Writing on its Instagram page the Taiwanese restaurant, founded by Erchen Chang and brother and sister Shing Tat and Wai Ting Chung, announced it would close at the end of the year.
“It fills us with sadness to share the news that Fitz will be closing at the end of the year. We opened in 2016 and it's been an incredible nearly seven years, but all good things must come to an end,” it said.
“It feels like only yesterday we first visited the site, driven by the need to relocate our bakery from the deepest dungeons of a 3by2m BAO Soho basement. We were attached to Fitzrovia having spent our student years around there, studying down the road at The Slade, eating at Dinos, the YMCA or the illegal Korean basement restaurant around the corner.
“We often hear, BAO Fitz is ‘our favourite’ - Bryan, Omar and their team always delivered the best experience at Fitz. But over the past two years, Fitzrovia has been a particular challenging area. It looks like our last service will be just before Christmas, so please do come say hi to Bryan, Omar and their team before we shutter the doors for good.”
The trio opened their second Bao restaurant in 2016 following on from the success of their Original Bao Bar in Hackney and their first permanent restaurant, which opened in Soho in April 2015. It also operates venues in Borough Market, King's Cross and Shoreditch under the Bao, Cafe Bao and Noodle Shop brands.
The group announced that it had “a couple of new and exciting opportunities in the new year that we will announce in due course”, one of which is expected to be a standalone restaurant at the new Arcade Food Hall in Battersea Power Station, which will launch next year.
