(Bloomberg) -- Attention City of London party planners, drinkers and diners. Bao, the immensely popular Taiwanese-style restaurant chain, are bringing their signature roast pork sandwiches, karaoke TV (KTV) and beer towers to the heart of the financial center.
The 7th location of the burgeoning London chain will be located in the Bloomberg Arcade, in the space that formerly housed Ekte Nordic Cuisine. It opens at lunchtime on Sept. 26. Bookings go live for newsletter subscribers on Tuesday, and open to the general public via the website on September 6th.
The look of the place will be different than its Scandi blond wood predecessor. The restaurant, which will have about 60 dining room seats, was designed by Bao’s inhouse creative team with cherrywood paneling, dark red accents. New for Bao, this will have banquettes, covered in burgundy-hued leather, and white stone tables. (About 30 outdoor seats will be available in nice weather.)
Founders Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung will serve the chain’s greatest hits: the best-selling pork bao, as well as beef short rib and prawns in a fried puffy bun. Xiao chi, or snacks, like house pickles and mapo aubergine rice will also feature, as will 40-day aged beef rice with beef fat dressing.
But the new spot will also introduce dishes specifically designed for large City groups. Platters of soy-glazed pork neck with pickled garlic; duck breast with fermented plum sauce ; and grilled whole fish with scallion-garlic yu-shiang sauce will be on offer. Prices for the larger dishes will range from about £20-£30 ($26-$39).
The bar will pour drinks like the signature highball, made with Toki whisky, salted citrus cordial and bitters. The Pineapple Cake Old Fashioned, infused with Nikka Days Whisky, will be available by the glass and bottle. Bao’s party-friendly beer towers, in large cylinders with dispenser taps, will also be on offer.
But if there’s one experience that the team is keen to spotlight, it’s the two private dining rooms that double as KTV rooms. One will accommodate 12-13 diners/crooners. The other, Bao’s largest to date, will have an immersive, wraparound LED screen with seating for about 23, or around 28 if it's a standing-while-singing crowd.
The smaller room will have a specially designed light paneled ceilings that go from warm golden, for more sophisticated evenings, to sultry red for the full-on karaoke experience. “Fully immersive,” says Erchen. “When you look at karaoke around London City, it’s basic fit outs; we want our rooms to be above normal,” adds Shing.
Other dishes have been designed to push the party room atmosphere, like buckets of fried chicken with the option of caviar tins, and bottles of primarily Taiwanese or Japanese whisky and the makings for soju bombs.
Also facilitating a party, and another first for Bao City, will be an illuminated whisky cabinet where regulars can keep a bottle on hand. “In Asia it’s common to see a cabinet or shelving, with name tags for VIPs. It’s something we want to try out, and the City is perfect,” says Shing. “As soon as they sit down, the bottle can be taken out and put on the table.”
Shing says the group is still working out logistics for the lines that designate popular City lunch outposts. He expects high demand for their Bao £15, a set menu that includes a bao, a xaio chi and a rice bowl. On average, he estimates that each Bao location serves 1,700 people a week; he expects the City location to hit about 2,000 weekly visitors.
Bao is opening as more firms plan to bring workers to the City. (This as more banks are opening and re-opening locations in the financial district, including HSBC who will relocate from Canary Wharf, and Lloyds Banking Group who will move thousands of workers to its renovated building by year’s end.)
The team say they plan to be open seven days a week, despite the neighborhood’s low traffic on weekends.
Bao is owned by JKS Restaurants, who also operate the high energy Indian sports bar, Brigadiers across the alley. The company is on a roll of openings; in August, they launched the stylish Ambassadors Clubhouse in Mayfair.
In the run up to opening, Erchen says Bao is working on collaborations with its new neighbors. That will include a Bao yellow chilli chicken salad bowl at all 6 Salad Project locations, a Horlicks soft serve at Rosslyn coffee, and a Bao City takeover by Bleecker Burger featuring cheeseburger bao, on September 19.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
