Former Ping Pong CEO has bao bun in the oven
Paul Sarlas, who was CEO at Ping Pong between August 2012 and October 2013, will open a 40-cover restaurant on Marylebone's Paddington Street. The restaurant will specialise in steamed bao buns, ‘bing’ Taiwanese pancakes, ‘wheel cake’ made from adkuki beans, grilled corn on the cob and sweet potatoes, as well as bubble tea and cocktails.
Sarlas, who is acting chief executive of the Jason Wells Group, is listed as a co-director of Bao & Bing along with his Taiwanese wife Meng Hsin Chu.
The move is part of a growth in the number of restaurants moving into the buns category – Taiwanese or otherwise – in the capital.
At the start of the year, Peckham-based Taiwanese restaurant Mr Bao opened sister restaurant Daddy Bao in Tooting Broadway. The restaurant serves bao buns filled with pork, pickles and peanut powder; beer marinated prawns, pickled mooli and spiced spring onion; and braised tofu with golden kimchi.
Brighton street food outfit Baby Bao made its London debut in September with its first solo bricks-and-mortar site, in Haymarket. Dishes on its menu include bao buns filled with Korean BBQ prawns, sesame, iceberg lettuce and coriander; panko squash, pineapple, gochujang mayo, pickled daikon and coriander; and cumin braised Lamb Shoulder, green chilli dressing.
Popular Taiwanese bun restaurant Bao will open its third London site near Borough market next spring.
The chefs behind Hackney pub The Marksman are set to open bunshop in the forthcoming Victoria Market Halls, serving buns with fillings including beef and barley with horseradish cream; welsh rarebit; and mushroom.
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