BAO WOW - bao, banh mi & noodles

By J
In attendance: G & J

It was always going to be difficult to follow last week's trip to Matina.  However, last week we tried a new spot for lunch, Bao Wow.  This is not a rapper themed restaurant (they missed a trick), but a small gem offering Vietnamese, Thai and Taiwanese delights.

Bao Wow is unfortunately placed at the pizza and kebab shop end of Baldwin Street, just to the left of the steps up to St. Nic's market. Neighbours aside, the open doors invite you in to sample a selection of "Bao, banh mi and noodles".

I'll admit, there was only one option of the trilogy that I had heard of.  It turns out that Bao (or baozi) is a steamed bun filled with your choice of tasty treat, whereas Banh mi is essentially a Vietnamese baguette (thanks to the French colonisation, I presume).

The menu is stylishly displayed on a large blackboard-style wall and offers plenty to choose from.  They do a £5 lunch deal, with plenty of options.  G and I both went for the noodle meal deal. Our curiosity and greed got the better of us, though, and we also ordered a bao.  It was very tempting to go for the "Chairman Bao", but instead we plucked for the "Gangnam Bao".  Our feast was completed with some prawn crackers.

We settled at one of the utilitarian tables and awaited our food.  We weren't disappointed as our noodles arrived in upmarket North Korean gulag tins and the glory of the bao was revealed.

Get in my face

The food didn't disappoint, and there was cheeky spice zing to mine.  The bao was steamy, but impossible to share. We filled our stomachs and took in the surroundings while letting digestion begin.

Facing the menu wall was the astro-turf feature wall.  Perfect for when gravity fails and you fancy a kick around.  It was quite stroke-able, so perhaps the owners are simply providing a soft surface for patrons to rest their heads and eyes after a bao overload.

The jolly green giant was hairier up close than either sauce anticipated

Overall, bao wow provides tasty Asian flavours delivered in double-quick time.  I will definitely return, if only to work my way through the list of baos.

Official scores on the doors:-
Flavour: tongue-tingling Asian flavours offering more choice than red or green curry;
Seating: communist simplicity meets Seoul chic;
Timekeeping: longer to decide what to eat than for our food to arrive;
Wallet: £5 if you eat sensibly; £7.50 if you pig out;
Ambience: steamy bun coffee shop;
3 o'clock food coma? lower than anticipated slump; bourbon biscuit and a filter coffee saw off any thoughts of a cheeky snooze.