BAO Soho
Soho
Erchen Chang and the Chung siblings' original Lexington Street bun counter, Bib Gourmand Taiwanese, queue-only on the corner
Ben Chapman's Brewer Street counter, Thai grill cooking over wood and clay, no reservations, the Bib Gourmand argument
Kiln opened in 2016 as Smoking Goat founder Ben Chapman's second room, narrow as a corridor with a counter facing a wood-burning kiln and a bank of charcoal grills. The cooking pulls from the Thai-Myanmar-Yunnan border country, with ingredients sourced inside the British Isles, Tamworth pork from Somerset, Cornish day-boat fish, Thai herbs from a Cambridgeshire grower. Bib Gourmand from year one, National Restaurant of the Year in 2018, and still the room every London-resident chef sends a visiting friend to. No reservations, queue-only, eighteen seats, the patience is the price of entry, and the price of entry is twenty-five pounds a person.
Walk in at 17:30 sharp, the early evening queue moves fastest. Sit at the counter, not the basement; the show is the fire. Order the daily noodle dish, the clay-pot glass-noodle crab, and one grill cut. Cash-light kitchen but counter-only; tip the cook directly.
At a Glance
View Type
Street Scene, London Skyline
View Quality
Good
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