fitzrovia, has been a runaway success for founders Shing Tat Chung, Wai Ting Chung and Erchen Chang, with customers enduring long queues to sample what the latest Harden’s Survey describes as “sublime pockets of taste”.

Xu, named after Erchen’s late grandfather, will offer dishes inspired by Taiwanese cuisine, which is itself shaped by Dutch and Japanese colonialism and the influx of mainland Chinese from various regions after the Communist revolution.

The signature dish will be sho pa chicken, from Taiwan’s highlands, in which the bird is stuffed whole and served with its head still on.

Cocktails will be available in the ground floor bar, which will also serve and retail Taiwan’s famous loose-leaf teas.