Bao Down in Stokes Croft - Bristol Food Review

Posted on: 2017-05-08

Our rating:

Small in size but massive in hitting all the right flavour notes, Bao Down easily ranks as one of the best street food stalls in the city and deserves to do well, embracing its Taiwanese-inspired creations with first-rate, quality ingredients.


Fellow gastronauts would have no doubt noticed that the majority of recent, in-trend pop-up street food stalls carry price tags that bewilderingly belie their actual street food provenance. After all, the whole point of such culinary fare is that it's supposed to be delicious, nourishing and cheap. Try telling that, however, to the traders of certain stall purveyors on a certain day of the week in town, who gladly, rapaciously snatch up to eight quid from the mitts of passing punters, curious shoppers and assorted corporate types. 

Bao Down in Stokes Croft - Bristol Food Review

The particular dilemma and gastronomic unbalance in the Force has now been remedied thanks in no small part to the really rather wonderful Bao Down, situated at the bottom of Stokes Croft and plopped right in front of the equally rather marvelous Vintage Market (a prodigious, eye-popping cornucopia and treasure trove of old and rare paraphernalia and oddments).

 

Taking its inspiration from London restaurant Bao which itself takes its own foodie lead from the exotic, delicious delights of Taiwanese cuisine, Bao Down is run by the more-than-capable team of Ceres Coffee just a bit further up the road. Rumour has it that the chap who owns the Vintage Market popped in so often for his daily caffeine fix that he came up with a business proposal to set up their own food stall in front of the retro venue that was simply too good to turn down.

Bao Down in Stokes Croft, Bristol

And it's a good thing he did and an even better thing they accepted, because what we have here is a small but slick operation that offers the passing multitudes a genuine taste of Taiwanese tucker in the form of steamed Chinese buns that have to be tasted to be believed. OK, so the geography of the set-up - with its charity shops, coffee houses, massage parlors, graffiti art and splendidly eclectic bohemian spirit - couldn't be further from the actual streets of Taiwan, but there was something simply delightful about sitting on a pavement table on a slightly blustery but sunny Friday afternoon chomping down on a flavour-packed steamed bun watching the world go by and feeling like I didn't have a care in the world. 

 

Impressive too is the fact that Bao encapsulates the very epitome of fast food in every sense in that it was constructed with giddying, efficient alacrity in a week, with the counter, work benches and bar utilizing materials from Bristol Wood Recycling then painting it all with its distinctive, eye-catching design work. 

 

At the moment there are just two varieties of bao steamed buns on offer, scribbled up on a chalkboard menu, but which surely come at a price which more accurately reflects its true, street food origins, with both of them clocking in at a pleasingly pocket-friendly £3.50 each. A vegan bao which consists of pulled jack fruit in a ginger, soy and rice vinegar reduction is also available for those with that particular dietary propensity, and for the same spondoolies you can also get a Shanghai noodle salad.

 

But to the taste test. When I made my pitstop there was a meal deal for their signature Bao Down and side salad for a fiver - and within seconds of biting in to the Bao I was transported to an unbelievable, flavoursome nirvana of aromas, tastes and textures.  The heady amalgamation of four-hour braised free-range pork which had been seethed in soy, garlic and ginger, all cocooned within the thin and light steamed bun itself, was like nothing I've ever tasted before. 

Bao Down in Stokes Croft, Bristol - Menu

The to-die-for, piquant pork was a stunning balance of scented, melt-in-the-mouth indulgence, and it was all topped with pickled red cabbage, fermented Chinese greens, seaweed, sesame seeds and wild garlic. If you've an asbestos mouth and a disposition for sweat-inducing condiments, you can slather on some arse-kicking (and if you're not careful, later arse-dribbling) Sriracha Korean sauce, but I've the constitution of a small, feeble child and I know my limits (and my bowels) so gave that a wide berth and made do with the plentiful, utterly scrumptious offering I already had. 

 

The salad - Shanghai noodles, steamed broccoli, toasted peanut and sesame seeds and oil - was a similarly sublime delight; the thin, soft noodle tendrils exquisitely, aromatically seasoned and contrasted with the nice crunchy bite of the broccoli.

 

Despite all this gastro lyrical-waxing, however, it has to be said there are currently two significant downsides to the whole Bao Down enterprise. Firstly - and actually unsurprising to a certain extend in that it is, after all, replicating authentic street food - it's all over much too quickly; the flavours and textures pirouetting on the tongue for a deliriously, deliciously hedonistic five or six bites before it's all gone. Secondly, at the moment it's only open all day from Thursday to Sunday - otherwise I'd be finding excuses to venture down every day - but the intention is that, with greater word of mouth and as culinary kudos disseminates throughout the city, the menu and hours might extend. 

 

Small in size but massive in hitting all the right flavour notes, Bao Down easily ranks as one of the best street food stalls in the city and deserves to do well, embracing its Taiwanese-inspired creations with first-rate, quality ingredients, cooking nous and flair and irrepressible passion that any true foodie should check out as soon as possible.

 

Food - 5

Value - 5

Atmosphere - 4

Service - 5

 

For further info please follow them on Facebook or give them a try for yourself at - 11 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3PY.



Article by:

Jamie Caddick

Jamie is a writer, blogger, journalist, critic, film fan, soundtrack nerd and all-round Bristolian good egg.  He loves the music of Philip Glass, the art of Salvador Dali, the writings of Charles Bukowksi and Hunter S Thompson, the irreverence of Harry Hill, and the timeless, straw-chomping exuberance of The Wurzels.  You can sometimes find him railing against a surging tide of passing cyclists, or gorging himself senseless on the Oriental delights of a Cosmos all-you-can-eat buffet.