If there’s one thing that Manchester regeneration projects love at the moment, it’s a food hall.
For the past few years, so many big rooms with multiple kitchens have sprung up around the city. There’s Mackie Mayor at the higher end, the more casual offering of Society, the bigger entertainment-restaurant complex Freight Island… Not to mention pop-up style street-food operation Grub, the shipping container kitchens of Hatch and out-of-town offerings like Altrincham Market, Stretford Food Hall and Stockport’s Produce Hall. The appeal of such places is simple – individual customers are free to pick and choose what they want from across multiple menus and traders. They also offer smaller food operations a starting point, without the expense of a full restaurant and with an audience open to trying things, meaning they can allow space for food innovation and broader ranges of international flavours.
The latest food hall to hit the city is to be found on the ground floor of recently rediscovered concert venue New Century Hall, which once played host to Jimi Hendrix, and will see the likes of Black Midi and Confidence Man take to its stage over the coming weeks. It offers an eclectic and intriguing set of kitchens, from 4 AA Rosette chef Adam Reid’s Butty Shop concept, to modern steakhouse Tallow, to Banh Vi’s vegan take on the food of Vietnam. And yet, despite all these amazing choices, on our first visit to New Century, we ended up choosing food from one place only, trashing the very idea of visiting a food hall. Dear reader, I regret nothing.
That place belonged to BaoBros23, who started life as a food truck at pop-ups around Yorkshire and have since gone on to ply their trade with a residency at Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden. New Century is their first venture into the city and they’ve built on their existing menu of fluffy bao buns and loaded fries by introducing some creative specials, exclusive to the new venue.
The initial intrigue begins with a peruse of the menu. There’s the promise of 24-hour confit pork belly, soft-shell crab and Korean-style ribs, fries loaded with all sorts of exotic delights and what they call ‘bao dogs’, hot dog shaped baos into which they’ve loaded their most fancy combinations. Once we see plates whizzing past to other tables, our minds are made up. This is some seriously refined street food.
We order, what is on paper, a little too much. When it comes, it is a little too much. But we dutifully work our way through it all. First up, the signature dish, a lobster and crayfish bao dog: a long sesame-dotted steamed bun loaded with a luxury Asian take on a prawn cocktail. Biting in is a delight – it’s a struggle to contain the sweet lobster meat and crayfish enrobed in a tangy marie rose sauce with rich creamy avocado, while what they’re calling ‘salt and pepper tomato petals’ add freshness. Salty seasoning is provided by shards of crispy parma ham.
Not content with the one steamed bun, we also sample two of their classic baos. The first is filled with panko-crumbed chicken, sriracha mayo, pomegranate, pickles and cabbage. The chicken is crispy and succulent and is a generously sized piece, however the bun pales a little in comparison with its counterpart, the Tsunami Fish Fry. The second black bao is filled with a hunk of sesame-crusted halibut, smoked cucumber, puffed black rice for crunch and a seriously tangy tamarind mayo. I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur by any means, but it’s quite possibly the best bao bun I’ve had to date.
While simple salted shoestring fries are available as a side, there’s an array of tempting topped options which all weigh in at the £7-10 mark. We go for one of the greedy person’s choices, with gochujang brisket, chilli-soy glaze and jalapeno yoghurt. They could easily make a main for one.
While I’m certainly keen to try one of Adam Reid’s takes on retro British sandwiches, BaoBros’ food is a triumph and it’ll be take all my mental strength not to order everything from them again the next time we make our way to New Century. And we will certainly do just that – the room itself has been made very welcoming, with just the right mid-range vibe to befit the modernist music hall. The lighting, soft drapes and red-pillared central bar all lend it a mid-century chic, while the drinks selection is great for what is essentially a gig venue, with a big range of spirits and wines and ample beer choice on the taps. It offers everything you’d want as an event bar for pre-drinks and food, but equally this polished old gem holds its own as a food and drink destination in its own right, creating a new centrepiece for the Sadler’s Yard development.
BaoBros 23 is open at New Century Hall, from 11am-9pm, 7 days a week.
SOUNDS TASTY 