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Covid-19 is wreaking havoc on London’s food scene, with restaurants struggling to keep going as diners stay in the safety of their homes. But they’re not giving up without a fight – some are offering voucher deals, while others like Bao are launching their own home-delivery services.
While you might not be able to order the fluffy, hot Taiwanese bao buns the restaurant is known for to your door, the service – named ‘Rice Error by Bao’ – is described as ‘Almost Bao but rice’ on its Instagram page.
We’ve seen a copy of the menu, and at-home diners can tuck into four different flavours of chi shiang rice box – prawn, grilled beef, mushroom and chilli chicken leg. And on the side, some of Bao’s famous Taiwanese fried chicken is available to order by the bucket, as well as fried tofu.
The news comes just one day after founders Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung announced they are closing three of Bao’s sites, barring Xu, the fine dining tea house in London’s Chinatown – though that may well shut soon, too.
Just a week ago, Bao also revealed plans to open its first-ever breakfast café in Pancras Square, offering an all-day dining experience inspired by Yōshoku (Western-influenced) cuisine, featuring dishes like bao loaf with syrup and butter, and salted egg muffin baos. Doors were due to open this spring, but in light of the escalating coronavirus situation, this is likely to be postponed.
Who knows, maybe they will add the new dishes to the delivery menu instead? Here’s hoping.
Fed up with self-isolation? A London bookshop is delivering books for free so you can escape into another (coronavirus-free) world.
Or use this time to declutter your home. Tidy flat, tidy mind.