If you haven’t been to check out all the food options at the rejuvenated Battersea Power Station yet, we’re about to give you another reason. Following on the success of their noodle shop format in Shoreditch, BAO Battersea will also serve up bowls of Taiwanese shimmering soupy goodness, and there’ll be special dishes here you can’t get elsewhere.
The restaurant will seat 78 diners, and you can take your pick from a comfy counter-side pillowy red chair to watch the chefs in action or straddle a stool at one of the communal tables. There’ll also be a private KTV room (yes, the K stands for karaoke), which can be booked for 10 diners who are partial to a singalong with their confit pork steamy dumplings. You’ll be belting out tunes in a decor inspired by the set design of Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime, no less.
If you’re new to the BAO buzz, its Taiwanese steamed dumplings have been legendary in London since it opened its permanent restaurant in Soho in 2015 (and before then at Hackney’s Netil market). A rare five-star review from the late great AA Gill in The Times a few months after they opened cemented their stratospheric rise, opening several more outlets since.
BAO Battersea Noodle Shop will serve a kids’ set menu for the first time (we’re already picturing the cuteness of ‘Baby Bao’), alongside the usual BAO classics, as well as several exclusives to this venue.
- Beef noodle soup in a Taipei-style broth with slow-braised beef check, spiced beef butter and fermented greens
- Beef noodle soup in Tainan-style broth with imported 400-day-aged white soy and thin slices of rare poached beef rump
- Cheese croquettes served with pickled plum ketchup and hot sauce
- Danzai noodles in a pork and shrimp broth topped with prawns and pork mince
- San Bei Tofu BAO: breadcrumbed tofu fried then glazed with San Bei sauce (sesame oil, soy sauce, cooking wine) and served with vegan mayonnaise and fresh basil
Highlights on the drinks menu include the extremely summer-appropriate Shaved Ice Strawberry Daiquiri and the Bun Inch Punch (yuzu sake, passionfruit, Aperol and jasmine pearl tea).
If all of this wasn’t enough to make Battersea residents smile, BAO will also deliver for the first time – to lucky locals only. Or anyone can pick up takeaway from a hatch beside the restaurant entrance for a bit of Prawn Shia Song BAO or Taiwanese fried chicken with hot sauce to take to an envy-inducing picnic by the Thames.
More about BAO Battersea
Where is it? Level 1, Turbine Hall A, Battersea Power Station, London SW11 8DD
When does it open? 15 July 2023 with a two-day preview on 15 and 16 July (50% off food) via the BAOverse app
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @bao_london.
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