BAO is launching a new venue in London’s financial district serving up sharing specials and signature buns with a side of karaoke. Olivia Palamountain reports
Taiwanese restaurant chain BAO is set to open its seventh location, BAO City, in the heart of London’s Square Mile on September 26.
Located in Bloomberg Arcade, this venue will offer a unique blend of dining and entertainment, featuring a restaurant and Taiwanese-style karaoke TV (KTV) experience.
BAO City will serve a menu that combines the restaurant’s popular Taiwanese classics with new large sharing specials. 
Diners can expect a selection of the brand’s signature buns and hot xiao chi dishes, alongside daily specials such as grilled Taiwanese pork neck with soy glaze, whole grilled fish with yu-shiang sauce, and fermented plum sauce-glazed duck breast.
In a nod to communal dining, the restaurant will offer beer towers for table-side pouring and a whisky cabinet where regular patrons can store personal bottles.
The interior, designed by BAO’s in-house creative team, aims to create a warm and intimate atmosphere.
The dining room features cherrywood veneer panelling, dark red satin-finished walls, and geometric, burgundy leather-clad banquette seating.
A unique feature of BAO City is its two private KTV rooms, bringing a vibrant karaoke energy to the venue.
The smaller room accommodates up to 10 people, while the larger can host 22. Both rooms offer access to a catalogue of over 300,000 songs and are equipped with sleek banquette seating and tables for snacks and drinks.
The KTV rooms’ designs draw inspiration from “Lonely Man“ films, with the larger room modelled after Edward Yang’s Taipei Story and the smaller room inspired by Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, paying homage to BAO City’s location in London’s financial centre.
Erchen Chang, creative director, BAO, says: “We’re really excited to open BAO City, where we can realise our dream of recreating a Taiwanese karaoke bar right in the centre of the city’s financial district. The space feels very different to our other BAO restaurants, inspired by the neon-lit Taiwan of the 1980s and 1990s that I grew up in.”
BAO City will open its doors on September 26, with bookings available from September 6 through the BAO London website.