Frank Yeung and Abhinav Malde tell Restaurant they are currently developing ideas for new restaurant brands, with concepts focused on Indian, Japanese and Hong Kong cuisine all being mooted.
It comes after the group, which made its debut with the launch of Mr Bao in Peckham in 2016, recently opened its first cocktail bar concept, Good Measure, in the basement space below its Daddy Bao restaurant in Tooting.
“For a long time, Frank and I thought we might just focus on opening more Taiwanese restaurants and growing our bao offering but we have such a strong team now, with so many varied interests and skills, we have been inspired to push ourselves in a new direction,” says Malde.
“This has already happened with Good Measure, driven by the talent of our Daddy Bao bar team, and this is only just the beginning.”
Yeung adds that giving the group ‘a more equitable name’ made sense given the focus on broadening its portfolio.
“This feels like a really exciting next step for our company,” he says.
“We’re enjoying travelling, researching and testing out new ideas that move away from bao and this is ultimately what has inspired the group name.
“The hospitality scene in London is so exciting right now and we want to be building a group for the future that can really compete with other names in the industry that we respect so much.”
While the focus will be on developing new concepts, the pair doesn’t rule out further expansion of their bao restaurants, specifically the Master Bao brand, which has sites in in Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.
“There’s still plenty of white space for more bao restaurants,” Yeung tells Restaurant.
“We think Master Bao has more potential for scale and if the right opportunity came up then we would definitely look to explore that.”