Baozi Inn

Baozi Inn is a Soho favourite for northern Chinese and Sichuan street food, a small, characterful room on Romilly Street where kitsch, revolution-era decor meets seriously good cooking. It made its name tidying up the flavours of Beijing and Chengdu street stalls for London, and it has kept a devoted following for doing the simple things very well.

For proper Sichuan street food in Soho, the draws are the hand-made baozi buns and the dan dan noodles, the latter regularly rated among the best in the city: springy noodles, minced pork and a numbing, chilli-oil sauce. Add dumplings and a few small plates and you have a cheap, punchy meal on the Chinatown edge of Soho.

What to expect from this Sichuan street food restaurant in Soho

Expect a short, focused menu of street-food classics: steamed baozi filled with pork or vegetables, the signature dan dan noodles, wontons in chilli oil, and a handful of cold and hot small plates. It is compact, quick and keenly priced, better suited to a fast, flavour-packed lunch or an early dinner than a long, sprawling banquet.

The cooking and the setting

Baozi Inn leans into its playful, poster-covered look while taking the food seriously, which is much of its charm. It sits on Romilly Street at the point where Soho meets Chinatown, a short walk from Cambridge Circus, with more of the area's tables in our Soho restaurants listings.

How a visit works

Baozi Inn serves lunch and dinner on Romilly Street, taking walk-ins; it is small, so there can be a short wait at peak times. Current photos and reviews are on Time Out, with more on Tripadvisor.