The people behind one of London’s most talked about restaurants, Gymkhana, have backed a new venture serving Taiwanese street food. Karam Sethi and his family, founders of Mayfair’s hottest nouvelle Indian – the 12th most mentioned restaurant in our 2015 survey – have thrown their weight behind Bao, which began life as a stall at Hackney’s über hip Netil Market.
The pop-up opened its first permanent site in Soho’s Lexington Street, on the site of relatively short lived French bistro Café Gourmand, which closed in November after three years. Bao was started by young chef Erchen Chang, her husband Shing Tat Chung and his sister Wai Ting Chung, who helped oversee the design of the restaurant as well as running the kitchen and front of house.
The menu features a range of “xiaochi” (small snacks) specialising in “bao” (steamed buns).
The involvement of Sethi bodes well for Bao – as restaurant backers the Sethi family seem to have something of a Midas touch, with a stake in places like Fitzrovia’s inventive Bubbledogs, Kitchen Table and Lyle’s in Shoreditch.
To keep up to date with all the latest London goings-on and news from across the country sign up for our free newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter @HardensBites, like us on Facebook and pin us on Pinterest.