Bao has been a long-time firm favourite of mine. I have fond Lockdown 2 memories of sitting on London Fields Park with my friend Corey, absolutely frozen eating a classic bao from Netil market. So obviously the noodle bar has been on my must-visit list since it opened, and I finally took the trip last week – naturally with my bao-buddy Corey. I always love Bao, and this was no exception. The food is always so exciting and really well executed, and the decor is like being on the set of a Wes Anderson film, with ’emergency noodles’ lining the wall (my kind of emergency supply stash).

We started off with cocktails. I had the sweet potato sour (gin, chestnut & sweet potato) which was an incredible drink. It had the rich smooth feel of a whiskey sour (which is quickly being exposed as my favourite drink), but it was sweeter and rounder owing to the chesnut, and without the whiskey burn. Corey had the Umeshu Negroni (plum sake, gin, campari & vermouth) which tasted like a very good negroni – neither of us picked up the plum sake.

We were recommended 3-4 starters to share, and a noodle dish and a bao each. For starters we chose the cull yaw dumplings, the Ogleshield cheese rolls and the crispy tripe with spring onion dip. All three were delicious. The dumplings were unanimously the best dish of the evening. The lamb filling was so savoury & deep in flavour. Completely different to any dumpling I’d had before. The cheese rolls, while delicious, were slightly less exciting than the other dishes. They were very cheesy, crispy fried rolls – what’s not to love. The tripe was a real revelation though. As someone with mild trypophobia I’ve always been put off by the look of tripe. But this being a dish of breadcrumbed strips of tripe, I didn’t encounter any appearance issues. The tripe was melt in the mouth, which was a texture I was really not expecting, but the spiced breaded coating is was made it so special. For any tripe newbies – this is your entry tripe. I am a convert!

Now onto the namesake – the bao. We got a bao each: I got the Iberico and Corey got the prawn croquette. Both delicious. The iberico felt really special – the meat was so tender and juicy. I think this may even take the top spot as my favourite Bao bao. The prawn croquette was also delicious – I compared it to really high quality prawn toast.

For main there were 2 beef noodle options: the slow-cooked beef cheek and short-rib noodles, and the rare beef rump noodles (served with a soy egg yolk). We both went for the latter, swayed mainly by the egg yolk. This dish was also incredible. Slightly chewy noodles, a DEEP rich beefy broth, super tender beef rump strips and the salty egg yolk for beef dipping. Absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to go back and try the short-rib and the dan dan tofu noodles. And of course, I rounded off the meal with a purchase of a one of their iconic tote bags.

Meg & Corey Ratings

This is another meal where absolutely everything was delicious – there were no duds. So remember in this ranking, even the things at the bottom are fantastic, they just have tough competition

Let me know who you agree with in the comments!

This was another incredible meal by bao – they never seem to miss. Every part of the menu is so different & well thought out – and then perfectly executed. If you haven’t yet had the chance to visit the Bao Noodle bar, we highly highly recommend you do. Let me know what think of it in the comments if you’ve already been, and let me know if you go from this recommendation!

Find them at 1 Redchurch Street, London, E2 7DJ