‘Do people get off with each other in queues? Are queues infested with Jigglypuffs?’
Sweeties! Don’t tell me you’re still queueing for burgers? Gah: that’s so 2012. The smart queuer these days is all about the hotdog or the Sri Lankan hopper or the Taiwanese steamed bun– basically anything brought to the Adidas Gazelle-clad urbanista by the JKS restaurant group. Srsly, get on it.
Sorry, sorry. It’s hard not to get sucked into fashmag-newsletter-mode when talking about something as now as Bao, purveyors of said buns. Initially a streetfood outfit, sister and brother Wai Ting and Shing Tat Chung, with his wife Erchen Chang, now have, with the backing of JKS, a permanent pitch at Netil Market in London Fields and two bricks-and-mortars: almost permanently queued-out Soho and this latest, Fitzrovia. On the site of the short-lived Boopshi’s (schnitzels with spritzes, as Julie Andrews never sang), they’ve set up shop in this light, airy room with its horseshoe bar, chilled vibe (sorry, sorry), neat line in merchandising, and a menu much expanded from the original.
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