Kiln
Soho
Ben Chapman's Brewer Street counter, Thai grill cooking over wood and clay, no reservations, the Bib Gourmand argument
Erchen Chang and the Chung siblings' original Lexington Street bun counter, Bib Gourmand Taiwanese, queue-only on the corner
BAO Soho opened on the Lexington Street corner in April 2015 as the first room from Erchen Chang, Shing-Tat Chung and Wai-Ting Chung, a thirty-seat counter and bench room dedicated to Taiwanese gua bao with a tight rotation of xiao chi small eats around it. The Classic bao with braised pork and the Confit Pork bao are the menu's reasons for being; the fried chicken bao runs them close. Bib Gourmand-held since the early days, still queue-only, still cheaper than three plates at most casual chef-led rooms in the same postcode. The honest first stop on a Soho walk and a benchmark the audience always recognises.
Queue starts twenty minutes before opening; lunch is the quieter window. Order the Classic bao, the Confit Pork bao, and the Taiwanese fried chicken, three of you can comfortably eat for twenty pounds a head. Save BAO Fitzrovia for the sit-down version with sake.
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