Bao

Fried chicken and Lamb Bao
              

Confit Pork Bao

Peanut milk

Menu, and how you place your order
       

I'm a big fan of steamed buns, so when I heard about the opening of Bao, I had to take a visit down to soho and try their ones. Bao is a Taiwanese restaurant, the main attraction being their steamed buns and other small plates based on Taiwanese street food. I went to try the buns, so I ordered all of the savoury ones they had on offer, I also wanted to try their peanut milk so got one of those too.

It's quite a tiny restaurant, so don't be surprised if you have to queue outside till a table is available. I had to wait outside but it wasn't for long and whilst waiting I was given a 'menu' which was good as it cut down the time it took me to decide on what I wanted to eat.

Once inside we were seated on a bench like table with tiny stools around the top of the wall there were hooks I noticed people used them to hang their coats up, it's an unusual idea but works as long as your coats not too long otherwise you may have a piece of your coat joining your food if you're sitting on the bench.

The peanut milk came really quickly, this was my first time trying peanut milk and I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty and moreish it was, it's really creamy and not overwhelming like for example peanut butter. I've seen peanut milk in cartoons in the corner shops before loads of times and never took the leap to try it but I'll definitely give those a try now as I really like it.

The first bun that came was the chicken one it looked lovely when it came a sort of grey speckled bun with really crispy chicken in side with salad and a creamy sauce I forgot to take a picture of it before diving in 😅! I've managed to find a picture which is exactly how mine looked and probably exactly how yours will look if you choose to go. I really liked the taste of this bun the crunch if the chicken contrasted nicely with the softness of the bun, I would like to say that this bun was slightly crisp in comparison to the normal texture of this buns I expect but it didn't spoil the taste or anything .

The next bun that came was the traditional bun with peanut sprinkled on it the pulled pork was tender, moist and succulent the peanut was a lovely addition and worked really well the bun was soft and the coriander which I'm not a huge fan of complemented the whole thing really well. I actually ended up getting another one of these buns because it was so good. 

The next bun that came was the lamb one it had an impressive green coloured mint like sauce. I wasn't to keen on this combination of flavours with the bun as it just didn't do it for me . It tasted like something I'd expect to taste at an Indian restaurant and didn't work for this type of cuisine however it was horrible.

The final bun I had was the pork belly version with Kimchee. This was my first time trying pork belly and I would definitely try it again it's really tender and not as fatty as u thought it would be however although it had a nice flavour I only really think the traditional bun worked and was right ! Hence why I got two because it was so nice 

I should have said I only tried the meat buns as I didn't try the veggie one or bun as a desert which I thought was a nice twist on the savoury buns .

I lady who sat beside us got the pig blood cake I was really interested to see what this would look like. When it arrived it was a deep burgundy/ reddish black square with a bright orange egg yolk uncooked wobbling around on top . I had no urge to try this as adventurous as I can be with food sometimes that was definitely beyond my limit. 

I would definitely recommend this place and I hope to go back soon I do think it's a little pricey for what you get as the portions are really small the peanut milk was about two big mouthfuls and the buns are as small as cocktail burgers. But they do have good flavours and its a different kind of eating experience if you don't understand the ingredients as when ordering you don't actually know what to expect as you don't know what everything means I actually googled a lot of the ingredients to get an idea of what I should expect.

Happy eating!