Bao City
From £5.50
Aesthetic Taiwanese restaurant chain BAO has a history of doing all sorts of artistically impressive things with the humble bao bun, from making flower baos and hot cross baos for Mother’s Day and Easter, to crafting puffer jackets and handbags out of the stuff. We’re especially enamoured with the super cute pistachio-filled serpent baos they’ve crafted for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Available from all seven BAO sites from January 20, the slithery little sweet treats are best enjoyed at the end of the restaurant’s five-course Lunar New Year feasting menu, which you can sample for £29 per person from the City, Marylebone, King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Battersea locations. It features a variety of dishes symbolising luck and prosperity, and every guest who opts for the set menu will be given a red envelope potentially containing one of several serpent-themed prizes. These range from BAO vouchers and limited edition merch to a one-of-a-kind engraved lighter entitling the winner to one free bao every day for a year. Know someone who was born in the Year of the Snake? They’re said to be extra lucky this year. Why not take them for a slap-up dinner and test that theory for yourself?
