For when breakfast baos are your narcotic of choice.
If you’ve somehow missed it, Pablo Eggs-Go-Bao (79 Blandford Street, NE1 3PZ), lovingly known as Pablos is a crack-dealing hatch shoving breakfast items — not class As — into baos. I dunno what the connection between the drug lord and delicious breakfasts is, other than that these baos are as addictive AF.
Originally a popup in Bao Bar, Pablos then set up shop in Whitley Bay (12 Station Rd, NE26 2RA) and finally made its debut in NE1 last year. Isn’t the most glam location, but hey it is regeneration. Just behind Lane7, if you’re lost.
Now I usually give ‘concept’ restaurants — especially those with a silly name — a battering, but Pablos bucks the trend. At a stretch, you could see it as a gimmick. It’s one product, born out of a pun. Is a bao better than just a billy basic bread bun here? Or is it literally to facilitate the name? Well…
It would be easy to say — there you go, that’s it. That’s the review.
But that would be missing the point. A Pablos bao is everything you need in a breakfast. It’s a fiver. It’s a fleeting five minutes, gone in just a happy few oversized mouthfuls. All of the breakfast staples are dutifully done. It’s got sriracha 🔥
Much of food is about nostalgia and there’s something perversely McDonalds Egg McMuffin-ish about it. Which takes me right back to my childhood, and resonates always. But here, better in every way. It’s bao, sausage patty (+£1 double in the above, hence the absolute chode of it), eggs, cheese, hash brown, and sauce. Impressively, it’s incredibly consistent.
The core bao, well it’s come a long way since I had my first one years ago. It is now neatly packaged, and the same every single time. There’s even a vegan version now, which by all accounts is a winner. Just this month they finally got a greaseproof paper that doesn’t stick to the bao and 👏🏼 I have never known such a tiny product development make me happier. It’s a chunky fistful of carbs that’ll keep you full way past lunch.
Take it on a train journey (make other passengers jealous). Have it at work for breakfast (annoy your colleagues). Have two and be a secret eater (no-one needs to know).
But of course it would be boring to just sell one thing. For the complete breakfast experience, the coffee (not sure of the producer) is also surprisingly great (£2.50). And it might well be possible to not get a trio of hash browns on the side, but I’m yet to do it. They’re straight off Pablo Escobars big white mound of compulsion.
Downsides? Only open ’til 2PM. The baos — bought in, I assume. And the ice cream? A take on Momofuku’s cereal milk, made and topped with cornflake but it misses the mark for me, a bit fatty in the mouth. But that’s nitpicking.
Where do you go from here? Well you can order Pablos delivery now. And more excitingly, a late license application is in with a plan to make Pablos NE1 a proper sit-in bar, with natty wines, good beer and presumably late night baos. As much as it’s carved a niche at breakfast, I could see it being immense at the end of a night out: “I’ll have 3“.
Other than that, I would love a Pablos special. Even just monthly. The hoisin duck & peanut. The twice-fried lamb belly & mint. Turkey leg meat croquette, stuffing and cranberry at Christmas. C’mon…
And that’s about it. It’s a hard-to-refuse, dependable breakfast every time. As a concept, I could easily imagine these all owa the UK. Pablo might have made his money from Columbian marching powder but in Newcastle at least, it’s all about the egg, cheese and hash browns. Go get it.
Contact: eggsgobao.com
Food hygiene rating: 5/5
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